How the other half live

Ever just happened to be at the right place at the right time? It doesn't happen to me often, but on Tuesday, it did!

We were out close to the airport waiting to meet someone and decided to kill some time watching the planes take off and land. That has become one of our favorite "free" pass times.

This man happens to walk by as Trace was smashing his little face between the fence trying to see the planes. The man sees him, smiles (as if he's seen this sight many times before) and asks if we would like to see the inside of an airplane! It took all of 2.2 nannoseconds for Jimmy and I to scream "YES" and off we went through the remote controlled gate, into the private hangar... fancy!

Of course we had no camera so we just took a few shots on Jimmy's phone.

First, we climbed aboard the lear jet.
And Trace got to be the pilot.
I was a nervous wreck, afraid he would start pushing buttons and later on that evening I would hear on the news that a lear jet had gone down during takeoff at Lovell Field... but he was very good and kept his hands to himself.

We also got to board the prop plane and nose around, not too shabby!
Turns out both of these planes are privately owned by Henry Luken, and Kevin (the very nice man that let us climb aboard) is his personal pilot. If you don't know who Luken is, you may remember his yacht, Liquidity, parked down at Ross's Landing a few years ago, that's worth millions.

We thanked Kevin profusely and told him how impressed we were that he would take time out of his busy day to treat a little guy to such a treat, one he'll never forget.

He said that as a kid himself, he stood at a fence for hours watching planes take off and land, just like Trace was doing, praying that someone would come along and offer him that same opportunity. Now that he's a pilot, he wants to do that for other children. Wish there were more people in the world like him!

Thanks Kevin!!