flygirl

Well DH has now graduated from college.  He is working as an hourly flight instructor.  It is a pretty decent gig, since he will actually be eligible for benefits.  Of course he spends far more time at the airport than he is getting paid for, but that is no suprise to anyone who has been through this stage.  I resigned from my job in central Illinois to move with him.  I am currently teaching Summer School to save some money while I continue my job search.

We made it through….actually this was our best holiday yet to be honest.  DH worked with the industry for the last few years, and has not been able to get much time off for the holidays, if any.  So, as any aviaiton wife would, I attended my family’s Christmas and his family’s Christmas.  Often with questions about where he was.  This year we both managed to have a week off.  I’m sure this is the last time we will have that in quite some time, so we made the best of it.  WE ended up celebrating three times (DH’s parents are divorced.)  We were able to spend time with his sister, see friends, and I spent time with my baby niece.  

Now we are back to the real world.  As this is going to be DH’s last semester at school, he has to start preparing for the “real world”.  We have to get his log book caught up.  His official book is a semester behind, but he has all of the hours recorded.  Get letters of recommendation.  Work on the resume, etc.  We’re hoping he will have students here for the Spring, and then everything is up in the air.  So while he is doing that, I am starting the same process.  Who knoes where he will be next year, so I need to have all of my stuff in order to start the interviewing process all over.  We’ll see how this works, since he has no idea where he will be.

As my husband is not currently working full-time instructing, and does not have any income coming in again until January, he works on occaision for a delivery service. ( When an airline loses your bag they pay someone to take it to your home.) Well in lovely central IL these deliveries can be pretty spread out.  So after I got home from school and practice, I rode along with him.  He started working at 8:30am, and I went in to sleep at 10pm.  Needless to say with the holiday season in full swing, there were many bags to deliver.  I woke up at 3am, and noticed he still wasn’t home…so I called.  He was in some town in the middle of nowhere (there seems to be a lot of those around here) and would be back in under an hour. 

Just before 4am I woke up to a phone call.  He had returned the delivery vehicle, but had a flat on our car.  So in the freezing cold he had to change a tire.  The income that we thought we would be making that day will most certainly go towards the purchase of a new tire.  We’ll see whats left after that. 

The best place to start would be at the beginning, so here goes.  I am married to a CFII who currently instructs part time at the University of Illinois (Go Illini!!  It’s basketball season so it is safe to be a fan.).  He is finishing his degree in Aviaition Human Factors.  The way they organize part time CFI’s here is interesting, to say the least.  They pretty much make it a secret until the day before the semester starts.  Then they invite all who applied to an instructor meeting where you find out if you have students or not.  He has just completed his students for the Fall, and won’t know until late January if he has students for the Spring or not.  So now for the waiting, to see if he will be providing income next semester or not.

One thing that I have learned being a pilot wife (and girlfirend, and fiance, etc.  We’ve been together since he got his Private in 00.) is that one must be flexible.

It is impossible to make plans in advance, because if the weather was bad that week and you are going to have a nice weekend, the probability is that he will need to be at the airport.  When we looked for places to live we specifically found one that I would be able to afford on my salary, so if he had a bad week we would still have a place to live. 

It is important to budget.  Food, rent, power, car insurance, etc are the priorities.  Then if you have a chance you can splurge…but it doesn’t happen all that often. And you can be happy without all of the things that you thought you needed. 

Finally, Enjoy the small things.  Watching a movie together and eating popcorn can be just as nice as going to the movies, if not more so…and it is far more affordable then tickets, drinks, and snacks.