Departing KBFI in a formation flight ’“ Photo: Kassy Coan | AirlineReporter

It was a normal day, full of work, wishing I was out flying, and instead, coming home to a Netflix marathon. I proceeded to search for any and all movies about planes. I came across this shorter movie, Ultimate G’s: Zac’s Flying Dream, which made me feel better about myself due to the smaller time commitment.

To this day, this movie remains one of my favorites. Two children, one male and one female, dream of flying, and one day become professional pilots. They do aerobatics, formation flying, and dog fight via lasers on the planes. It was fun and adventurous, combining the video game concept of competitive shooting with the real life environment of flying and aerobatics, all while maintaining safety as a priority. I needed more.

Two of Air Combat’s aircraft at Boeing Field – Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren | JDL Multimedia

Months passed, and despite my research and dreams of being able to participate in such an immersive flying, laser-tag-like experience, I was convinced that it was just a movie. While I was losing hope, every once in a while I would inevitably talk with fellow AvGeeks about the movie experience, which had since embedded itself in the back of my mind. Most people had no idea what I was talking about, or would say “yeah, that would be cool,” then dismiss the conversation as something too unrealistic. Then randomly, last month, one of my coworkers had a different response. “I did something just like that with my father-in-law one time!”

I couldn’t believe my ears. He directed me to a site called Air Combat USA. There it was, right in front of me – a traveling, civilian dog fight school. I checked the flight dates, and signed up. It was very convenient that they were based out of my city, Seattle, for most of the month of August!