Thursday Mike had what is called a "soft patch ceremony." We were so lucky to leave our kids home with my mom while we went. It's a very casual luncheon, but there are usually at least a couple inappropriate jokes told. We decided to let the kids skip it. They were more than happy to stay with Grandma anyhow.
Soft patch ceremony is when the nametag on your flight suit is replaced by a new nametag that has big gold wings on it. The instructor you were assigned to in your initial days of flying (your "on wing") tells a funny story about you. Mike's on wing told about how Mike got the nick name "Grandma" for being SO SLOW in getting his gear ready and to the flight line every day....Mike took it pretty well. The best part was that he said "oddly enough, with a name like Grandma, there is a volleyball tournament going on and Grandma here is our star player and needs to go." We got to leave after the second "soft patch" and go to his volleyball game. It was great. And, I have no pictures of the volleyball game but I will say Mike WAS the star player....he's really good.
1 comment:
Allow me to say a few words to my on-wing given callsign during my first 10 flights. It is true that I often took longer than usual to get my gear ready to go, especially when we were switching out in the cockpit (i.e. my fam partner was done training, getting out of the helicopter [while it's still spinning]and I would be getting in, setting it up the way I needed it to train) but that was only because I was so obsessed with not forgetting to do something and more importantly do the same thing everytime so as to create a habit pattern. That being said it did take me longer than the average student to do all this and the first time I did such a switch, the first thing my instructor said to me when I got my intercom set up was: "Are you sure you got everything you need grandma?" And so it stuck. I might add though, if I may, that I am now a very fast and efficient cockpit setter-upper...but something tells me I'll never be able to live that first callsign down...goodtimes.
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