Belle
Member
They say the hardest part is admitting it, so here goes: Hello, my name is Belle, and I am an enabler. My husband, Jake, is an aviation addict (he prefers the term “enthusiast”) and for the past 12 years or so he has indulged in his addiction in many ways. It started with a few harmless magazines and the occasional book but these were all just gateway paraphernalia. Next came impulse trips to some local grass strip and lunches at a variety of small town airports.
After a couple years, this progressed into our first all-nighter with other addicts at a party quaintly dubbed a “fly-in”. You’d think that at 8 months pregnant I would have tried to reason with my husband…I mean, what was next, scrounging pennies to support an ACTUAL PROJECT!!! :shock:
Well, at this point life for us changed dramatically with the birth of our son and then our daughter 2 ½ years later. With all the demands of us both being active duty soldiers and raising 2 children, there was no time, energy, or money for my husband’s habit. So I had thought he had overcome his addiction out of sheer necessity. I was wrong.
Jake had simply came up with a new way to partake of his drug-of-choice (a.k.a. aviation). It was in the form of this website he wanted to develop called homebuiltairplanes.com. With this website he could be connected to others who shared his obsession. To me it looked like a great way to blend his need for his addiction with my need not to go off the deep end. (Honestly, who REALLY builds an airplane in their garage?! What would the neighbors think?!)
I should have known though, as with any drug, the more you get the more you want. So it was back to pulling all-nighters at fly-ins—yes with the children now. I am sure that stronger wives would have staged an intervention at this point. They would have called in experts, sent their husbands to rehab, chained them to a chair until all DT’s had passed. But I am not that strong. Nope, I was packing coolers, tents, and diaper bags for weekend forays into the deep world of aviation – managing naptime, snack time, and diaper changes amid a schedule of air shows, vendor browsing, and hangar flying with other addicts who had actually COMPLETED projects.
And then it happened. My son, at the ripe old age of 4, wanted to go to the local airport and watch airplanes. At fly-ins he enjoyed sitting as close to the flight line as possible to watch for the moment an airplane broke contact with the Earth and became air born. He anticipated each aircrafts’ landing, trying to identify the exact second it touched the runway and determine if it were “smooth” or “rough”. He would use his old R/C car’s remote control and pretend he was flying the airplanes from his seat. He was HOOKED!
Seeing the joy in my son’s face and knowing the hunger in my husband’s heart, I was hooked too. Not on aviation but on helping my husband, and maybe some day my son, achieve his dream of building and flying his own airplane.
Like I mentioned in the beginning, this has been a process that has taken well over a decade. During this time, Jake and I have changed careers twice and moved cross country about 4 times. Our son is now 10 and our daughter is 8, homebuiltairplanes.com (or HBA as we call it) has become a great resource for aviation addicts…uh.. I mean, enthusiast, and we have a partially completed Zenith CH-801 rudder in our garage. As for the neighbors, they think it pretty cool…and a little crazy.
Well, that is my aviation experience and aspirations in a nut shell. If there are any other “enablers” out there who would like to get connected—maybe start our own support group--feel free to reply. You addicts may reply as well…I am used to the insanity of it all. :grin:
Belle
After a couple years, this progressed into our first all-nighter with other addicts at a party quaintly dubbed a “fly-in”. You’d think that at 8 months pregnant I would have tried to reason with my husband…I mean, what was next, scrounging pennies to support an ACTUAL PROJECT!!! :shock:
Well, at this point life for us changed dramatically with the birth of our son and then our daughter 2 ½ years later. With all the demands of us both being active duty soldiers and raising 2 children, there was no time, energy, or money for my husband’s habit. So I had thought he had overcome his addiction out of sheer necessity. I was wrong.
Jake had simply came up with a new way to partake of his drug-of-choice (a.k.a. aviation). It was in the form of this website he wanted to develop called homebuiltairplanes.com. With this website he could be connected to others who shared his obsession. To me it looked like a great way to blend his need for his addiction with my need not to go off the deep end. (Honestly, who REALLY builds an airplane in their garage?! What would the neighbors think?!)
I should have known though, as with any drug, the more you get the more you want. So it was back to pulling all-nighters at fly-ins—yes with the children now. I am sure that stronger wives would have staged an intervention at this point. They would have called in experts, sent their husbands to rehab, chained them to a chair until all DT’s had passed. But I am not that strong. Nope, I was packing coolers, tents, and diaper bags for weekend forays into the deep world of aviation – managing naptime, snack time, and diaper changes amid a schedule of air shows, vendor browsing, and hangar flying with other addicts who had actually COMPLETED projects.
And then it happened. My son, at the ripe old age of 4, wanted to go to the local airport and watch airplanes. At fly-ins he enjoyed sitting as close to the flight line as possible to watch for the moment an airplane broke contact with the Earth and became air born. He anticipated each aircrafts’ landing, trying to identify the exact second it touched the runway and determine if it were “smooth” or “rough”. He would use his old R/C car’s remote control and pretend he was flying the airplanes from his seat. He was HOOKED!
Seeing the joy in my son’s face and knowing the hunger in my husband’s heart, I was hooked too. Not on aviation but on helping my husband, and maybe some day my son, achieve his dream of building and flying his own airplane.
Like I mentioned in the beginning, this has been a process that has taken well over a decade. During this time, Jake and I have changed careers twice and moved cross country about 4 times. Our son is now 10 and our daughter is 8, homebuiltairplanes.com (or HBA as we call it) has become a great resource for aviation addicts…uh.. I mean, enthusiast, and we have a partially completed Zenith CH-801 rudder in our garage. As for the neighbors, they think it pretty cool…and a little crazy.
Well, that is my aviation experience and aspirations in a nut shell. If there are any other “enablers” out there who would like to get connected—maybe start our own support group--feel free to reply. You addicts may reply as well…I am used to the insanity of it all. :grin:
Belle
Last edited:
