Chapter 15: Fly-Girl

I got propositioned to be a ’temporary girlfriend’ one Tuesday morning by a man I’d met the day before. The following Monday evening, I became his fiancée. A week later, I had a pile of books, manuals, and various aviation equipment spread out on the bed in the guest room that was my staging area. I also had about a dozen new apps on my iPad.

The next day, I met my tutor – Ross Buckman. Ross had 16,000 hours in his logbook – logbooks, I learned, were a crucial element of a young pilot since it recorded all their flights, certifications, certificates, accomplishments, and ... mishaps.

I started meeting Ross late every afternoon for two hours. He started me on something interesting to me: weather and its relationship to aviation. By the end of the week, I knew about adverse conditions, altimeter settings, cloud tops, dew point, icing conditions, surface winds, winds aloft, temperature, thunderstorm activity, precipitation, precipitation intensity, visibility obscuration, pilot reports (PIREPs), AIRMETs, SIGMETs, Convective SIGMETS, and Notices to Airmen (NOTAMs), and I could look at a page of gibberish and understand what it was telling about the weather around the country or a route of flight that I’d chosen. More importantly, I knew the difference between flight under VFR versus IFR conditions: visual flight rules versus instrument flight rules.

The following week we drove out to Bedford each day with good weather and I learned more and more about the parts of plane and what they do. I was into aerodynamics and what makes a plane fly. I learned about lift, drag, parasitic drag, and the many forces acting on a plane including gravity. Then I was into engines in a big way – at least for propellor planes. I learned all about aircraft maintenance and certifications, and air worthiness directives, and annual inspections.

Josh presented me with a handheld aviation band transceiver. I was to spend at least an hour a day listening to the interactions between pilots and various parts of the air traffic control system, so I caught onto the lingo and protocols that got used.

On my second week of my ‘flight training’ I also took my first lesson in a Cessna 172. The plane was so elementary compared to the Citation. By then, I knew every instrument, what it told me and what it didn’t about my condition of flight or plane. I learned the whole preflight routine, and then even further back about flight planning. Ross drilled me and I liked him to do that. It helped reinforce every aspect of what I was supposed to learn.

I started flying three days a week – two late afternoons, and one weekend day. I also got an occasional night flight in to give me that kind of experience and teach me some different aspects of flying, including instrument flying. One day, I took the written exam and aced it.

While all this was going on, I was working full-time at the advertising agency and burning up the pavement there. Josh and flying had energized me in a way I hadn’t been before.

Josh was always at home after Ross was through with me. He’d patiently listen to my experiences, and share some of his day with me – usually in a nearby restaurant or sandwich shop.

My concession to not being able to take too much time off of work to go to a full-time flight school, was to go ‘full-time’ over a long weekend. Ross and Josh rented me a plane that was uniquely mine for the next six months. It was a Cessna 172 that was fully instrumented. It got kept in the same hanger as the Citation and was a lot easier to get in and out, and ready to fly.

I took a Thursday, Friday, and had a holiday Monday off work. I was at the airport with Ross or another instructor that he introduced me to named Ken Tewks from about eight in the morning until five at night. My ‘ground school’ continued, but I was in the air a lot.

I could grease a landing, even in a stiff crosswind. My stalls and recoveries got to be flawless, and although not required, I could get into and out of spin with no problem. I soloed, and then spent a lot of time flying alone, but with a list of exercises I was to do with the plane until I had them nailed – like steep turns around a point, or S-turns across a road. Ross or Ken debriefed me after every flight. I did my cross-country flights.

One day, both Ross and Ken met me after I’d come in from a practice flight where I was practicing the various kinds of landings: short field, soft field, and such. Ross said, “You’re ready for your flight test. It’s tomorrow at ten a.m. We set it up.”

I kind of panicked. This would be my crunch time.

I met Morris Witman, the FAA examiner, at ten o’clock in the morning out at the airport. I had the 172 pulled out of the hangar and ready to go. The examiner had me layout a round-robin flight to two other airports – Albany, New York and Burlington, Vermont. I did the flight planning and checked all the weather, did weight and balance, used the checklists, and showed the examiner my work. We then went out to the airplane and he watched me preflight the Cessna, occasionally asking questions about the plane or just something out of the blue. We then opened my flight plan, taxied, and took off heading west to Albany Along the way, the examiner asked me to do a few flight maneuvers. I did each one with only a hint of the nervousness that raged within me.

We cancelled the flight plan and made a touch-and-go landing Worcester. The examiner had me circle the airport again and do a short field landing, and then again for a soft-field landing, both to a full stop. Instead of flying to Vermont, he had me return to Bedford. As we cruised at 3,000 feet and neared the airport, he pulled the throttle and asked me where I’d land with a ‘failed’ engine. I’d expected the ploy and knew that directly below me was a more than adequate farm; I swung the plane into a makeshift landing pattern, enough so he knew that I knew what I was doing.

“Take me home, Megan,” he finally said. I added back the power and we flew back to Hanscom and I landed with nary a bump – even in the crosswind. We taxied back to my parking place for the plane and I shut the plane down. The examiner hopped out with stern look; “Meet me inside when you’re through.”

I collected my maps, headset and some other flight gear, tied the plane down and trudged into the office. Inside Ross and Ken, my flight instructors, all gave me a cheer as I came in the door. The FAA examiner was there too with a big smile on his face. He walked up to me and said, “Megan Watson, you passed with flying colors. Congratulations.” He shook my hand. We went through a ceremony of his signing off in my logbook and giving me a temporary private pilot’s license. The ‘real’ one would arrive by mail from Washington, D.C.

I’d called Josh right away with my good news and he properly appreciated the accomplishment, promising me an evening out. We ate out a lot because we were always celebrating something – my soloing in an airplane, our monthly anniversary, Starbucks adding a new flavor of coffee, a win of a key game by the Boston Red Sox. We had lots to celebrate. We always made love to one another as part of our celebrations. We made love to each a lot when we weren’t celebrating too. Today was an “I am a private pilot” celebration. We both got laid.

After I finished my call with Josh, I went back to the office to arrange for the 172 to be refueled and put back in the hangar. Ross was there with a funny smile. I canted my head to one side as thought ask, “What?”

Ross said, “Well, you took the first step. Here’s some stuff to get you started on the next one.” He presented me with a pile of books and a reading syllabus so I could get my instrument and commercial ratings. I’d still be doing a lot of flying and meeting with him. Ken was there nodding as well. He said, “Always keep learning.”

I segued right into instrument flying in the 172. I had my own ‘hood’ – a kind of hat I’d wear that prevented me from being able to look outside the plane. All my flying had to be by reference to my instruments alone. My ground school took me deeper into how each of the instruments worked so I could identify when they were not working in the right way and possibly how to fix it.

I learned about the weather again and more deeply, and there was just more, deeper, everything compared to what I’d just learned. I kept going. My desk at work started to have little reminders of one thing or another related to my learnings or flying. I had a model plane of the 172 that Josh gave me for my birthday. He had one of the Citation on his desk, talk about unplanned one-upmanship.

While that was going on, I flew commercially to North Carolina to talk to TNA Enterprises about becoming their national advertising agency. I sold the work, and it was a multi-year, big buck engagement. The alternative power company had just gone public hitting the NASDAQ. I recommended the investment to Josh, and he put some money from the Foundation in just before the IPO. I also bought some personally. After it went public, the stock took off for the stratosphere. We hung on for the long-term.

Also, I made some recruiting trips to some of the over one hundred colleges from Boston. I ended up hiring five new staff, and off the experienced job market found a few more. I was able to help the firm expand as we’d been trying to do.

I was spending an hour each morning with the new recruits teaching them the ‘real’ story about work, business, and the advertising and design business, and further our own cut at it. Four of us traveled back to Durham to get started on the project, and the newbies I had with me did a good job and impressed the client.

Also in August, Fiona flew to Boston to be with us for a few days and nights. Ostensibly, it was about Foundation business, but it was also a shopping trip and an opportunity to touch base with us – and for the two of us to fuck her blind.

In the fall, Josh and I flew the Citation out to Aspen at peak of the foliage colors to visit with Katelyn and Carl, who flew up from Denver. I was so pleased on the first trip to learn that nothing had changed. We were as enthusiastic and pleased to be with each other as we’d been at Fiona’s wedding.