Serious question

Tom-D

Tom-D

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Tom-D
Tonight drinking with friends this question came up..
Would you really want your Girl friend, wife, or significant other, to be really involved in Aviation in any aspect?
 
Nope. Some interest yes. But I like things that are just for me.
 
If it she had a passion for it, ofcourse

Too few people really have a passion for things, there is something very attractive about someone who puts their heart into something, a real craftsman..err..craftswoman, artist, call it what you will, be it in work or outside of their professional life, seems like many people are content to just exist vs having passions in life, if that makes sense.

So if their heart happened to be in aviation I’d support it 100%, frankly it would be a bonus for their passion to be something I could get into vs something like cats or basket weaving.
 
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In any aspect??.... my wife is involved in aviation just by being married to me. She lives my schedule (sort of), my training periods, always tracks my fights to know I’m okay, and yes, enjoys my flight benefits.
She is an independent career woman, but she lives a pilots wife lifestyle.
 
I’ve encouraged it but no bite.

Honestly though it depends on your relationship. There are some couples who argue over every little thing... which for me seems horrible on a daily basis but I especially wouldn’t want it invading things I enjoy.
 
What were you drinking,an occasional flight is fine.
 
Wife was the one who bought the hangar house so I could live with my airplanes. She isn’t a pilot but she’s invested in aviation just the same.
 
Sure. My wife, daughters, and mother have all done hang gliding tandems. All enjoyed them but have no interest in taking it up themselves.

My older daughter and I went skydiving for her 18th birthday. When she gets back from school, I'm going to get her a flight in a Light Sport trike.
 
Yes. My wife has more than twice as many hours as I do and is a significantly more accomplished pilot, having two type ratings (I have 0, just the MU-2 training). She's ATP multi and rotorcraft, I'm just commercial, and now she's off flying Challengers for her day job. As I tell everyone, she's a better pilot than me (although she disagrees on that point).

I've always wanted to have shared passions with my significant other. Doesn't mean they have to necessarily be at the same (or higher) level than me in terms of skill or experience, but I find it makes things better. Everyone's different, though.
 
Tom-D said:
Would you really want your Girl friend, wife, or significant other, to be really involved in Aviation in any aspect?
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Yes to all. But not at the same time!!! :)
 
My wife is very, very supportive of my flying and willing to go with me to go somewhere, but has no interest on her own.
 
I would love it, but doesn't seem to be in the cards...

My X said to me when we decided to part one of the best things about it would be she "would never have to see that white piece of metal again" referring to my club plane at the time...

My girlfriend of 8 years (not real into paperwork official stuff again) doesn't mind it but not "into" it. Going the the Cessna 140 convention she said I can go on my own or take a friend as haning with airplane nerds for a few days sounds like torture to her... She was supportive of me getting back into it this fall after taking a few years off with a career change and such, but no interest beyond going for a nice evening hop or whatnot.

I would love to share the passion of aviation with my partner... I would love to talk flying and argue over oil additives and gear extensions and preheating techniques, and where we could fly to... My GF and I love each other but don't share a common interest in anything to talk about besides our son. So we do our best to listen to each others crap that the other has no interest in, but makes for some real lack of deep and fun conversation. If she ever fires me, I would like a "friend" to come over for a night a week or so but thats it... No more "mate" crap for me if this one ever goes south, just me, my boys, the plane, a few friends, and an occasional overnight friend would do...
 
One of my exs loved having access to the plane, FBOs, flying to lunch, but had zero interest in flying the plane, doing touch and goes, etc, basically if it wasn’t related to getting from A to B, or taking photos, not into it.
 
I love that my wife likes to fly with me and to be involved in the flight in some way (watching for traffic, switching radio freqs, occasionally flying), but I also like that she doesn’t seem that interested in getting her ppl. More stick time for me!
 
My wife is a pilot that is very enthusiastic about aviation. We have been married over 30 years and we still get excited about taking the Bo on a cross country trip. It gives us a lot of stuff to do together, and it is much easier to spend the kind of money required to enjoy an airplane since we both enjoy it. I wouldn't want it to be any other way.
 
I think it would be great. But my wife has never enjoyed flying with me. She's tense the entire time.

And don't put much stock into Ted's comments about Laurie. The guy keeps stumbling through life and with each fall he lands face down in a puddle of beer. Some people have no idea what it must be like for the rest of us.
 
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My wife loves to fly and that is enough. She flew in the back on several of my flying lessons back in the day. She was my first passenger the same day I passed my test. She would be a capable pilot but she gets lost going to the bathroom at night. In the air she wouldn't have a clue where she was and she readily admits this.

When I say she is my favorite copilot I mean it. I don't have to explain things to her. I don't have to worry about turbulence or if she is enjoying the flight. She loves to just be in the air.
 
Still a student pilot. Not taking lessons, but mostly because of too many higher priorities. Funny thing, my mother in law is a lot more interested in airplanes than my wife. She found an article in the Livermore paper about the AOPA Fly-In at Livermore airport June 14-15. She made sure I saw it, and got it on the calendar. Not sure my wife would have.

As a side note, she was a banker, and married to a bank VP for many years. They never got their licenses, but flew a lot with people who had licenses, and planes. She's probably spent more time in light planes than I have.

We live in Silicon Valley, and Harris Ranch, and Button Willow have airstrips and great places to eat. They aren't in easy driving distance, but she's all in favor of flying to them for $100 BBQ.

In fact each of them is more than far enough away to make them XC destinations. I could fly to one, or the other, get lunch, and takeout, and fly it home.
 
Gerhardt said:
And don't put much stock into Ted's comments about Laurie. The guy keeps stumbling through life and with each fall he lands face down in a puddle of beer. Some people have no idea what it must be like for the rest of us.
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Please... it's more like a puddle of wine. Or rum. I don't drink beer... much. ;)

I have been blessed with my mother's good luck. And I suppose my father's for that matter.
 
Tom-D said:
Tonight drinking with friends this question came up..
Would you really want your Girl friend, wife, or significant other, to be really involved in Aviation in any aspect?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I wish she was an A&P so the airplane didn't cost so dang much. :rofl:

JCranford said:
I love that my wife likes to fly with me and to be involved in the flight in some way (watching for traffic, switching radio freqs, occasionally flying), but I also like that she doesn’t seem that interested in getting her ppl. More stick time for me!
Click to expand...

This! My wife likes to be flown places. :) I knew she was a keeper after we took our first flight together - It was in the DA40 this time of year with crazy winds and was quite turbulent, but she loved it anyway. Most of our time together is in the Mooney, and we've made our way from Wisconsin to all three coasts in it. This year's big trips with her were to the Outer Banks (NC) and Jackson Hole, but we've done California, Vegas, Myrtle Beach, the Bahamas, and plenty of others.

That said, while she tolerates going to PoA fly-ins once or twice a year, I do kinda wish she was more interested in the technical aspects of flying that I love so much about it. She just doesn't care about that stuff at all. She knows how to load up the plane (while I'm preflighting), operate the door, and read the ETA off the screen on the GTN. Other than that, she usually just reads or sleeps and doesn't really want to know anything else about flying or airplanes.

But, considering how many of you are either no longer married, or are married but don't get to share aviation with your spouse in any way, I am very lucky... And I'm lucky even without that. I definitely married up. :)
 
I think it's good to have some separate interests. At a minimum I'd like my spouse to enjoy trips via the plane. Outside of that, if she were a pilot, great. If she had no interest in flying outside of traveling somewhere, great. I'd be bummed if she had no interest in flying somewhere for a weekend getaway.
 
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