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December
2007
An
Airborne Engagement
If you ever
think there are no new ideas to be
thought of, better think again. Actually,
there will never be a shortage as long as
there are people. Just when you
think you’ve seen everything
.......... well, you
haven’t! Take marriage
proposals. The guy gets down on one
knee to pop the question, or blurts it
out over dessert after a nice dinner, or
gets much more creative and hires an
aerial banner towed behind a plane to fly
over his sweetie’s
house. There’s always somebody
coming up with a new way to do it.
Several
years ago, I bore witness to an
interesting and entertaining proposal in
my airplane. A company out here on
the west coast had given certificates for
sightseeing trips to it’s employees
as Christmas presents. One of the
secretaries in their office called up one
day to ask whether she could bring her
boyfriend along. No problem, as our
group of partners had two four-place
airplanes in the hangar.
“Romeo” showed up a bit
early, took me aside and informed me
he’d like to propose to this
secretary somewhere over the
mountains. They’d only been
dating for a few months, so it was to be
a big surprise. He had brought along
the engagement ring just in case she said
yes. I figured if she said no, she
could always toss it out the window and
leave no doubts as to her feelings.
“Romeo”
was a gentleman about everything. He
confidently explained to his bride-to-be
why certain things had to be done prior
to “lift-off”. Like why I was
running my hand over the prop ....
“to check for ice” (hey, it was
February). Why I was draining fuel
into a cup under the wing “to check
for ice”, why I was inspecting the
“wings” (actually the ailerons)
“to be sure they went up and down to
shake the ice off”. He confidently
assured the little lady that I was a safe
pilot. Since I’d met him only
ten minutes earlier, I’m not sure
where the basis for that conclusion came
from. At any rate, I had to think it
was all in an effort to ensure she was
comfortable.
“Juliet”
got to ride in the front seat, while
“Romeo” crammed himself into
the back. Another act of chivalry I
thought. He was out to impress this
gal. We departed just before sunset,
and were soon level at 7,000 feet over
the mountains on the north side of
Vancouver. It was a beautiful evening,
perfect for what was about to
happen. Maybe it’s just me,
maybe “Romeo” was cursed too,
but it’s not very often that things
go exactly as planned. Fortunately
nothing’s ever turned into a
disaster, but I’ve learned to always
have a ‘plan-B’ whenever I
start at something. Particularly with any
flight of any duration to any
destination. On this evening,
I’d need that plan.
Image: Tourism
British Columbia
Just about
the time the big event was to occur, I
noticed the alternator had quit
producing.The volt meter still read a
healthy 12 volts, so it wasn’t a
problem just yet.The circuit breaker
wasn’t popped, no smoke smell,
everything else seemed normal. So I
killed the unnecessary drains, including
the intercom. When the two
passengers found they couldn’t speak
and hear through the headsets, I smiled,
nodded everything was OK, they proceeded
to yell their comments at each
other. I couldn’t tell what
they were saying exactly over the engine
noise, but figured he’d popped the
question when she screamed, “Yes it
is scary”.
I thought I
heard “Romeo” say, yelling at
the back of her head, “Not scary
.... MARRY”.To which
“Juliet” responded, “VERY
SCARY” at the top of her lungs. They
both looked over at me with quizzical
looks on their faces as if I could tell
them what they’d just said. I smiled
and nodded. He was a bit frustrated at
this point. After all, the romance had
surely gone from the moment, which had
turned into a screaming match. She was
still interested more in the mountains
and the sunset. Finally, from the back
seat, “Romeo” thrust the ring
in front of “Juliet”, and
bellowed his proposal once again. This
time there was no doubt in her mind. She
flung the seatbelt off, struggled to her
knees, turned around on the seat and
kissed him.
They
didn’t get their full hour in the
air as I was already headed back to base,
but who’s counting at a time like
that. We landed while there was
still power enough for the lights and
radio. Then the happy couple was off
to celebrate at a local restaurant.
Nothing else matters when you’re
young and in love, except probably a
forgotten
wallet. “Romeo’s” was
sitting on the back seat when I put the
plane away, just one small detail that he
wouldn’t care about until it came
time to pay for the dinner and
drinks. I’m thinking that night
may have turned into a scenario like
this: Boy invites girl for dinner,
then discovers his wallet is missing, the
girl grudgingly pays the bill but never
trusts him or sees him again. Don’t
know if that happened or not.
When this
couple has children, they’ll be
truthful when they tell them about a
screaming match that turned into an
engagement. Other guys have taken
the plunge, literally, proposing while
skydiving, some underwater scuba diving.
The list of wild ideas goes on and on.
Marriage is something you do once in your
life, if you’re lucky. You
might as well pull out the stops and
create a real memory out of it.
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