General Jimmy Doolittle’s autobiography is titled “I Could Never Be So Lucky Again.” I often feel like I could steal that title for my own life. The few that know my whole story might think that is a stretch. It hasn’t all be sunshine and laughter along the way, but if it was, how would I be able to appreciate all the incredible blessings I have in my life? When we were dating, my wife introduced me to the group Rascal Flatts and their song “Bless the Broken Road.”
Everyone has significant dates in their life. Some are significant for good reasons, and others for bad. In my life, October 15th holds significance for multiple reasons. Some of those were planned on purpose, like the first date my wife and I went on in 2009. Another event, just because it happened to be the first available date the DPE had, was my PPL check ride that took place October 15, 2016. When I was looking at changing the N-Number of my plane 1015 was the winner and then I went down the line to find an available letter.
I was updating my logbook while sitting at my parents in Arizona on Sunday the 13th and noticed that while I hit 1,000 total hours about six months ago, I had a good chance of hitting 1,000 hours in our Mooney on the flight back to CA. A flight time of 2:35 would do the trick, and depending on the winds it just might happen. It was a great flight coming in over Palm Springs after sunset and seeing comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in the night sky.
About half-way into the flight, it looked like we would land before the required 2:35. My wife asked, “Do you want to slow down to hit the 1,000 hours?”
“Nope,” was my reply.
There were two things going through my mind. First, is that cheating? Slowing down just to hit a number doesn’t feel right. And second, what self-respecting Mooney pilot wants to fly slow? That’s not the reason I bought a Mooney!
So, we landed at two hours and thirty minutes, five minutes shy of the 1,000-hour mark. That set up the perfect reason to go fly on the 15th. If we went flying on the 15th, it would be 15 years to the day of our first date, 8 years to the day of my PPL check ride, and add another significant event to the date.
I was working at our Buena Park dealership on the 15th, just a couple of miles from the airport, which makes it easy to go flying after work. We would maybe go for a cruise along the coast to hit the milestone and then stop somewhere on the way home for dinner to celebrate the 1st date anniversary. I’ll be honest, as much as I love to fly, some days I just want to sit on the couch in the evening, and this was shaping up to be one of those days. But I can also say that even on those days, as soon as I start rolling down the runway and lift off, I’m always glad I’m sitting in the left seat of my Mooney instead of on the couch.
If you want to have a long successful life of flying general aviation, you need to be flexible. Pilots refusing to adjust plans have led to many accident reports. In life, and especially marriage, you need to be flexible with your plans. I’ll admit that while I don’t have problems adjusting my aviation plans, I’m that that great at shifting gears in real life. But as they say, “Happy wife, happy life.”
I pulled through the airport gate right behind my wife who I would find out shortly was running behind her planned schedule. She had a surprise up her sleeve and it would be up to me to shift gears and not ruin it.
I stopped behind her car across from the hangar, got out, and started to change from my dress shirt to a casual shirt for flying.
“You can’t change shirts,” she said walking over to me with the tie I wore on our first date in her hands.
“What?” I replied.
My amazing wife had brought dinner, a tablecloth, decorations for the table, and a nice dress to change into. Her idea of a “romantic dinner” to celebrate the 15th anniversary of out first date was setting up a table in the hangar and having dinner. I’ve said it before, but I must be the luckiest guy alive.
I pulled the plane out, setup the table I use when working on the plane and grabbed a couple folding chairs that were leaning up against the wall while she set the table. Then we sat down for a nice dinner looking out at the plane that I had been flying for almost 1,000 hours.
There would be one more adjustment before we went flying. She pulled out the tripod we took pictures in front of the plane before climbing in, me still in my dress shirt from work and my wife in her nice dress.
At last, we were in the world of flying, where calling an audible and making an adjustment is much easier for me. The marine layer had already moved in over the coast, ruling out that flight option. I had filed a local flight plan to Chino and back to check the weather and NOTAMS. I did all my training at Chino, including my check ride, so for a few minutes we talked about making the short flight there and back.
The sun was setting, it was hazy, and without much spread between the temperature and dewpoint it was possible the marine layer could roll all the way to KFUL before we were back. Rather than add the possibility of needing a pop-up clearance to get back in, I decided on a short flight to the east to get the needed five minutes of flight before coming back to land.
After run-up and checklists were completed we were cleared to taxi and I called up Tower at the hold short line.
Me: “Fullerton Tower, Mooney 1015Echo, holding short two-four at Alpha, eastbound departure.”
Tower: “Mooney 15Echo, what’s your destination?”
He was deciding if he would put me on a right or left downwind.
Me: “We’re just going out by Irvine Lake before coming back.”
Tower: “Mooney 1015Echo, left downwind approved, runway two-four, cleared for takeoff.”
Me: “Left downwind, two-four, cleared for takeoff, 15Echo.”
The ATIS was reporting 10 miles visibility on the ground, which may have been accurate, but as we climbed up into the haze at 3,000’ it was a lot less than 10 miles. We’ll call it 3-4 for the records. Off to the right we could see the marine layer slowly advancing in from the coast and below us here and there were a few clouds starting to form. I cycled the transponder display to the flight timer setting and as it ticked past five minutes, I pulled out the sign I had written on one of my knee-pad sheets for a photo. It was great to pass that milestone and to do it with my wife in the right seat.
Skimming along in the top of the haze layer we could see the mountains to the north and the clouds along the coast to the south. Below we could see the streetlights and winding ribbons of headlights from rush hour traffic clogging up the freeways. Ahead and below to the left were the flashing lights of emergency vehicles responding to some traffic accident, and somewhere about 8 miles to the west was the airport but there was no way we could see it yet.
I called up tower and we were cleared straight in. With the RNAV 24 approach loaded and lined up on final I continued towards the airport. Eventually about 5 miles out I could make out the red and white lights of the PAPI. Fourteen minutes after lifting off from the runway we settled back onto it with another milestone checked off, and I was reminded again of the title of Jimmy Doolittle’s autobiography, “I Could Never Be So Lucky Again.”
