Up and at 'em!
At the crack of dawn on Saturday, Mark and I struggled out of a very comfy king size hotel bed and made a beeline for the mini Keurig that adorned the hutch in our room. Within 15 minutes we had met our flying friends in the hotel lobby and were bound for the airport in the courtesy car that Atlantic Aviation had kindly lent us overnight.
First stop... Breakfast in the airport restaurant and a little time to infuse more caffeine, while taking in some low level airplane noise - which we all seemed to enjoy. Go figure!
Then it was show time. At 8 AM sharp the group met at the large corporate hangar that was our headquarters. There was a group safety and organizational briefing and formation partners were arranged. Then the large group broke into smaller groups and we began to plan Saturdays first flight.
For George Zukauckas, the day had finally come. He had narrowly missed out on being in my pictures in 2012. Then technical issues kept him away from the 2013 formation flying clinic and his pictures again eluded him. This weekend, the formation flying clinic of 2015, he was my priority and I was looking forward to making good on my promise to him.
To get the best pictures of George, I asked to fly with the lead of his group. Maj. Gen. Hank was my pilot and I knew from the first minute I met him that he was smart, experienced and meant business. Quite intimidating... Until I got to know him a bit more. Quite a sweetie actually!
Hank had the best windows I've ever had to privilege to take pictures out of and he looked rather pleased when I told him so. Very soon, we were speeding down the runway together...
Position 1/Lead: Major General Hank C
Position 2: George Z
Position 3: Joe P in the twin
Position 4: Kevin C
Pretty nice morning for a flight, huh?!
And what a great group of pilots/men. I was feeling pretty lucky!
At the crack of dawn on Saturday, Mark and I struggled out of a very comfy king size hotel bed and made a beeline for the mini Keurig that adorned the hutch in our room. Within 15 minutes we had met our flying friends in the hotel lobby and were bound for the airport in the courtesy car that Atlantic Aviation had kindly lent us overnight.
First stop... Breakfast in the airport restaurant and a little time to infuse more caffeine, while taking in some low level airplane noise - which we all seemed to enjoy. Go figure!
Then it was show time. At 8 AM sharp the group met at the large corporate hangar that was our headquarters. There was a group safety and organizational briefing and formation partners were arranged. Then the large group broke into smaller groups and we began to plan Saturdays first flight.
For George Zukauckas, the day had finally come. He had narrowly missed out on being in my pictures in 2012. Then technical issues kept him away from the 2013 formation flying clinic and his pictures again eluded him. This weekend, the formation flying clinic of 2015, he was my priority and I was looking forward to making good on my promise to him.
To get the best pictures of George, I asked to fly with the lead of his group. Maj. Gen. Hank was my pilot and I knew from the first minute I met him that he was smart, experienced and meant business. Quite intimidating... Until I got to know him a bit more. Quite a sweetie actually!
Hank had the best windows I've ever had to privilege to take pictures out of and he looked rather pleased when I told him so. Very soon, we were speeding down the runway together...
Position 1/Lead: Major General Hank C
Position 2: George Z
Position 3: Joe P in the twin
Position 4: Kevin C
And what a great group of pilots/men. I was feeling pretty lucky!
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