Nick's First Helo "Solo"

Today Nick completed his first solo in the helo.  Although, this "solo" varies from his last solo.  If you remember that in Primary training, during Nick's solo, he flew the T-6 without an instructor.  Just his lonesome in the plane.
But in the helo, there must be two people at the controls at all time.  So this "solo" is actually Nick and another student (Dallas, his partner throughout the past few weeks....pretty much his mistress.  The one he spends all day and night with), without an instructor.  Thus the helo solos have been nicknamed brolos....flying with a "brother".  {Such clever aviators, huh???}
Essentially, one student flys from NAS Whiting Field to an outlying field and switch positions (which is more complicated than just switching seats because someone must be at both controls AT ALL TIMES) and then the other student flies back to NAS Whiting Field.

The coolest part of it all was Nick texting me giving me notice that he'd be flying over our house!!!  The main street that they fly along, runs alongside our neighborhood is part of their "course rules", which means this is the route they take back to base when flying VFR (Visual Flight Rules).  So of course I headed outside and waited for them to fly over the edge of the neighborhood.  I always see helos flying over and of course, hearing aircraft overhead is just a typical noise in my life.  But today I was thankful that they're always flying over because I got to see my husband flying over my very own house.  It was pretty awesome!  Sadly, all I had on hand was my crappy iPhone camera (which isn't crappy for normal photos, but for photos that you'd like to zoom, it sucks.)  No judging this photo, it's iPhone 4S quality =/  Maybe one day I'll get better ones of him flying over.

Of course after landing, per my request (and my Grandmother's), I got some photos of the guys and their helo =)

Just another milestone in Nick's career and I couldn't be more proud of him.  I'm so happy I'm able to share in these exciting milestones and I'm even more happy that my husband has a career that he absolutely loves...and might even be safe to say he's obsessed with.  Not many people can say that!!!

Now that he's soloed, I get asked quite frequently, "so does this mean he's almost done?"  No, it doesn't.  In the grand scheme of things, he doesn't have that much more to go (compared to how long Primary took) but, as of now, his winging date is August 23rd.  By the time he wings, we will have orders to our new duty station and be moving shortly after.  This is just a tentative date seeing as it's all subject to change due to weather and other factors.  But that's the date we have now so that's the end goal!!! Of course, I'll try to update on Nick's training more often than I did in Primary....try being that key word.  Sometimes, it's just pointless because my update is "Nick flew today.  He still loves it.  He's on track to wing in August."  Not too exciting lol

If you liked to check out a few more photos from his solo, click HERE.


EDIT:  I received this in the mail.  I'm such a proud wife and happy they think about us for these milestones.