The Adventures of
David
Elizabeth
and Leif

After waking up at 3:30 am to live the glamorous life of the airline pilot, the First Officer and I got an incredible view of the sunrise through the stormy cold-front skies.

It was pretty rainy when we got to Atlanta, but even in the rain, some things can be beautiful.

It’s my “leg” — I am going be at the controls this flight while my first officer backs me up on the radios and operates the systems. Usually we switch which pilot flies every other leg so we both get a chance to do what we really love.

A DC-10 lands, it’s wake vortices creating condensation.

After takeoff, we see the cold front moving out.

Tonto the “downwind” leg of the traffic pattern at our arrival airport.

Now we’re flying parallel to the landing runway. With two more turns, we’ll be on final approach.

Turning onto “base” leg of the traffic pattern.

Now we’re about 200 feet up on final approach.

“Over the numbers”

“Greasing” it on … it was an awesome landing!

I woke up semi-refreshed at 5:00 am on Sunday morning. After a shave and shower I put my uniform on. I realized it would be a long day when I discovered what I forgot the night before … My shoes. I would have to fly in a nice looking pilot uniform with my Nike Pegasus trail-runners on. Brilliant.

My flight attendants immediately burst out laughing when I saw them in the lobby. “This is going to be a really long day…”

We got into our beautiful/ugly ATR-72 (it’s french …) and headed off to Atlanta.

The flight back to Atlanta was uneventful as usual. We didn’t have to swap planes, so I gave my First Officer some $$ and he brought some breakfast to me on the plane. Then we flew down to Eglin AFB in Valpariso, FL, AKA Ft. Walton Beach. Another easy, albeit bumpy flight.

We got to watch some cool planes takeoff and land up close.

On the way back to ATL, I was thinking that as long as Scheduling didn’t try to get ahold of me and make me work later into the afternoon, I would be fine. Unfortunately, as we were getting ready to park in Atlanta, our company called us on the radio. “Captain Call Scheduling!” Great. Now I’m going to have to embarrass myself by flying with another crew. I couldn’t even think of any good stories about why I had sneakers instead of black pilot shoes. (I got mugged in Macon? Terrorists wanted to stop the flight so they stole my shoes?)

I’ve been studying the classical spiritual disciplines for the last several months after my Dad gave me Dallas Willard’s The Spirit of the Disciplines. One of the classical disciplines is submission. I’ve been realizing that an aspect of submission is to submit to the circumstances that God allows in my life. Normally, when I get the dreaded “Call Scheduling” instructions on the radio, I get frustrated (ok, ANGRY) since I know they’re going to make me work when I was expecting to be home. This is even more true when I’m really tired. But I felt like the Lord provided for me to practice submission. A Presbyterian should be really good at this … basically I had to remind my rising emotions that the Lord is still good, that he loves me and that he is in control of my circumstances. While I might have been dumb in forgetting my shoes, he would still take care of me. I could even embarrass myself with another crew and He would still be God.

The amazing thing is that my emotions listened and calmed down. After I cooled off a little bit by actually believing God is who he says he is, I started trying to call scheduling. My cell phone battery was dying and they kept putting me on hold. We had arrived 25 minutes early into ATL, and I began to discover a solution for my shoes problem.

The company “officially recognizes” our need for nutrition, so I decided to go home and back (about a 45 minute round trip if you count the bus to and from the parking lot), grab my shoes, and get a really quick drive-through. After all, they must not need me that bad if they keep putting me on hold! Thank God for another great solution for my tired brain and silly looking body!

When I was on the interstate headed home, I finally got through to scheduling. They needed me because they “lost” a captain. I guess he went for a lunch break and nobody could find him. He turned up just before I called, so I was off the hook! Amazing!

I arrived to a lovely house…

and a tired wife.

It’s been a long weekend with many trips to the airport between performances.

Elizabeth had to go get ready to perform, so I left the back door open. Apparrently, Lucy the cat decided to go for an “adventure” out on the deck. The dogs found her. Normally they get along better than dogs and cats usually do, but when Lucy got cornered, they couldn’t resist barking at her.

It was funny. Sam got her nose caught in the spokes of the bike and even bled a bit before I rescued Lucy. (No, Mark, I didn’t feed her to the dogs!)

I finally got to go to the Nerve Series performance. A lot of good friends were there.

Rebecca (below) grew up in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. You don’t meet many of those around…!

We all went out to Carol Street Cafe for a great dinner. When we came home, Sam didn’t greet us like she normally does. In fact, she acted like we were totally yelling at her.

That was for a good reason.

Sam had gotten two poopy diapers out of the upstairs bathroom trashcan and shredded them on the carpet in the hall. BAD SAM! BAD!!!!

We both finally were able to collapse after a long … and nervous weekend!

This weekend was the Nerve Series performance. We also had the McCunes and Judith (Elizabeth’s sister) and Aiden Kunst visiting. Of course, Aiden is great at stealing the show, especially with the grandparents!

I was on a trip where I flew to Macon, GA on Friday night, had nothing to do but sit in the hotel all day Saturday, then was supposed to fly from Macon to Atlanta and a couple other flights before getting off work at about noon on Sunday. Rather than sit around a hotel in Macon all day Saturday, I did what any sensible regional airline pilot would do … I rented a car and came home.

I arrived home in what looked like a slumber party — the McCunes were all in their PJ’s and hanging out in my study / Judith’s bedroom having a usual McCune post-performance “debrief.” I didn’t want to have the show spoiled, so Glen and I snuck off to sip some good scotch before everyone collapsed around 12:30 am.

Without the benefit of staying up late, Aiden was ready to go early in the morning. We all packed into the rental car I had and went to the Radial Cafe for breakfast. Aiden, of course, wanted a table for one.

After tasting the outside of a sugar packet,

he couldn’t handle the disgust, so he joined the grownups. (I use that term loosely).

The grownups were having a pretty typical McCune-versation!

Aiden got tired.

So we left.

That night, when Elizabeth went to her show, I packed up and headed for Macon. I was tired. I kept thinking I was forgetting something and I came back into the house from the car 4 times to look for whatever it was that I was forgetting. Finally I saw my hat and figured that was what I forgot. I grabbed it and jumped in the car for the 90 minute drive to Macon.

As I was getting ready for bed at 8:30 pm or so (did I mention I was tired? I also had a 5:00 wake-up call on Sunday), I was still thinking… “I know I forgot something! I bet I forgot black socks! Won’t that be funny, walking around in my black pilot uniform with white socks! At least it won’t be obvious unless I sit down somewhere…”

I checked, but I did have socks. I had underwear, a t-shirt, my uniform shirt and pants, my shaving kit. “I guess I’m just paranoid…” I thought and went to bed.

But I did forget something…

Today, we (Peter, Elizabeth and David) got up semi-early for a Sunday, enjoyed a breakfast out, went to church and took naps.

Peter needed some “publicity” photographs, so we took some.

Then we cleaned frenetically because Judith, Elizabeth’s sister, and her one-year-old needed a place to stay. They were travelling through the Atlanta airport on a buddy-pass and the flights to Long Island were full. Aiden had a rough day travelling, but he really enjoyed seeing the Doggies and Aunt Ellie.

After a long day, Aiden crashed, and so did Ellie, Peter and Uncle David.