The big 4-0

So, Jenn LIED to me and convinced me we were going to go to the Santa Barbara wine country for my birthday weekend. Instead, she conspired with my friend Tony to take me to be a "fighter pilot for a day" at this place.

Here I am in a flight suit trying to act cool.









Does it work?

This is the mission briefing where Tony, Mike and myself are trying to pay attention to the complex stuff the Pilot is trying to teach us.

I am sure it is very simple stuff to him, but it was a little confusing. Even more difficult to actually do it.
Here I am getting ready to take off. The pilot sits in the right seat and the novice in the left. Once we took off and leveled off, he says the magic words, "it's your aircraft" and I then fly the plane. On the way out to the dogfight area, he had me work on the moves that he taught in the briefing. First he shows me one, then I do it very poorly and then he shows me again, and then I do it very poorly again. Then we do it to the right with the same results. It was cool anyway. Once at the appointed area two of the planes fly towards each other and when even, the fight is on. The first time I fought Tony and we did such a good job the pilot kept saying what a "good one" that was and pointed out that we hit 5Gs. Apparently we fought for 2X as long as is normal and 5Gs is also more than most folks can hit. Although it isn't 9Gs or anything, it is enough to slap your head back 90 degrees and render you unable to move it until you ease up, move your head and start again. I lost that one, but only because I flew too low. I was winning the whole fight. I ended up losing to Tony 2 times and winning 1 time. I then shot down Mike 3 times in a row. Yes, that is right, I am deadly. And sexy.

Here I am back on the ground and very very tired.




For the record, the yellow bag is a floatation device, not a barf bag. Nobody got sick.
Dan, Mike and Tony - - Three studs, no?
They video the mission (each plane has three cameras) and afterward play them all while explaining what we did right and wrong. It was cool because you could see what the other person was doing while you were shooting them down or trying to move your head back into place. It proved to be a great time to brag and lie and come up with excuses. It was a blast.


That night, we went to Hollywood for steak at a place called Mastros. It was fantastic. Jenn agreed it was much better than Peter Lugers. Ok, she didn't.

Yes, I really eat like this, but only when in public.
All in all, it was a most memorable day and night. and I am incredibly lucky to have a fantastic wife and great friends.