Flying Solo: Part II

This morning Stephen and I woke up slow before the alarm on his phone even had a chance to sing. Feeling rested and continuing our Sunday morning routine of breakfast, coffee, and reading the news before church, it wasn't until hours later that we realized the rest of the clocks around the house were an hour ahead. I remember the days I had to manually reset the clocks at night, and I would usually forget, showing up an hour early or late to church. Along with the time change this morning, a gust of cold wind presented itself along with the sudden urge to pull out our soup recipes, and bring out the boxes from storage holding all of our temporarily abandoned sweaters, boots, and scarves. Winter is in the air, and it's a change we've been craving after a long and torrid summer.

Alongside the change in season, the past couple of weeks I completed another round of documenting solos for a few guys in the lightening flight. Emily and Dylan Fauver graciously let me share their story through pictures with you of Dylan's first solo in the T-6 plane. Highlights of his story include the priceless interactions with his instructor before taking off, being greeted by his peers and his wife Emily upon landing whom I'm so blessed to have gotten to know through the whole experience, and the surprise ending of trying to break free from being tackled and dunked in the dunk tank.

I have fallen in love with the art of story telling through pictures, and have greatly enjoyed having the honor of telling the stories of the men and women here going overcoming so many challanges throughout flight training. I can see on their faces it is the biggest rush being able to solo in these classic planes with so much history, and will be one of their proudest accomplishments in life. I am blessed to be given this opportunity to be apart of such a milestone, and hope this wonderful young man's story will serve as a visual for many others who have always wondered what goes on inside the gates of the Base here in Laughlin.