Stunt Flying

On Tuesday, my boyfriend took me for an aerobatic demonstration flight in a Pitts S2B. In layman's terms, that's...well, I'm not sure what this would actually be in layman's terms, because when I told my coworkers that I went stunt flying, which seemed like a fairly normal term for it, they looked at me like I was speaking another language*.

That morning, when I found out where we were going, I was very excited. My way of being excited is to not talk very much and maybe have my eyes grow slightly wider, which can easily be mistaken for my Screen Saver Face**, which is often mistaken for my Sad Face, my Tired Face, or my Six-Year-Old Lost in the Middle of West Edmonton Mall Face. In fact, I may only have one real facial expression, but anyway, on Tuesday, this face meant Excitement.


When we got to the air service office, the plane wasn't ready yet, so we got to go exploring the runway for a bit, which meant a lot of me making my Excited Face and trying not to comment on how cute all the tiny little planes were, because I felt that would not be an appropriate thing to say in front of all the manly men who fly them. Then we met the pilot. I was immediately and simultaneously struck by how much he looked like Charlie Sheen and how much that is not a compliment right now and really not something that I should say to him because it would be weird on many levels. I concentrated on not saying anything about Charlie Sheen or accidentally calling him Mr. Sheen or asking him how rehab was (not that he looked like he had been in rehab) while he told me how to use the parachute that I Definitely Would Not Need to Use.

Then the actual flying part happened. Words fail to describe how amazing that was. There really is nothing like it. I mean, it's sort of like being on a roller coaster but then also quite different. And I took a video of it all, which mostly just looks like I'm flipping the camera over and over again but is in fact me flying, and though it also doesn't do it justice, it does more justice than this strange and oddly constructed paragraph. And so, without further ado, I give you the Stunt Flying highlights reel:






*Their bewilderment may also have been because when I said Colin was taking me somewhere for my birthday and we had reservations for 5pm they probably assumed I meant at a restaurant somewhere.
**You know, the face you automatically put on when you are thinking about something else and can't be bothered to make facial expressions anymore. Everyone has one.