pilot wife life – The Creative Pilot Wife

St. Maarten: Where my pilot wanted to honeymoon

When Austin and I first started talking about where we wanted to go for our honeymoon I rolled my eyes when the idea of going to St. Maarten came up. Maho Beach just seemed like the stereotypical pilot destination choice. Growing up I was never one to vacation on a beach because I lived about 10 minutes from one. I agreed to go because I knew it would be fun for Austin to see Maho Beach and I always heard beach vacations were relaxing. When we got there I wasn’t sure at first because there were areas that we had to drive past that were “not so nice” (to put it nicely). Once we got to Maho Beach and got see the beautiful clear water and I got to see the look on my husband’s face as the planes came in, I changed my mind. We had so much fun, we went 2 different times on that trip. We went one day when it was all smaller aircraft coming in (the less busy day when we had the beach to ourselves) and the day when the big aircraft were coming in (the day the beach was filled and we spent more time at the restaurant next to the beach but still had a great view). Overall I am glad we did it even if it was a stereotypical pilot vacation destination, we still had an amazing time and I am sure we will be going back.

April 14, 2019April 12, 2019 by Nikki Wright Categories: travelTags: honeymoon destination, pilot honeymoon, pilot vacation, pilot wife life 1 Comment

A pilot on “vacation”

My husband and I both love to travel so for my birthday I requested that we take a vacation to Rome, Italy for a week. When we started our trip I realized that a normal person’s vacation was not the same for a pilot. He is in airports and hotels all the time for work. As we were walking through the airport I could see the look on his face, he did not look excited or relaxed, he looked like he was working. At first this was something I was offended by, I planned this trip so we could relax and have a good time together, not realizing how my husband viewed travel now that he did it for his career. Once we got to Rome I asked him why this was so hard for him. We talked about how he is away from home so much for work that it is hard for him to be away from home for vacation. He also let me know that he was happy to be there with me to celebrate my birthday but that if it were his birthday he would choose to stay home. After that talk we both made the best of our time together. We got to eat some of the best food and see amazing sights. Communication was key in this situation and it helped me understand how he prefers to spend his downtime.

April 7, 2019March 28, 2019 by Nikki Wright Categories: travel, UncategorizedTags: aviation life, pilot wife life, travel, vacation Leave a comment

1st time non-reving with my toddler alone

My daughter and I were going up to Upstate New York for a family reunion. We got to the Charlotte airport at 7am and we didn’t realize that the day before they canceled a flight (and as I type this I can hear all the pilot’s wives sigh). There are 3 airports within a 2 hour drive of where we were going. I rolled my daughter’s stroller from gate to gate trying to see if any flight had any open seats (I only needed 1! My daughter was 1 year old so still a lap child). As you can imagine my daughter was fighting a nap so hard in that busy airport with so many things and people to keep her distracted. I could not tell you the number of different gates we went to or the number of different flights we tried to make but we stayed in that airport all day. Finally at 4:30pm there was 1 open seat left on a flight to an airport a 2 hour drive away from the town we were trying to get to. As we were sitting at the gate about to board my daughter falls asleep for her nap.

March 24, 2019March 21, 2019 by Nikki Wright Categories: UncategorizedTags: non-rev, non-rev travel, non-rev with a toddler, pilot wife life, travel with a toddler Leave a comment

Aviation Themed Home Decor

Even though my husband is a pilot and he sees airplanes all the time we do have a few aviation/travel themed decor items in our house. We both love to travel and we love the aesthetic look of airplanes. Here are just a few from around our house that may interest you. If you know of any other items that may look good please let me know in the comments!