Dryden Social - the anticipation

I'm sure everyone has had a 'thing' for airplanes at some point in their lives. Maybe it comes on at an early age, and then fades away as career choices, and dating invade. Maybe it is sparked later in life, as some new fascination that makes you feel alive, and flying is the best sensation you know. For me, it's not the flying, the action or thought of flight or even the sensation of flight -- it's the planes. And it always has been.

I've been flying a handful of times in my life, and believe it or not, I've been in more private planes (single-engine prop planes) than I have commercial planes. I was taken flying when I was a kid. One of my Dad's friends had his pilot's license, and took myself and my Brother along with my Dad. Not long ago, my Brother got his license, and I've gone with him a number of times. Only place I've flown commercially was LAX to Seattle and back. But for as long as I can remember, if I saw something in the sky, I could sit and marvel at it all day long. The curtains in my childhood room were airplanes. The Shuttle was a fascination when I was a kid - from STS-1 to STS-135. Plastic models, paper airplanes, balsa and tissue planes, planes made out of clay, cut out of pencil erasers in class, planes made out of LEGO, flight simulator video games - all planes. Little else has come along that evokes such a reaction in me.

No surprise then, that I've known about Edwards AFB for most of my life. I've flown into it, and took off from it in thousands of flight simulator excursions in hundreds of different aircraft. I even drove up there once, thinking they might let me in if I just wanted to see the Shuttle that was there after returning from space (not bloody likely). I have pored over Google maps to see what aircraft they have sitting around. And then I go research those that I don't know by sight. Some of the stranger ones fascinate me, like the F-16XL, and the High Maneuverability F-15 with the strange canards in front. The X-29 with its forward swept wings and canards. And some just baffle me, like the oblique winged AD-1. Just the fact that the M2-F1 flew, to me, is awesome! (Of course, if you apply enough speed to anything, it will fly).
Friday May 4th will bring to me an opportunity that I have been secretly waiting for all of my life: I get to go to Edwards AFB.

Dryden Flight Research Center has invited me, and 49 other Tweeps, Facebookians, and Google Plussers to come and see what they are doing, and who is doing it. On top of *that*, we get to see... aircraft. Though all of my life, I have had the fascination with the aircraft, I have been learning over the last couple of years that it's not the aircraft that make the accomplishments, it's the people. So I am warming to the idea that it may be cooler to meet the people that make it happen than to just see the aircraft. I really am excited to see just what they have in store for us up there. There has been a lot of talk, and all of it is exciting, and I can not wait! They've even threatened that we might even get a chance to feel/hear a sonic boom, which for some is an annoyance, but for me is... a thrill!

Additionally, with the selection announcements, came a wave of invitees wanting to hook up and organize carpools, hotels, dinner, patches, stickers, t-shirts, and generally share thoughts and experiences. We've all gathered in a facebook group, and have been having a great time just with the introductions, and back-end of planning and preparing for the event. It's a great group of people, and I can't wait to meet them all. I'm sure that there will be fun and friends long after this event is over, and I hope that the connections that we make through this event last a long time.

Because I'll probably forget later in the midst of piddling myself, I want to thank NASA, and the people of the Dryden Flight Research Center for making this possible, and for inviting me. I know the event hasn't happened yet, but this is going to be by far, one of the coolest things that I have ever done.