Hang Gliding and Paragliding Volume 44 / Issue 2: February 2014 | Page 25

to get her tow tech rating so she can tow Billy up! Also, you
must be patient when the one is flying and the other is not.
What advice would you give to other flying couples?
Bimilly: Communicate through any hiccup and be willing
to quickly forgive. Know you are lucky people. There are a lot
of divorced or single pilots out there, because their partner
was not cool with fly time. Invest in a good camera so you can
take cool photos of each other. Lastly, if one has a tandem
rating, fly together. A kiss in the sky is always magical!

Aaron ♥ Kerie
Kerie and Aaron Swepston met 25 years ago when she landed
from a tandem flight at Dog Mountain. Kerie recalls the
moment: “ I got to talking to this cute, friendly guy in the
landing field, and he told me that if I was interested in learning to hang glide, he could take me tandem for free. Within
two months we were engaged, and within five months, we
had packed up and moved down to California to work for a
manufacturer.”
Does flying enhance your relationship?
Kerie: Absolutely. How many people can say that their
spouse is their best friend AND that they get to play together
doing the most incredible sport? Aaron encourages me and
challenges me. When I hit new milestones, he is as excited
about it as I am. I view him as one of the best pilots ever, so
the fact that he’s mine makes him pretty hot.
Aaron: We can take lessons from flying and apply them to
relationships. With flying, you live in the moment, and I try
to keep that philosophy in mind when it comes to Kerie and
me. We’ve had a good time, a good life, and we reflect on that

all the time.
Do you share advice with each other?
Kerie: We’ve had 25 years of practice with giving advice. It’s
much easier to take now than it was in the beginning. It’s all
part of growing up and learning how to take criticism. I know
he respects me as a darn good pilot, but we are constantly
trying to improve, so we can keep doing this without incident.
Aaron: Kerie is an awesome pilot and sets a fantastic example. She is solid on all scores. There’s a common saying at
our local sites, mostly stemming from people watching Kerie
and Tina: “Fly like a girl!” In some places, that would be an
insult, but not here. If they fly like a girl, they’re doing pretty
good!
Do you make decisions/accept risk differently?
Kerie: I tend to make more conservative decisions, but that
doesn’t mean he is taking more risk. He is just more calculated about it, an B