Test Pilot School Graduation

After 11 months of intense schooling, a rigorous flight schedule, many reports, one trip out west, one trip to England, one huge DT2 project, many sleepless nights and more stress that I ever realized was possible...it is official...Larry is a graduate of the United States Naval Test Pilot School.

Tonight was the graduation ceremony and Larry received his diploma!

Graduation was held at the Daughtery Center in Lexington Park, Maryland. The Graduate was escorted by both his dad and I. He had pretty good dates, if I do say so myself! There was a cocktail hour when we first arrived and we were served champagne by the instructors. After the cocktail hour, we were served dinner (both Larry's had steak and I had a chicken dish). Once dinner was over, we listened to the guest speaker, Mike Coats, tell us about his NASA and TPS experiences. Finally, the students of Class 136 were called up individually and handed their diplomas. It was a proud moment for both the student and their families! A very sweet moment in the evening is when the students presented their spouses with a rose (bottle of wine for the two gentleman spouses) and a "Certificate of Appreciation". It was nice to be reminded that not only were we celebrating the students, but we were also celebrating the people in their lives that made this past year happen! We ended the evening socializing with the other students and families.

At the end of the evening, we said our "good-byes" to many of the other students. It was a bittersweet moment. As excited as I am to be getting back home to Alabama, I am very sad to be leaving some of the people we have met. I think because TPS is such an intense situation, they students all grew a close bond. I know that regardless of where we go, we have made friends for life through this experience.

I am so excited for Larry and this accomplishment. It has been stressful, but he had such determination and drive to succeed. Proud doesn't even begin to describe how I feel about the situation. He amazes me on a daily basis with his intellect, his perserverance, his dedication and his success. He strives to be and do the best and often isn't satisfied with just "okay"! I was honored tonight to stand by his side!

Here are a few pictures from the evening...we hope you enjoy them!

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Here are a few pictures from our cell phones:

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Bye-Bye TPS

Today, Larry had the opportunity to take us to TPS one last time. Larry, Jr., Sheena, Alex and I went with him and we were able to get quite a few good pictures.

Each class leaves the School a gift. This year, the students decided upon a "kiddie" airplane ride. The airplane was painted to match the planes at TPS and all of the students signed the top of it. When you pushed the button to make it go, it played the theme from "Top Gun"! It turned out amazing and Alex LOVED it! The best part about it...it is free! I wish they would have put it in sooner, Alex and I could have spent many afternoons there :)

Also, Alex was able to try on a real helment and really liked it! He kept telling us "my hat"!

Here is are a few pictures from our last tour at TPS! Oddly enough, I am really going to miss the place.

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Larry's Last TPS Flight

Today was Larry's last flight as a TPS student. He flew in an S-55T. He took a few pictures inside and out of the helicopter, so I thought I would share them with you all. He enjoyed the flight and told me tonight that this is the helicopter that they modeled "Harold the helicopter" on Thomas off of! Kind of a cool little tidbit of information and something that Alex will definitely appreciate in the years to come :)

Here are the pictures:

Inside the cockpit: Full picture of the helicopter - pretty neat looking:

Larry and the pilot:

TPS and the Park

During Jenny, Kyle and Katelyn's visit to Maryland, we took them back to TPS. Larry discovered that the helicopter on display outside of the school opened up and we thought it would be a great picture opportunity for the boys (and Katelyn). Plus, Kyle had been asking to go back to the place where Larry worked with all the jets and planes!

Here are a few pictures at TPS:

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After our visit to TPS, we decided to take the kids to our favorite park (well, actually it is a school playground, but whatever). Kyle absolutely loved it! He thanked me several times for bringing him there - it is so sweet to hear him say that!

Here are a few pictures from our trip to the park:

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Larry is Home!

After a long, 10-day TPS sponsored field trip, Larry is back in Maryland. His adventures took him to Mesa, Arizona, Las Vegas, Nevada, San Jose, California and Anaheim, California. He was able to fly in an MD-902 (Explorer) helicopter in Arizona, in an Albatross SeaPlane in Nevada, and OH-58C (Kiowa) helicopter in San Jose. In Anaheim, they sat in on the SETP (Society of Experimental Test Pilots) Conference for two days, learning valuable information!

Don't worry, along with all the work that they did, they were able to squeeze in a little fun. While in Arizona, they went to a dueling piano bar and had a great time. In Las Vegas, they enjoyed the nightlife, bars and bands. And finally for sitting in on the conference, all of the students got one free ticket to California Adventures and took advantage of it on Friday evening. They rode the roller coaster several times at California Adventures and rode the Tower of Terror.

While Larry was away, we really missed him...and I think he might have missed us too! We are happy that he had a fun and successful trip :)

Here is a slideshow of pictures from Larry's trip:

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TPS Tour & Park Time

Larry is able to take any of our visitors on a tour of TPS. He is able to show you the school and the hangars – you are able to look at the jets and helicopters up close and personal. It is really neat because you are able to see where Larry is spending most of his time while we are up here. If you are planning a visit to see us and you want to see Larry’s school, please let us know!

That totally just sounded like an advertisement for TPS or something…didn’t it?!

Back to the point of all that – when Jenny, Keith, Kyle and Katelyn were visiting us, Larry scheduled a tour of his school for them today! Kyle was SO excited to see the helicopters and jets. Larry first showed them the actual building that he goes to school in (not really much to see, but afterwards you know where Larry is spending MANY hours a day)! Once we got done with that, we were able to tour the hangars. We were able to see the jets and helicopters that TPS uses – Kyle was in amazement the whole time that we were in the hangars! After looking around the hangars, we were able to go in one of the jets outside of the hangars. It was huge plane that I will have to get the name of from Larry. The boys loved looking around in it!

After the tour of TPS, we went to a really nice park on base. We let the kids run around and run off some of their energy. Alex loved the time at the park – going UP slides, climbing on everything, swinging in the swings and falling face first in the dirt. For some reason he decided to go down the slide on his belly and when got to the end and was stopped he propelled himself onto the ground! He was fine, just a little dirty. Larry eventually got a football out of his car and the little guys had a great time running after it and “tackling” each other. Since Jenny and I have been friends for so long, I love seeing our boys run around with each other – it is something we always talked about growing up and so nice to see it happen in reality!

Here are some pictures from the TPS tour and our time at the park:

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BIG NEWS!!!

We have big news…and no, I am not pregnant! We are moving!

I am so proud to announce that Larry has been accepted to attend the Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland ( Naval Test Pilot School). As part of the process, he will be sworn in as an Army civilian engineer on January 5, 2009 and we will be reporting up to Maryland around January 12, 2009. He will be involved in a rigorous academic schedule until the 2nd weekend in December – 11 months of intense classes. He was selected by a board of previous Test Pilot School graduates at his work and was told of his acceptance on December 11, 2008. Not too much time to plan!

Alex and I will be joining Larry in Maryland. He will be extremely busy with school, but the downtime that he does have, we want to be able to be with him and spend time with him. I will be holding down everything on the homefront to allow Larry the chance to focus primarily on his school work. Last week, we (Larry, Alex and I) went to Maryland to find a house to live in for the next year. Luckily, we found a very nice rental townhome. We are renting from a great couple – the husband just graduated from Test Pilot School two weeks ago! The townhome is 3 floors and 3 bedrooms/2 full baths/2 half baths, it has a cute little fenced in yard for the dogs and a deck out back. It is right near a Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy and Old Navy and is only about 10 minutes from where Larry will be going to school. We are moving to a town called California, Maryland!

This is such a great opportunity for Larry and I am so proud of him! Larry will be in TPS class 136, his class will have roughly 30 pilots and 3 engineers. After finishing this course, he will be a few classes short of his masters (something that I have wanted him to get for quite some time)! At Larry’s work Christmas party this past Friday night (December 19), his boss was telling me about TPS. He mentioned that when Larry walks into the building that classes are held, he will notice a bunch of plaques on the wall. On those plaques are the names of previous TPS graduates – some of those names include Neil Armstrong and Alan Sheppard (among several other historical figures). In December, after graduation, Larry’s name will be among some of the most influential people in Aerospace history! I can’t even begin to tell you how proud of I am of him and all that he has accomplished and continues to accomplish in his short professional career!

It will be a big change for our family – a big move and getting used to a new town, but we are doing it with open minds and eager hearts! I think this opportunity will be what we make of it and I see nothing but great things that will come out of it!

We welcome any visitors in Maryland this next year! Larry will be super busy with school work and won’t have much time to spend with anyone, but Alex and I will be excited to have visitors! We are about 1 hour and 15 minutes from Washington, DC (I can’t wait to see the Cherry Blossoms in the springtime), about 1 hour and 30 minutes from Baltimore and only a 2 hour train ride from Baltimore to NYC! Alex and I will be taking advantage of the great sights up there and can’t wait to show them to anyone that comes to visit!

Wish us luck and keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we prepare for this next big adventure in our lives!