The grandma hopes to prove that time passing should never stop you from following your dreams.
A Texas grandmother and mom-of-four, who was an Air Force pilot for more than seven years, quit her job to raise her kids. Now, Tamaron Nicklas has returned from a 24-year hiatus to fly alongside her husband Larry, a commercial jet pilot. Nicklas of Dallas told The Epoch Times, “Truly, both he and I looked at each other and said, ‘You know, I think I need to pinch myself. This is actually happening.’ I didn’t know if we should tell the passengers, but he was immediately so proud and announced, ‘This is my wife’s first flight at Southwest Airlines.’ Then one of the flight attendants also made some announcement, and everybody in the back … rousing applause!”
Meet Tamaron Nicklas. During her service, she flew KC 135s & was a T38 instructor. Later she gave up her life of flying to raise her children. Now she has returned to flying & is inspiring other women to not let their own hiatus stop their dream of flying.https://t.co/jCfJfagjus pic.twitter.com/HKDIZ7KCCh
— Foundation for Women Warriors (@ffWomenWarriors) October 9, 2022
Flying is pretty much part of the family as Nicklas is the daughter of an Air Force pilot. The couple's oldest children followed them to the Air Force Academy and now fly F-16s. The 58-year-old had been out of the sites for 24 years but recently heard about another who got back in the cockpit which ended up motivating her. “Somebody started talking about a gal in a previous class that had been out of flying for many years, stayed home with her kids, and she had gotten back into flying so I thought, ‘huh. Could I do that?'” Nicklas told WFLA.
After following her father into the Air Force, falling in love and starting a family, Tamaron Nicklas took a 24 year hiatus from flying. But she recently realized, it’s never too late to chase a new dream. Hear about her return to the sky with @SouthwestAir on @NBCDFW at 10. pic.twitter.com/ILZ8J6ehX2
— Allie Spillyards (@AllieSpillyards) August 26, 2022
At first, she was offered a job as an instructor at a local flying club. The couple ended up moving to Dallas and Nicklas got back to flying after landing her first commercial job with a regional airline. “It was all kind of an uphill battle but it just came down to, how badly do you want it?” she said. She spent two years learning about new tech and flying with pilots her kids' age. Finally, she got a job at Southwest Airlines, where she joined her husband on her inaugural flight.
“I was like, ‘are we going to tell the passengers? Uh, do you think they’ll like it?’ And he right away made the announcement, and ‘this is my wife’s first flight at Southwest Airlines,'” Nicklas said. “I’m super proud of her. It’s hard enough to just do your everyday job as opposed to something you haven’t done in 24 years,” her husband gushed. Nicklas hopes to inspire her younger family members, proving to them it’s never too late to follow your dreams.
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Cover Image Source: YouTube | Good Morning America
