an early birthday present for him

have you heard of JFK before? i haven't. until kennysia blogged about him. that was about the time Significant Other decided he wanted to pursue a career in flying. i didn't really give it much thought until i came across JFK's name again via Munirah's blog.

i wasn't supposed to get him anything for his birthday this year, last year's birthday present was already whoppingly expensive, enough to last for 3 year's worth of birthday presents, no kidding. Significant Other was dead set on making this drastic career change but i realized despite being passionate in flying, he has never literally flown a real aircraft before (minus the simulator, and even that doesn't count :P). soo... being the little miss curious, i emailed this JFK person.

it took me several arrangements with JFK before we actually set the date to fly, mainly due to the lousy weather (what luck eh? @_@). Significant Other was going to enroll on the 11th so i had to schedule the surprise wayy before that, didn't help that it was already fasting month, so no eat no drink. we finally settled on the 4th (i expect by now he was also bored of me bombarding him with emails hahaha). the weather was still as lousy as ever but JFK was really patient. i had despair written all over my face that morning when i checked the skies that morning hahahahah.

so the night before i told Significant Other to get up early, i had somewhere i wanted to bring him. he knew something was up but i didn't indulge him. he thought it was something (forgot what, i need to check with him, dang me for procrastinating this entry). but when we drove through the morning traffic to get to SkyPark, i think some of his suspicions were confirmed. lol.

so we met JFK at mcDonalds (i guess he did his homework on the total stranger that contacted him through email, he seemed to instantly know who i was. for all he knows i could've hired a serial killer to meet him... ok just joking =P). if you love listening to hitz.fm you would've known by now who this JFK person is (me, i only know John F. Kennedy, hahah i haven't been listening to the radio much). jovial person. you didn't have to say much, he's pretty good at keeping the conversation going, even when we're at a loss of words. heck, it's hard to not like him, even.

one of the few things he asked me was 'what star sign are you?' T__T. he's a Leo, same as Significant Other (Leos, they're really stubborn people hahahah).

we met Captain Andreas as well, his mentor. and so began the conversation of convincing Significant Other why he should or should not pursue his flying career in the first place. hahahah. speechless, he was. i guess the idea was pretty grand, but the actuality of it? still in grasping mode.

while waiting for the skies to clear, we signed some death warrants, answered a few life-and-death questions, got read out our rights, and then we're good to go.

the plane (Cessna kan?) was reaaalllly tiny i was suprised two adults could actually fit in the front seat (while i was squished at the back ahahahah).

at the SkyPark terminal

aaaand... off we go.

taking off

with JFK!

at one point JFK handed the controls to Significant Other ('you have control, wahahahahah') and i'm like, argh?

wegonnadiewegonnadiewegonnadiewegonnadiewegonnadiewegonnadie...

ok i'm exaggerating =P. fortunately nothing happened =P. Significant Other told me later once we were on the ground that he kinda freezed at one point T__T. well anyway while we were up there apart from enjoying the cloudy view JFK demo-ed the top gun spin for us (or was it the loop? i'm lost with all these flying jargons) where i felt like my stomach literally got left behind behind. he also showed us what the plane would do if he angled the plane at different degrees. hoo-boy, the aircraft sure felt like paper!

flying over KLCC

the one thing Significant Other was most amazed about JFK that day was he was able to multitask while maneuvering the plane over the skies of KL/Selangor: crap with us, handle the controls, crap with the ATC... =D pergh. i told him it's just like driving a car and he looked at me like i was crazy. not second nature meh? =P~

breathtaking view indeed. JFK calls it the city tour. took us about 30-40 minutes to round Selangor-KL and back again.

the view from above. cloudy to the max

and here we are back safely on the ground lolz.

camwhoring with the plane

with JFK

us!

right after his first flying experience, Significant Other started doubting his decision of pursuing a flying career, hahahahahah. but he went through with it anyway, and he's currently in HMA pursuing his CPLIR, and now doing his JAA Phase I having completed his PPL theory (as of 24/11/11). many more long months to go. fuuuh~~.

i don't know if JFK still personally does those city tours since he's reccently attached to Berjaya Air (i just love following his flying tweets) but if you're interested or have any inquiries, just email jfk@hitz.fm

ETA 24/11: since this is a delayed post, here's a clip in which JFK actually got gotcha'd by his team, lulz.