On Christmas Day in 1996, Kelly Jeffries was invited to ride in the jump seat of a De Havilland Dash 8. This was, by all means, a fairly standard repositioning hop through Florida for the aircraft. She was traveling from Jacksonville to Tampa to pick up an airplane for a charter flight, and L. D. Jeffries was the first officer on this flight. Once the pair were traveling at cruising altitude, they began to hit it off, talking nonstop and trading the kinds of stories of grit, adventure, and a shared love of flying that only pilots would love.