I flew my first Angel Flight mission on Friday. It was a doozy -- into and out of Boston Logan. The only other B airport I'd flown to was BWI, and they put me on a parallel (away from the big kids) runway. Friday I was vectored to 4L, with about 5-6 big boys waiting for me to clear their precious runway. I flew in hot, 140kts until 1.5mi final, so I floated a bit. Tower asked me twice to exit expeditiously as there was a Lear on short final.
AdamZ flew right seat and paid for his flight on the taxiways. Even having the diagram in front of me, and having studied it prior to the flight, I was kinda lost. Between the two of us we figured out the route to Signature. We killed some time with the epaulet crowd waiting for our pax, Mom and a 2yr old cancer patient, coming home for a break from chemo.
THe little boy was full of energy. His mom had energy too, in spite of what must be a terrible burden. We packed up and left, but not before the TSA had a good look at id's and belongings. Nice of them to guarantee that I wouldn't blow up my own airplane.
Adam paid off again on departure. Flying in was pretty simple; flying out was full of taxiway and frequency changes. It was great to have a radioman! Uneventful flight back, although we did pull "Angel Flight" rank to cut the corner from JFK to RBV instead of flying V1 to DIXIE and over. Our little guy was losing his lunch - I turned to Adam and said, "Time to take advantage of that Angel Flight callsign" which we did.
What a wonderful feeling to see the family (3 more kids plus dad) come across the tarmac at Wings to meet mom and baby brother. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to help them. I'm also grateful to Adam for hooking me up with Angel Flight and such an amazing first flight. I only wish that my landing(s) at Wings was smoother!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hot, high, and heavy is no way to land a 182 -- now I know better.
If you have the time, and the opportunity, I encourage you to volunteer your time to Angel Flight. You'll sleep better at night!
