A/N: It's been a while, I know. I haven't made a whole lot of progress on the Penny Investigations story, but I have been working on it, as well as another story. However, this story, which has been flying (see what I did there?) around my brain for a long time and is finally finished. It's only the second story in my alt-meet series, and like the first one, it's a one-shot focused on how our favorite couple meets.

No beta, so you can all just blame me for all that is wrong.

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the show; I'm just playing in their sandbox.


I don't like this at all. I'm not a big fan of flying to begin with. Having to get on a small airplane has me terrified. I know the scientific principle behind both types of aircraft is the same, but knowing that doesn't help whatsoever.

I understand why the airline personnel are on strike; they have that right. Just my luck that every other flight toward Nebraska with different companies are booked solid for next couple of days. President Siebert still needs me to do the presentations and asked the help of his friend.

I don't care his assurance his friend employs a good pilot; that's not even what worries me most. It's the smaller plane. And having to spent quite a few hours in close contact with someone who's more than likely a confident and tall man. The type of guy who would laugh at a scared, short nerd like me.

Of course, I have to do my job, so here I am, pulling up to one of the hangars near Van Nuys. I like that the plane I see standing between the rows of hangars has two propellers. Two is better than one. After all, if one engine fails, there is still the other one.

I get out of my car and grab my bag from the trunk. When I turn around, a blond woman just stepped from behind the far side of the plane, and immediately spots me. She smiles as we move closer to one another.

"Are you my passenger?"

I nod at her question and only then realize I'm not going to have to spend a long time in the presence of a confident tall man. I'm not quite sure if spending time with a beautiful female pilot is going to be better.

"Hi, I'm Penny," the blond introduces herself, still with a smile, her hand stretched out before her.

It takes me a second to shake her hand in greeting. "Um, Leonard."

"Nice to meet you, Leonard," Penny says, then seems to notice my car. "You better park your car inside the hangar," she says, pointing toward said building.

I turn in that direction and notice a red Volkswagen that has clearly seen better days already parked inside. I assume it's her car. I nod and put my bag on the ground. "Yeah, that might be a good idea."

A couple of minutes later I watch Penny close the hangar's large door as I await outside. Moments later, Penny steps out of the hangar through the smaller door embedded in the large one, locking it behind her.

"Ready to go?"

Her question is accompanied by the same wonderful smile, that I have witnessed four times now. I nod my answer and say, "yeah, good to go." I tried to sound cheerful, but I know I failed.

"Nervous about flying?"

I think a second about denying it, but decide that would be foolish. The truth is likely to come out sooner rather than later. "A little," I respond, then feel the need to elaborate my nerves have nothing to do with her. "I've never really liked flying on the large passenger planes. Having to fly in a small plane makes it much worse."

She nods her understanding, her brow slightly furrowed.

"And I know the scientific principle is the same, and I'm sure you make sure the plane is in great condition," I continue, feeling I have not managed to assure her it's not her or her plane.

"Do you get airsick?"

"I haven't before," I reply.

Penny nods. "Okay. I'll try to help you get through this."


# # #


I watch in silence as Penny goes over the final checklist, naming each item out loud, checking the instruments before announcing the item completed. I realize this is what happens with all flights, even the commercial ones, but this is the first time I get to witness the process.

I now understand why flying is considered one of the safest modes of transportation. At the same time, I am really glad we don't have to perform such elaborate checks to drive a car. Obviously there's quite a difference in consequence when a car malfunctions and when a plane malfunctions.

"Door secure," Penny reads the next item on the list. She immediately leans over to my side to close the door and make sure it is in fact properly closed. My eyes, however, are not at all focused on her hands, or even her face. No, I'm ashamed to find them focusing on the view down her top. Before she completes her check, I manage to redirect my gaze forward, out the window.

"Check," Penny says, moving back to sit straight. "Take-off checklist complete," she adds, putting said list back in its spot before turning towards me. "Now I'll have to contact the tower again."

I nod my understanding to be silent during that time.

"November Seven Seven One Bravo Charlie, Cessna three-ten holding short at runway sixteen left, ready for VFR departure to the north-east, One Bravo Charlie."

"Seven Seven One Bravo Charlie, hold for approaching traffic."

"One BC, holding for traffic."

She turns in my direction again, but this time to watch out the window. I turn in that direction as well and can see a plane flying toward the runway in front of us. It's still quite far away, maybe two miles. Once again I'm amazed at how safety oriented these rules seem to be.

"It'll be a couple of minutes," Penny says. "We're lucky there's only one or we could be sitting here in the heat for fifteen minutes, if not longer."

I turn back to her, frowning. I already can feel it getting warm in here, and completely understand why she had told me to just hold the door, but not close it. My frown, however, is related to fact that the engines are running on idle all this time. "What about the fuel? You're using fuel all that time."

"Yeah, that's why you always add some safety margins when determining how much fuel you'll need, or how far you can go in one leg," Penny explains.

The radio keeps chattering away almost continuously, but after seven minutes, Penny replies to a message apparently directed at her. "Seven Seven One Bravo Charlie, clear for take-off."

The plane rolls on to the runway, Penny still looking in both directions to check for herself it is safe to do so, and finally turns straight on the center line, coming to a full stop.

"Mixture set," Penny says, her hand checking the controls in the center. "Fuel pumps are on low. Throttles going up to seventeen hundred." She pushes the controls forward and the engine speed and volume increases. "Mixture is rich. Release the brakes."

The plane begins to roll at that point, and Penny moves another set of controls forward. "Gages are all in the green," she announces next. "Good fuel flows. Airspeed's alive. Sixty, Seventy, Eighty, Ninety, rotate." I now see and feel the plane lifting up. "Set the brakes. Gear coming up."

I'm surprised. First, I had not realized the wheels on this plane could actually be retracted. Second, we're still relatively close to the ground. But Penny seems to know what she's doing, so I refrain from questioning it. Oddly, it doesn't actually make me feel nervous, at least not more nervous than I already was.

It takes a few more minutes as Penny navigates the radio waves, all the while climbing steadily. I am amazed at how much focus and training it requires to fly a plane. Of course the area around L.A. is probably one of the busier airspace, with several airfields close together.


# # #


"Wait, you always watch back your flights?"

Penny nods. "Yeah, mostly the take-offs and landings, but if I noticed something weird during the flight, I'll watch that part of the flight as well. It's mostly to check myself, making sure I didn't slip up or something."

"Right," I nod, glancing back to the little GoPro I spotted a couple of minutes ago, mounted in the center, just behind the front seats.

"Relax, Leonard," Penny says, turning to me for a second. "It's not that I make big mistakes. It's more like fine tuning, watching carefully I don't become too lax in procedures, that could in the long run turn into dangerous habits creeping in."

That actually makes sense to me. I've noticed myself sometimes becoming a bit too lax when driving, but I only realized it had happened when something almost went wrong.

"So, Leonard, why do you need to go to Nebraska? If you don't mind me asking."

I grin. "I don't mind. I'm having to give several presentations during the week."

"I see. And you work for Caltech?"

"Yes, in the physics department. I'm an experimental physicist, so my job is primarily to come up with physics experiments to try and prove, or disprove, that some theory is valid or not. I work mostly with lasers."

"Ooh. Shooting people?"

I laugh along with her. "No, nothing like that. I have used the laser in my lab to heat up my noodles really quickly, but other than that they are used for very specific experiments." I turn toward her. "What about you? Is this your job?"

"It is," she replies. "My boss uses my services to ferry stuff from or to various locations around the country. He owns this and a couple of other planes."

"What kind of stuff?"

My question results in a second or two of silence, until Penny very seriously replies. "I've learned that it's best to not ask such questions. I've heard some of my predecessors have met an untimely demise."

I'm startled at the response, and more than a bit worried.

Then Penny starts to laugh. "Oh, God, you should see your face!"

I try to glare at her, but my relief at finding out she was just joking makes it nearly impossible. After a couple of seconds, I give up my attempts and join in with her chuckles.

"It's mostly just fragile items," Penny is finally able to explain. "The large transport services have a tendency to, um, overlook the 'fragile' labels, so my boss decided that having his own planes and personnel was a good investment."

I nod my understanding. Depending on the value of those items, it could indeed be wise to handle the transport yourself, with people who know to handle them with care. "But you don't have anything with you now, right?"

She shakes her head, then lifts her hand as she picks up a radio transmission intended for her. While she's handling that part, I'm wondering how she picked out her plane's call sign. Obviously I hear the radio transmissions as well, and so many planes are being contacted at various moments, sometimes a string of them, one after the other. It must be something she has trained herself to do.

After a few more back-and-forth, including the switch to a different frequency as we move into yet another airspace, Penny finally turns to me to answer my question. "No, I currently don't have any cargo."

"So, you're just flying to transport me? You didn't have to do that!"

She shrugged. "It's okay. Everything is payed for."

"That might be, but still, you're offering up your down time."

"Leonard, it's fine, really."

"Are you at least getting payed for this trip?"

"No, but…"

I shake my head. "That's not fair. You have to travel for, what, five, hours?"

"Closer to six, but…"

I cut her off again. "Six. And six hours back. You should be payed for that."

"I have the week off, so…"

"That's even worse," I cut her off again, not understanding why Penny accepted this. "You shouldn't have to interrupt your week off, just to fly me to Omaha! Didn't you have anything planned for the week?"

Penny nods. "Yeah, I was going to visit my family back home."

I notice a slight smile, but am appalled I'm interfering with her planned family visit. "Great, so I'm cutting into that as well? Why did you say yes to this? And won't your family be upset you're not visiting them? Where do they live, anyway?"

Penny's smile has grown into smirk. "Omaha, Nebraska."

"Oh."


# # #


"Sharing it is."

As Penny speaks those words, a dismissive shrug accompanying them, my nerves return. They hadn't even popped up for the landing, but the prospect of having to sleep in the same room did it.

Part of me wishes Penny would fly during the night but another part of me admits the prospect of flying in complete darkness is much more scarier than having to spend the night with the beautiful pilot.

When we finally get to the room a couple of minutes later and seeing the rather small bed I start to think that flying in the dark wouldn't be nearly as scary. My eye falls on the chair; it wouldn't be comfortable, but I could manage that.

"Right," Penny interrupts my thoughts, putting her overnight bag near the bed. "Let's just dump our bags and see if we can get something to eat."

I do as she says; getting some food sounds like a good thing. And maybe I can come up with a good way to turn that chair just a little more comfortable. "Okay. Do you know any place around here?"

She nods as she locks the door behind us. "Yeah, I've used this airfield quite a few times for a lay-over. There's this amazing Italian place about ten minutes away."

"Okay, I like Italian. Lead the way." I gesture forward. We start walking in silence when a question I had wanted to ask before - but couldn't because the radio demanded her attention - comes back. "Oh, I wanted to ask what made you decide to become a pilot?"

Penny shrugged. "Mostly to prove a douche-bag that I was not, and I quote, 'too stupid to be a pilot.' End quote. I honestly don't even remember the exact context of why the subject of me being a pilot came up, but Kurt thought it funny."

She shook her head. "Luckily our neighbor was a licensed instructor and she was willing to teach me at a significant discount. My parents were a bit skeptic. Not about me being able to learn, but whether I would even stick with it. Can't really blame them for that."

"What did Kurt say when you completed your training?"

"Nothing. That dumbass had already left town to L.A., in pursue of his dreams of becoming a professional wrestler. He wasn't successful, as far as I know. I'm just happy I didn't run into him when I moved to L.A."


# # #


"No, Leonard," Penny said. "You'll end up having back problems for days. We can share the bed."

I look toward the bed, then back to Penny. "W... we can?"

"Of course. I promise, no funny business."

I am starting to get used to her sense of humor and give a chuckle. "Well, if you can promise me that, I suppose we can."

"Cool," she replies. "I'll go change in the bathroom."

I nod and watch as she bends to grab her bag. My eyes briefly stray to her shapely bottom but I again manage to avert my gaze before she catches me. It takes me a couple of seconds after she has closed the bathroom door behind her, before I realize I should change into my own sleepwear out here.

It doesn't take me too long, and I wait patiently for Penny to come back out, so I can use the bathroom and brush my teeth. I nearly forget to breath when she does come out, wearing a tank-top and Hello Kitty shorts. It's clear she's not wearing anything underneath the tank-top.

I hasten to get into the bathroom, knowing this time she did catch me looking at her. I take my time in here, trying to banish today's visuals from my mind. Of course that turns out to be less than useless; the more I try, the more I seem to recall those images.

Eventually I just give up; staying here any longer is bound to raise questions. I open the bathroom door and flick off the lights. Penny has already crawled in bed and I'm reminded again how little room the bed provides. We're not necessarily touching, I think, but it'd be close. Very close.

I try my very best to not appear nervous as I get into the empty side of the bed, staying as close to the edge as I dare to, just to leave some space between us.

"I've set my alarm for seven." Penny says, looking at me slightly puzzled. "I want to get some breakfast and hopefully we'll be in the air by nine."

I nod. "That seems fine. I'm usually awake by seven, anyway."

"We're not on LA time anymore," Penny warns me.

"Yeah, I get that. It'll be fine, I promise."

"Good." She still looks puzzled. "You're awfully close to the edge, Leonard. Aren't you worried you'll fall out?"

"Oh. Um, I didn't want you to feel crowded."

"Oh, don't be silly. We're both adults. Besides, I promised no funny business, didn't I?"


# # #


I wake up before the alarm goes off and find myself in a position that causes me to panic. Penny seems to have rolled over sometime during the night and is now laying with her head on my shoulder, her arm draped across my stomach. My left arm is trapped underneath her, my hand only mere inches from her bottom.

This is not good. I can't move as it will surely wake her and how am I gonna explain to her I wasn't trying to take advantage of the situation? Of course, when the alarm goes off, which I'm sure will be soon, I'm still gonna be in trouble. Unless she rolls back before the alarm goes off.

I'm not the type to pray, but right now I'm willing to try anything. The alarm goes off right as I end my little prayer; either proof there is no God or that they enjoy tormenting me.

Penny groans and moves her body even tighter against mine. "Jus' a few mo' min's," she mumbles.

I can't help but smile. Clearly Penny is not a morning person. The smile disappears immediately when I realize her movements have caused more of our body surfaces to now be in contact. And my traitorous body is responding to that change.

The alarm is still going and it seems to wake Penny more and more. With the position of her leg, she is sure to realize something is quite literally up. I know the exact moment she does; she stills completely, just frozen in place for a few seconds. "Oh, God…"

She quickly removes her leg and lifts her upper body to look at me. "I'm so sorry, Leonard." She turns around to shut off the alarm, which is on her side of the bed, but that results in her ass cheek now resting in the palm of my hand.

But my brain is more focused on the fact she apologized. Not accused, like I believed she would. I'm so focused on that, it takes me a while to respond. "Oh... Um... It's, um, it's okay."

Penny moves to sit up against the headboard, in the process finally freeing my left arm and hand. My fingers started to get tingly and I move them about, trying to get the blood flowing again. Unfortunately, my blood is still flowing to another region.

I make the mistake to look at her, but with her sitting up like that, what my eyes first encounter is not her face. Now it's gonna be even longer for my... problem to go away. I decide to move to sit up against the headboard as well and decide to look at her again, this time focusing on her face.

Her eyes however have wandered to my problem area and she seems flustered. "Right, I'll go take a quick shower." Her voice seems shrill and before I can even say a word, she's moved out of bed and into the bathroom.

I exhale rather loudly and close my eyes briefly. Hopefully I can get my body to behave before she gets out of the bathroom. I groan as my imagination attempts to envision a naked and wet Penny. Not helping, brain!


# # #


"Is that you, Penny?"

Penny smiles and presses the transmit button again. "Sure is. Hi, Nancy."

"Business or visiting family?"

"Visiting. I'll be here for a week."

"I'll come by sometime this week, then."

"Looking forward to it."

Penny turns to me briefly, a large smile on her face. "Nancy was our neighbor and my flight instructor. She's also an AC, an air traffic controller."

I nod my understanding. Just from the brief conversation and Penny's smile it was clear Penny and Nancy were close friends.

I remain silent, as Penny prepares the plane once again for landing. Again, I don't feel any nervousness at the prospect. I do take more interest in all the things she needs to do. It helps that she says everything out loud. It still amazes me how much skill it actually takes.

The flying itself is not all that difficult, but all the procedures surrounding it, as well as the take-off and landings? Let's just say I can understand why Penny said last night she had actually contemplated several times to just give up. It had been her stubbornness to prove that dumbass wrong, that motivated her to stick with it.

And she loves flying, loves that she can do this for a living. She's been nearly all over the U.S., actually getting to spend a day or two in every region before she had to return. I could tell just by the sparkle in her eyes how passionate she is about flying.

Unlike our stop in Telluride, the Beatrice Municipal airport was not surrounded by mountains but relatively flat land. The fact she hadn't been fazed by the mountains, just a professional focus on the task at hand, had helped me to stay calm then.

I am now certain I'm in very capable hands and as a result, I'm just calmly watching Penny double checking everything, again saying everything out loud. I turn my gaze out the front windscreen and see the runway marked thirty-six which, Penny told me earlier, means its oriented at roughly three hundred and sixty degrees, or due North.

The occasional bump not withstanding, the descent is pretty gradual, as far as I can tell a more or less straight line to the runway. It takes a little over a minute when I feel the wheels touch down; like the previous landing, this felt like a very smooth landing.

Penny applies the brakes, again voicing the very action out loud. Nancy comes on the radio, telling Penny where to get off the runway, as well as handing her over to ground control.


# # #


Penny navigates her plane toward a row of hangers, comes to a full stop and disengages the engines. I decide to wait as she goes through all the things that need to be done in order for her to safely park the plane in either the hangar to the left or right of us.

It doesn't take long before Penny tells me she's done and we can get out. I open the door and climb down, Penny following me, but closing the plane door behind her. At the same time I hear a hangar door opening. As I turn around I see an older gentleman at the control of the door to the nearly empty hangar.

"Hi, Slugger," the gentleman yells, still waiting for the hangar doors to fully open.

Penny excitedly runs toward him. "Daddy!"

I follow her, a little nervous to meet the father of the young woman I've only known for less than twenty-four hours and I may or may not have more than a little crush on. The two hug each other and it's clear to me this family is a lot closer than mine.

Penny beckons me to come closer. "Leonard, this is my dad, Daddy, this is Dr. Leonard um... Ho... something." She looks apologetically at me for not remembering my last name.

"Hofstadter," I reply, shaking the outstretched hand of Penny's father. "Leonard is fine, though, Sir."

"Nice to meet you, Leonard. The name's Wyatt, not sir." He turns back to Penny. "Want some help getting the bird in here?" He looks at me. "I once just went ahead to do it and she got upset I did her job, so now I just ask if she needs help."

"Daddy!" She attempts to look upset, but I can see the laughter in her eyes. She then turns to me. "Don't listen to daddy, Leonard. I would never turn down someone offering to put the plane inside the hangar."

Her father chuckles. "Fine, I'll take care of it."

I'm torn; I want to go help him, but I have no clue how I even could be of any help.

"Relax, Leonard. It's not much work and he doesn't expect you to help him."

I look at her in surprise.

"It was easy to see on your face. And I got to know you a little bit. You're just a nice guy, who likes to help. Trust me, it's fine."

"Oh, okay." Right at that moment, my phone - which I had only turned on when Penny taxied between the two rows of hangars - buzzes. I check and see there's a message from President Siebert. I start reading it, and can't help letting out a frustrated groan.

"Something wrong, Sweetie?"

"Apparently there's been a mix-up with the hotel reservations."


# # #


"Nonsense," Penny's father says. "You can stay with us, Leonard. Penny's brother doesn't need his room for the next couple of months."

"Oh," I say, looking at him briefly. "Are you sure it's okay?"

"Sure," he assures me with a nod. "How about I drop you and Penny off at the car rental place? She can then ride with you and give you directions to our place."

"Great idea, Daddy. Just say yes, Leonard. I can show you around one of the evenings, or perhaps an afternoon."

I can't help the grin when I hear the excitement in Penny's voice as she goes on telling all the things we could do. To be honest, I do have two days completely free, and being able to spend it with her seems actually more exciting than just hanging in my hotel room watching movies.

I finally interrupt her. "Okay, okay, I give up." I turn around to look at her. "You do realize we're here only one week, right? And I only have two days that are not filled with presentations."

She just shrugs. "Still good to have some options."

I turn back to the front, not willing to risk getting car sick. As I do that, I can see Penny's dad frowning , though I'm not quite sure why. "How long have the two of you known each other?"

"We met just before take-off from L.A.," Penny replies. "My boss' friend, the president of Caltech asked for a favor. Since I was already coming this way, my boss asked me if I was okay with taking a scientist along with me. Leonard was really upset I not only sacrificed my week off, but also my chance to visit family. Luckily he eventually came around to the question where my family was located."

I chuckle along with her giggles.

"Ah, Slugger, you should've told him."

"To be fair," I reply, "I really didn't give her much chance to explain her reason to accept."


# # #


"Ready?" Penny asks, glancing at me.

"Yeah, I have everything," I tell her.

"Cool," she says, then activates the radio to announce we're ready for take-off. Unlike the first two take-offs, we get immediate approval. As Penny deals with the radio communications and focuses on getting us in the air again, I sit in silence and think about the past week.

I honestly believe this has been the best week in my life. Both of Penny's parents are very kind and showed quite a bit of interest in my job. Not once did I feel excluded or uncomfortable. As Penny had promised, she showed me around the farm and town.

She was hit on several times, but she shot them all down immediately, saying she wasn't interested. I'm sure it was because I was around and she felt like she couldn't just abandon me. I felt sorry about that but didn't dare to mention how much I appreciated that.

"So, Leonard," Penny interrupts my thoughts. "Did you enjoy spending this week with my parents?"

I nod. "Yeah, I did. Both Wyatt and Susan are wonderful and kind." I frown as I realize how easily her parents had me convinced to call them by their names. I still address my own parents with a formal "Mother" or "Father" whenever I see them.

"They really liked you," Penny said. "How about your presentations? I forgot to ask."

"They went well. I think President Siebert will be happy."


# # #


"Looks like we'll be sharing a bed once again, Leonard."

I grin at her. "If you can promise there'll be no funny business," I say, referring to our first stay in this motel.

"Sorry, Leonard but I don't make promises I can't keep."

I chuckle as I go through my bag to find my sleepwear, but look up in surprise as her words and tone register. "Wh… what?"

Penny shrugs. "No promise." She points behind. "I'll take the bathroom again, and get ready."

I'm still processing what Penny had said before and I fail to respond as she makes her way into the bathroom. Her words, the implication, causes me to hunt for my inhaler. As I hold my breath to allow the medicine to take effect, I finally realize she's just joking. She has to be, right?

Of course it's just a joke. Penny has a great sense of humor. Kudos to her for sounding so sincere, so believable and not cracking up. Having calmed down, I now realize I need to hurry and change before she gets out of the bathroom.

I'm down to my boxers when the bathroom door opens, and Penny walks out. This time she's not wearing a tank-top, nor shorts. She's actually wearing very little fabric; everything is covered, but barely so. I blindly grab for my inhaler, unable - or unwilling, to be honest - to look at anything but her.

While I hold my breath after taking two puffs, Penny is just standing there, near the bathroom door, watching me with a smile, tinged with a hint of concern. Enough time has passed, and I finally express my feeling. "Wow," is the only thing that comes out of my mouth. It covers exactly how I feel, yet seems wholly inadequate.

Penny changes her stance, really showing off her body. "You like what you see?"

I can only nod as my ability to speak coherently seems to have completely vanished. I'm frozen in place and she slowly makes her way toward me. It doesn't take her long - it's a small room - to stand in front of me, putting her wrists on my shoulders. "I want this, Leonard," she almost whispers.

It takes me a few seconds to realize she's waiting for me, allowing me a chance to decline. My brain is divided on how to respond. Decline? I'm not really the type for one night stands; not that I've had the opportunity for one, really, but it's just not what I'm looking for.

On the other hand, over the past week the two of us have become close. Perhaps she would be interested in relationship?

I put my hands on her hips and pull her a fraction closer. It seems my body has made the decision. I don't get a chance to ask if this would be a one time thing as Penny's lips find mine.


# # #


My wife - I still have trouble believing Penny and I are now married - leans over to close the door. The cameras are still turned off and I take full advantage of that fact and look down her top. It doesn't matter I've seen them many times, covered in less fabric and even countless times completely bare.

Penny is well aware, takes a bit more time than usual to secure the door, even leaning closer to me than absolutely necessary. As always, the door thing is only announced complete after she kisses me. She does that whether the cameras are recording or not.

"Check," she finally proclaims as she returns to sit properly in her seat. She reaches behind her in the center and turns on the camera mounted there.

I lean forward and turn on the camera in front of me, oriented in such a way it captures both of us. Not that I was a fan of that when Penny suggested it, and I'm still not, to be honest. Yet, I agreed with it anyway. I'd be okay with it if the cameras were there just for her, but about a year and a half ago, Penny started a YouTube channel and putting edited videos of her flights on there.

That was actually completely my fault. Penny had run into something during a flight and had watched back the video. She felt like she handled it adequately, but was wondering how other pilots would have handled it. I suggested putting it up on YouTube, so she could ask other pilots to look at it.

She had sent the link to various pilot friends she'd made over the years and all of sudden it had spread far wider than either of us had anticipated. Just for fun, Penny then posted another video of a flight, and it, too, was watched quite a bit.

A few months later with regular videos and Penny decided to add a camera. Her boss knew about the videos and allowed it, as long as she would make sure not to mention or show the cargo, to prevent his competitors gaining any information.

I had started to come along if she had to go on a weekend trip, so her viewers knew about me, but had never really seen me. I had been nervous about how people would respond once they saw who Penny was in a relationship with.

From the comments it was clear a good portion of the viewers were far more interested in the blond female pilot, who they had up to that point only seen from back. There had been some disappointed comments once they found out Penny was in a relationship, even some nasty ones. Penny simply deleted the nasty ones.

The first video that had my face in it did not seem to influence the number of negative comments. The more videos with me in it, the more it had shifted to us being called a cute couple, being the right person for one another. It definitely helped me being more comfortable to be on camera.

My thoughts are interrupted by Penny clapping her hands once in the center. I know she'll use that later to line up the two video and the audio recordings when editing the videos.

"Hi, Sweeties," Penny addresses the camera in front. "Today, my husband," she emphasizes the last word, "and I are starting our honeymoon. We've already completed all check lists, so I'm sorry but you won't be seeing our kiss this time." She turns to me. "Ready?"

"Ready," I confirm.

"November Seven Seven One Bravo Charlie, Cessna three-ten holding short at runway sixteen left, ready for VFR departure to the east, One Bravo Charlie."


AN2: I am not a pilot, not even interested in becoming one, but I have been watching a couple of YT channels from pilots. Anything that's right about flying and procedures, you can thank Kevin for. Everything that's wrong, totally my bad.