It meant the world to me to give the experience of flight to a friend, who is from a foreign country I know and love so dearly. It felt like a small but wonderful way to give back to the country which had given me so many incredible and rich experiences in the four years that my family and I lived there.
I met Taeko (Tah-eh-ko) shortly after moving to Kansas from Japan. The Army had just moved us to a post where soldiers from many foreign militaries are stationed for education and training. Thus the chances were good that at least two or three Japanese families were stationed there. I was determined to find and befriend them and was very successful in a short amount of time! This is how it happened…
One day, while walking out of the medical clinic on post, I saw out of the corner of my eye a foreign military uniform that I knew very well. I did a double take and saw it was in fact a Japanese soldier from the Japanese Ground Self Defense Force. With him were his beautiful wife and two young daughters. Bordering on over-excitement, I told them I recognized his uniform and that my family and I had recently moved from Japan. As it turned out, they were from an area very close to where we had been stationed in Japan! Their English was very good, especially having been in the U.S. only two short weeks! We made fast friends and exchanged cell phone numbers. Later that year we had them over for Thanksgiving dinner and introduced them to traditional American Thanksgiving foods. They in turn invited us to traditional Japanese holiday festivities at their home. They are a wonderful and very impressive family. We greatly appreciate their friendship. We’ll be friends for many years to come.
Several months before I got my license, I had mentioned to Taeko that I was learning to fly. She was excited for me and expressed some interest in learning to fly too, though she wasn’t sure she would pursue it.
Two weeks after getting my license, we were at her home for a going-away party they were throwing for their friends who were moving away, which included us. My husband asked her if she would like me to take her for up a flight. Of course! I hadn’t even thought of it, being in the middle of yet another international move.
Two days later, the weather and our schedules worked out for us to fly! It was a very warm day in June, but conditions were perfect! She was my third passenger since getting my license and my first non-family passenger. I appreciated her trust and confidence in me, being a new pilot, to fly us safely. She said she trusted me because I wouldn’t have been given a license if I wasn’t ready. True. And I was very ready. I must say though that I did find it to be quite a new experience having someone sitting in the right seat who wasn’t an instructor. Boy, did that give a whole new meaning to the words “Pilot in Command”!
It was so much fun to show Taeko the town and the surrounding area from the air. She loved it! I flew her over the military post so she could see her house, and over the town outside of post so she could see her daughter’s high school. She was in awe of how tiny everything looked from the air! Over the practice area I showed her gentle 30-degree turns and then let her take the yoke to try it herself. She turned it right to 30 degrees with no hesitation. I was surprised how comfortable and confident she was! (Both my daughter and husband had barely turned the yoke when I took each of them up. I too had barely turned the yoke on my own first flight, having no idea how steeply little airplanes can turn, because we hadn’t made any turns yet when my instructor let me take the yoke.)
Taeko was a fantastic passenger! She was ready, calm and comfortable. She later shared on FaceBook that it was one of the best experiences she’s had in the U.S. Wow! What an honor it was to have been able to give her such a memorable experience!