Spouse Appreciation Flight

 

Spouses’ Appreciation Flight

Once a year the Air Force at Yokota celebrates the spouses who support their military members…with a military flight on a cool air craft. Military members are not invited.

I have always turned down the opportunity. No, thank you! Because, I don’t like flying on planes.

This year I felt impressed to sign myself up. And after my paragliding experience I felt confident. It would be a good practice flight before getting on a plane with the kids for a long overseas flight next Saturday.
Tons of spouses met at 9:30am near the flightline. We signed in and hung out waiting for our turn for the briefing. I saw friends from church and friends from school. Jaymee Warner was there too. It was fun to visit and hang out with them on a beautiful morning waiting for an exciting flight. There were three groups before my group to fly so I had to wait all morning.
Mary Wagner and Amy Higgins whom I know from Mendel Elementary were in my group. So we hung out. We played a card game Ms. Higgins brought called Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza. We only played one round …one game …but it was really fun. So I messaged Sterling to order it on Amazon.com so we can play with family this summer.

Brunch was provided during the brief…an assortment from the bakery. I am a sucker for chocolate frosted donuts so I had one. During the brief one presenter compared some of the flight experiences to a roller coaster. At this remark some spouses quietly cheered while others, on the other hand, suffered in silence. After the brief we began to discuss it to see if it is comparable to a roller coaster because there are plenty of people who , like me, just don’t do roller coasters! Some of the people present experienced an Osprey before and said it is not like a roller coaster. We calmed down enough to press forward.

Lunch was served, Subway, and my team still wasn’t up for our flight. I skipped Subway because Ster and I planned to go to lunch after.
The first time given to my group was that we would fly at 11:45am. At 11:45 they told us we had fifteen more minutes to wait. At noon they lined us up to get on the CV-22 Osprey then told us we had another fifteen minutes to wait. Lol. Why did they have us there at 9:30am if we were not flying until 12:20?

When we finally walked to the plane the wind from the helicopter like propellers whipped us all. We wore ear and eye safety wear and we boarded the plane. It was smaller than I imagined it would be. And the sight of the seats and seatbelts freaked me out. I seriously wanted to turn around and leave. What was I scared of? The turns and any motions that would make me feel a sinking feeling as well as the fact that the back doors would be open during the flight!

But I buckled up and found ways to be brave. I focused on the inside of the plane…small details. Then I focused on the flight line ground out the open door. I imagined being in the sky and seeing the earth…because that is something I like. I imagined the take off, because that was making me nervous. I told myself in my head things such as “This is like a helicopter and they take off going upward and with force. This is normal. This is how it goes.” It worked.

The craft was super shaky even without trafficking or flying. Just sitting in place, propellers on. “This is normal.”

When we took off it didn’t happen with as much force as the briefer had said. It was a much easier flight than he made me think. It was a nice flight. We couldn’t see Mt Fuji today even though the sky was blue. It was a beautiful day but a bit windy.
Having the back of the plane open was nice. It actually made it better because I hate planes and like seeing the earth. Now I know this about myself. 
It wasn’t amazing but it was fun. We flew for thirty minutes….over Hakone and Tokyo. And luckily I had so many friends to hang out with all morning during the wait. If they had not been there then it would not have been worth it…except to make me feel more confident about flying on planes. A practice run before next week.

The movers had been at our house yesterday and today. We had served the Japanese workers Subway for lunch. There were not a lot of movers but they worked hard and fast! Especially compared to American workers.
Today I left Sterling home with the movers for my spouses’ flight day. They were done taking our household goods by lunch time.

I picked up Sterling and we drove to Zona Voce for lunch. We enjoyed pizza and salad. Then went home to our empty house. About an hour later the military temporary furniture loan arrived. A dining set, a livingroom set up, beds. Perfect. Luke in currently living in what used to be the office. All the kids have their own rooms. And the boys have big, single beds. No more bunk bed!

Tomorrow is Saturday. Ty’s farewell party is tomorrow. We were going to do it at the USO/Yujo center but they will be closed due to a scheduled power outage. So, Ty moved the party to the Sakura Shell and park in our neighborhood. I will serve pizza and maybe cookies. Ty and his friends can play.

Sunday is Mother’s day. I want to watch home movies and show them the videos and pictures of my paragliding adventure. I want ice cream and cookies for mother’s day dessert.

Monday we will sell the trampoline and I will mow the lawn for the last time. Tuesday we move into TLF. Wednesday we do our house inspection to show we have cleaned the house enough to move out. Thursday is the last day of school for our kids. Except that Friday is Athena’s field day at Mendel! So, she will probably go to the fun field day.

Friday is my birthday lunch with my friends. And I hope to play pickleball a few times that week with my friends. I am taking my pickleball set with me all summer to play with Sterling or if someone else wants to learn. But really it’s my friends I will miss. My pickleball friends.

Saturday we fly out of Japan. May 20.