Back in the Cockpit

My daughter, the WSO, is back in the cockpit after being away for over two years. She had her third flight today and just had to call me about it. She knows my love of flying and my utter disdain for the cubicle-farm.

Seems the weather was rainy and crappy, but (as she put it) "once we got over 13,000 feet, it was beautiful". 13,000 feet above the earth in a high-performance fighter, yeah who wouldn't love that?

At any rate, I missed her first attempt to get a hold of me (I was in the computer lab, no cell phones allowed) which was fortunate in a way. Fortunate for my fragile morale anyway.

You see, on one of her deployments to Fallon, she had what anyone would consider "a great day". Weather was awesome, flying was great. So of course, she had to call and tell me all about it. There I was, sitting in my cubicle, looking outside at the crappy, drizzly weather and thinking that being anywhere had to be better than this. So my cell phone rings and I see that it's the WSO, knowing that she was out at Fallon and was flying that day I figured she had another story for dear old Dad.

Of course she did. She was pumped and began by saying "Guess what we did today?" As it was still early, I figured it wasn't another O-Club story (I get to hear about those, Mom most emphatically does not.) So, glutton for punishment that I am, I replied "Don't know sweetie, what did you do today?"

That's when she told me about flying low-level at rather high rates of speed, looking UP at the mountain tops. Some parents would freak, others would cringe, me, all I could say was "You suck! It's raining here, I'm stuck in a cubicle staring at a computer screen. And you have to tell me this? Really?" No, I'm not jealous, no, really.

But I digress. Seems she and her stick-actuator were "cloud surfing". Skimming along just above the cloud tops, in the sun, flying at high rates of speed in a high-performance fighter. She had to tell me about being chased by the shadow of her Rhino (F/A-18F Super Hornet for the uninitiated) as she and her pilot danced through the sky on silvered wings, yada, yada, yada.

Did I mention the aerobatics? Yeah, aerobatics and all, none of that straight and level stuff.

Yes, she has a great job. While my job pays the bills and is, in its own way, interesting, her job certainly beats the dog snot out of mine. Always. Hands down. No contest.

Sigh...