[flipper35]

Being a pilot and an airplane nut in general, my daughter and I like to do the full motion flight sims. From the simple ones like at WPAFB Museum (which incidentally uses the same combat sim we own) on up. The first time she went with me she was 6. I, being male, had to show off so I was flying low and inverted over San Diego in an F18 at m1.1 and when I pushed to gain some altitude I broke the plane. It was a violent, tumbling ballistic arc. After we got out two naval aviators shook her hand and asked if she was going to be a pilot, having survived that.

Fast forward 10 years and we are getting into an aerobatic sim with an Extra as the plane. The guy buttoning us in doesn't get the harness tight enough for her and she pulls on it. He tells her it doesn't have to be tat tight and she argues oh yes it does. They go back and forth a bit and she gives up. He is now telling me something about how the stick, rudder and throttle work and I look over at her pulling the straps tight without her help. I guess she still doesn't trust me. Anyway, he is saying full throttle, wait 7-10 seconds pull back gently yada, yada. I smile and thank him, he closes us up and off we go. Full throttle, speed in the green, a little time in ground effect and then a snap roll. My wife said the people watching all went "ooohhh" and grimaced. We did a bunch of aerobatics but couldn't get it to do a lomcovak.

At 18, she still tells people about when her dad broke the wing off the plane. I guess the other flights just weren't memorable enough!