She Always Had a Fear of Flying. Then She Fell in Love with a Pilot and It Became Her Whole Life (Exclusive)

People

Rob Donnelly’s father flew in the military, so from a “very young age,” he knew he wanted to do the same. “We had moved across the globe a dozen times by the time I went to college,” he explains to PEOPLE. ”I spent so much time in an airport, I was like, yeah, I might as well get paid to do it. So it's kind of what I'm doing now, but it all started just following in my father's footsteps, just doing it on the civilian side.” When Rob met his now-wife Lauren, he immediately became her “person” — but not just in the romantic sense.

Transcript

00:00I knew I wanted to fly since a very young age. My dad was a pilot in the military.

00:06You know, I spent so much time in an airport, I was like, yeah, I might as well get paid to do it.

00:10Following in my father's footsteps, just doing it, you know, on the civilian side.

00:19So we kind of just met in college. I went up to visit my friend, his best friend, in college,

00:25and they were roommates, and so I ended up meeting Rob, and then throughout COVID,

00:31right after COVID hit, and then throughout that, us three were kind of the only people

00:37that we really hung out with just because, you know, everything was on lockdown.

00:50I would always text our friend Jack, you know, if there was turbulence, like,

00:54what's going on, help me, and when I met Rob, just because Jack was kind of annoyed

00:58with it at that point, Rob became my person. I would text him every single time I was on

01:02a flight, like, what's going on, like, there's turbulence, help me, and he would just have

01:06to be like, you're good. Her sister's also a very nervous flyer, and they're pinging

01:11us back and forth, just questions, you know, everything about flying.

01:24Asking my pilot husband questions from a nervous flyer. Okay, first one in my personal favorite.

01:40Shortly after takeoff, why does it feel and sound like the plane just, like, shuts off?

01:44It feels like that because we reduce power, kind of let the nose come down a little bit,

01:48which allows us to speed up so we can pick up the flaps. Think of it like you're in a car,

01:53and you're just taking your foot off the gas pedal for a few seconds.

02:01The lack of control is obviously never going to get better, because you're just not in control,

02:06so you have nothing out of that. But the lack of knowledge has definitely helped. I mean,

02:11I probably know more about airplanes than the average person, but I think just, like,

02:18I think the biggest thing was learning how much training that these guys go through.

02:23Because again, like, you're just, you're kind of putting your life into their hands for

02:27however many hours you're on that plane.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended