Sunday, April 10, 2011

EX Wife Flys and Two Die

It's been one of those weeks...

What a weird week to say the very least. Last weekend I took my EX wife (married 21 years) to CT to attend the funeral of my EX sister-in-law's father. I know what most people would think... STUPID. Not really considering the folks in CT are really my tribe if not my siblings.

My EX really didn't want to go but like a good friend of mine told me years ago... Dave, no one remembers who came to your wedding but you will remember, for the rest of your life, who attends your parents funeral. So I offered to fly us and she immediately commented she wasn't paying for gas. LOL, nothing every really changes does it? Actually, she offered to pay the $10 parking fee which was nice.

The bad news is on the way back, I got bored and felt a need to test the recently repaired auto pilots ability to track a VOR. When I engaged the auto pilot the plane jerked to the right and I cussed OH SHIT. Seems this was scary to a novice small plane passenger. Once again my EX wife is teaching me things. I now make a point of fully briefing passengers of anything unusual and do my best to keep my verbiage more positive.

PS On a somber note, my home airport experience a double fatality about 20 minutes before we landed. A very experienced pilot was showing off his home built to his sister. An engine failure upon takeoff resulted in an attempted 180 return, stall and crash. It was a sad day for general aviation and I doubt my EX will every fly in a small plane again. The good news is I would guess she will do what ever it takes to keep the life insurance policy she has on me current.