I Learned About Flying From That: One Husband, One Plane, One Terrified Wife

Tammy Ammon

Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 08:00 AM ET

Verified

Barry Ross

Key Takeaways:

The narrator, who has a severe fear of flying, was initially unnerved when her firefighter husband, Jake, began flying lessons and later decided to buy a vintage airplane.
Despite her intense phobia, she chose to support her husband's dream, prioritizing his happiness and passion for aviation over her own anxieties.
Through her first flight and subsequent experiences flying with her husband in their 1947 Stinson, she not only overcame her fear but grew to love flying, finding it a wonderful way to connect and create shared memories.

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I must admit, when my firefighter husband, Jake, told me a year ago that he was going to take flying lessons, I was more than a little unnerved by the whole thought of it. I mean seriously, isn’t his job dangerous enough? Besides that, I’m one of those people who has a whole routine before I get on a commercial airliner — saying my prayers, leaving my husband little notes, talking to my mom before I board. To put it simply, flying makes me panic.

So imagine the fear that rippled through my body as my husband went out weekend after weekend learning to conquer my greatest fear. I’m quite sure I drove him nuts with the whole call-me-before-you-take-off and call-me-after-you-land routine, but luckily his desire to fly granted him some semblance of patience with my neurotic self. Of course I knew it was only a matter of time before I’d have to go up with him in that tiny little flying contraption that barely qualified, in my mind, to be called an airplane, but I thought I had plenty of time to put that off.