Winging and a Drag race

One of the hardest things about leaving the office early, is actually getting out. Somehow, whenever I have to get out of the office early in the week for any reason, my “to-do” list gets longer and longer. This past week was no exception. I was planning to leave the office by 2:00 on Thursday in time to go home, pick up my luggage, and head to the airport for a 5pm flight. I managed, over 3 and a half days at work, to clock in 37 hours of time. I have a kickoff meeting tomorrow in Paris, TX, and am currently on a flight to Dallas. More about that later.

The reason I was leaving early Thursday was to go to Pensacola. Josh, after working exceptionally hard over the past couple years, had earned his wings, and I was heading down to be there for the ceremony. I arrived just in time for dinner, and we all went out to Bonefish grill. The food was good, but boy there was a lot of it. We all split for the night after dinner because we had a long day ahead of us.

Friday morning everyone met at Josh’s apartment at 7:15 because we were going to the base to do a bit of a mini-tour. Josh had arranged for us to go into the Night Vision Goggle (NVG) lab at 8:30 for a demonstration. I have only seen NVGs on TV and movies and such, and was truly amazed at the way NVGs function. NVGs use every possible bit of available light, and magnify it to light up the scenery. We went into a darkroom, where there was no light coming from anywhere except a tiny dot on the ceiling. Amazingly, we put on the goggles and could see everything clearly! The instructor took different types of flashlights, laser pointers, infrared lights, UV lights, etc., and showed us how they each look under the NVGs. I was blown away by how advanced they were. We stepped into another room where there was a mini-landscape of sorts. It looked like a bigger version of a train set I’d had as a kid. There were mountains, rivers, a factory, a city, power lines, tanks, and more. There were lights set up in the surrounding areas to represent moonlight seen from different angles. Cycling through the different possible lunar locations, we could see some of the downfalls of the NVGs – when shadows are created by the angle. What an interesting learning experience.

From there we went into the Simulation building. Josh was able to secure 20 minutes to use the simulator. The simulator is basically a box that on the inside looks like the inside of a helicopter. The front window is actually a bunch of screens of some sort, where the landscape is projected as you fly. Because there were only 20 minutes, Josh had to just choose a couple people to go (there were 11 of us there in total). I wasn’t going to get a chance, but then the next group didn’t show up, and every one of us managed to get a turn in the simulator. It was pretty fun. I of course have never flown anything and had a hard time with it, but managed to fly most of the time until landing, where I crashed the helo and received the red screen of death haha. Not to worry though, every single other person also crash landed. I did however fight josh on the controls a bit. He’d say “nose down” and I’d be pulling the nose up. Luckily, he had instructor controls, and could help, but I was certainly accidentally fighting him on a few occasions in the Sim.

We had lunch on base, where the food was good, and the prices were really cheap. We had all brought our nice clothes to change into, as no one wanted to walk around for a few hours in heels or a suit. So we changed and headed over to the winging ceremony after lunch. Each graduate was called on stage with their family for their individual ceremony. The winger can choose who pins their wings onto their uniform, and Josh chose his dad. The old tradition of banging the wings into place is still going on. The person pinning the winger will put it on and then give a hard pound to the chest. Some of the family members would put the backs on before punching them. Others were not so lucky. One of the guys was punched so hard by his family that the metal wing pin actually bent, and at the party that evening, he showed off his undershirt from earlier in the day that had blood stains on the chest. It was a nice ceremony, and hopefully special to each winger. Josh had his parents, his sister Cara, his other sister Taylor and her boyfriend Jeff, His friends Jim and Kris from home in Charlotte – each with their girlfriends Jess and Charity - Quite the crowd.

After the winging, there was a party called the “overtorque” where there was some light food, beer and some toasts for just about everyone. My favorite was “To the spouses and sweethearts – may they always think we’re as good looking as we think we are”. Apparently there was a cake, but it was eaten before we got there. The plan for the rest of the day was to go to change, and then head to the beachside of town where we had rooms for the night. We came back to Josh’s to change, and I gave him the gift I’d gotten him for the winging. Back when I’d first met Josh, he and Leah had me believing that they were actually issued scarves – like in the pictures you see of pilots back in the day – and I of course believed them. Well, for his winging, I got josh an official flight scarf, and a lambswool lined leather flight hat – with the buckle under the chin and everything. So at least if he doesn’t get issued one, he can look like a true pilot =)

Josh was particularly disappointed that they made no announcement of the cake, so we went to the grocery and got a cake just for all of us, and especially Josh. His sisters did a good job of decorating it on the was =) That night we went to walk on the beach for a bit, and take some pictures, then to have some dinner, and then to the winging party. The winging class – as is tradition – chipped in together for a bunch of kegs, and had it at a bar on the beach boardwalk. As long as you had the “I’m with the pilots” wristband, it was all you can drink. The party was a lot of fun, and there are a ton of silly pictures. Since we’d been up doing things since 7am, we were all wiped by 12:30, and crashed.

But early the next morning, everyone was up in time to hit the beach. We spent all morning laying out on the beach in a beautiful day in Pensacola. It was great because we’d spent the night across the street piled into hotel rooms so no one would have to drive from the party, and in the morning we could just walk across the street to the beach. People slowly trickled out, catching their flights home, until everyone had left and Josh and I drove back to Atlanta. And that just ends Saturday of the weekend!!

Sunday was the drag race. I know – Bela? At a drag race??! Well, it was quite the experience. Josh grew up loving NHRA and formula one racing, and jumps at the chance to see one in person. So, after the fun filled weekend we had in Pensacola, we drove back to Atlanta to hit Commerce on Sunday for the race. We left the house early, and arrived in commerce around 8:30. Unfortunately, there was some traffic, so we didn’t actually get to park until closer to 9:00. All of the different cars and bikes that were racing each have their own pit set up in the parking lot, and then before and after each race, they’re towed to the starting line. So we jumped from pit to pit watching the cars getting warmed up and ready to go. It was loud. Most people, including us, had earplugs in, but it was still loud above that. I found myself holding my ears closed on top of the earplugs on more that a couple occasions. As the cars are warming up, there is an area where the cars that are running on Nitromethane are located. They call this area Nitro Alley. As they’re warming up, if you are in the downwind of the exhaust, it is hard to breathe and your eyes burn from the nitro in the air. The people that get really close, most of them actually have gas masks on. It’s all part of the experience though. I have to say, the crowd was certainly different than that I would see at a Braves game, and quite different from those I’d see at a GT college football game. It was quite interesting. The races themselves were pretty cool. No crashes took place, but a few of the cars caught on fire! The day was beautiful, but the sun was rough. I was putting on sunscreen about every 30 minutes, and I think if you’d wanted to, you could’ve fried an egg on my arm. But we stayed out there for about 6-7 hours, and had fun. By a little before 4:00, we were wiped and headed out of there.

It’s funny – some weekends nothing happens, and man, this past weekend I barely had time for some shut eye!