My parents were very supportive of my desire to fly, giving me a 3-week glider school pass as my graduation gift going into my senior year at college. Following graduation, I went to Vance AFB, OK to become an Air Force pilot. Not too long after starting, I received a letter from my Mom stating she has started her pilot training also. I sent a one-word letter home to her - WHY? A week or so later she tells me, “I can’t let there be something that you can do that I can’t do.” My Dad was in the Air Force also, so Mom is learning to fly in Germany with the local AF fighter pilots. She did experience something I never to hope to experience in a single engine aircraft. Her engine failed on her solo student cross-country, and she landed successfully in a German farmer’s field. After she returned to the US, she stopped flying. She felt things were too wild in the US skies compared to the orderly German skies. As a result, she would not go up in a GA aircraft with me, but she would always want to listen to my war stories…
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