I woke up at six Thursday morning, slid from bed, strapped on my leg, put on shorts and T-shirt, and used the bathroom. The pace had been a little stressful lately, so a few minutes of mute Tae Chi would go a long way to toward relaxing me and preparing me mentally.
Going through the stretching and stances becomes smooth and graceful, soon filling your mind with equally smooth melodic music that you "dance" to. Once that point is reached, you can close your eyes and let the rhythm take you through a series of slow stretching moves that totally relax you.
As I changed directions, my eyes opened and found four women equally absorbed in their own music and dances. That was enough to make me smile and stand to relax, saluting, or bowing, to my imaginary partner. I was totally prepared for my day ahead.
One by one, the girls finished finding their ending, until all but Marie went inside to have coffee and breakfast. Marie stripped and dove into the pool, driving herself to swim harder and harder until she floated toward the steps. When she walked out of the pool, you could see the change in her from little girl to radiant woman. Her association with these other women was making her into a special, confident, person.
While sitting at the table, Bobby, Jan, and Wanda were looking at her the same way I was. Jan said it all for us, "Wow! She sure has changed since she came out here. Look at her, she's beautiful."
We all smiled, but kept our group appraisal to ourselves as the pixie came in and sat naked at the table to eat with us.
Since I was leaving for Oklahoma directly from work, I packed my bag and drove into work in the Impala. Wanda was a real taskmaster the entire morning. All three women were continuously stuffing my in-box with information and reports to review. It seemed that every station I was responsible for had a question or favor to ask for. By lunch time, I was starved and needed a break.
I walked to the doorway between Wanda's and the clerk's offices and suggested, "How about lunch at the executive lunch room? We'll enjoy the walk and I know we'll enjoy the food. Wanda, can you make sure we can get a table?"
We walked to the building a couple of blocks away, with Bobby and Sarah joining us. I had meant for the lunch to be just my office, but I could handle two more on the bill. The lunch menu was only a few items, but always had something for everyone. We all enjoyed the food, discussing trivial things. Bobby spent most of her time thanking Wanda for decorating the station with plants. Sarah said, "It's funny how we've never had much warmth in there other than the people. The plants give the place a fresher smell and soften the atmosphere a lot."
After lunch, my inbox quit filling up and my e-mails slowed to a trickle. As three o'clock came, Wanda came in with her pad and gave me the itinerary. The Oklahoma City office was disappointed they wouldn't be able to have me earlier to take me out for the evening, but was happy to have me for breakfast Friday, tomorrow, morning. I was to meet the staff at seven at the hotel I was staying at.
I should be in really good form by then, after having had only three hours or less of sleep. The key to staying alert is to eat well and drink lots of water and other liquids. Hopefully, the weekend was not over-planned.
John was ready for me when I arrived and I was immediately assigned to do the preflight inspection as he watched. We went into the office to make up our flight plan and file it, using the internet. Back out in the plane, John just sat and watched as I went through the checklists an item at a time. When the plane was warmed up and ready to taxi, I looked at John expectantly. He said as he sat there sipping coffee from his flight cup, "You're the pilot, you ask. As a matter of fact, I'm just along for the ride as we land and take off. In between we'll have some question and answer discussions."
Okay, I can do this. I've been studying and I've listened to every word John has said on the radio. We've discussed and practiced radio talk, so I can do this. Funny isn't it? An experienced combat veteran, used to life and death situations, being tongue tied when it comes to talking on a radio to some unknown, unseen, person.
I called in for taxi permission and instructions and followed the direction I was told to go, heading to the far end of the runway. I could have taken off from the taxiway but no, you have to go all the way back to the beginning of the runway. That way if something happens that keeps your plane from taking off, you have enough room to stop. Sure you do.
As soon as we were in the air, headed toward our first stop, John had me set the GPS up for our destination. This was part of the instrument training I was supposed to get. This leg was at nine thousand feet, which appeared to have us flying right into some big clouds. I called Air Traffic Control to find out how serious the clouds ahead were. They recommended that we fly below the ceiling by a thousand feet and I modified my flight plan and headed down, constantly looking around to make sure I didn't see another aircraft.
It can get pretty bumpy under big cumulous clouds. Going for long bumpy rides is not my version of fun. John didn't seem upset at all and just sat back, quizzing me verbally on a navigation item, then a routing issue, followed by a landing question. We were nearing the first airfield we were going to land at. This one was tricky, as there was restricted air space on each side of the corridor in and out of the field. The GPS makes it easy to make sure you're in the right place. I was a little miffed that I was waved off during approach and was requested to do a go around. This was difficult to do as you only had a three-mile wide corridor.
I made the pass on the right of the runway and requested permission to cross the take-off path. They waved me off there as well, which meant I had to go out to ten miles before crossing the path then going back the fifteen miles in order to line up for an approach again. I almost asked John if I could just pass on stopping here. This time when I requested permission to land they said to come on down. The big emergency was over.
Because we had exceeded my limits to the fuel stop with time in the air, we had to pull up to the pumps for fuel. I taxied the plane as near to the pumps as I could, as the hoses are long, but not so long that you can park a long way from them.
I did all the safety things like chocking the wheels and attaching the ground strap. I pushed the rolling stairs up to the back of the wing and locked the wheels of the stairs before getting the filler nozzle and carrying some and dragging the rest of the hose to reach the plane. I filled the right wing tank, watching for the level of fuel to appear. I moved the ladder all the way around to the other side of the plane, locked the wheels, and went for the nozzle and hose. There was still plenty of hose, so I filled the left wing tank.
Since this was self-serve you had to wind the hose back up when you were done and that can be a chore. Once done, I asked John how we pay for the fuel, since it didn't request a credit card at the pump. He said he would show me after I took off the ground strap and pulled the wheel chocks. I had to physically push the plane around to point out, but that isn't that difficult. John just watched me do everything. I did the preflight checklist and climbed into the cabin for the startup. John keyed the mike and asked the tower if they had recorded the fuel. They responded that they had, it was to be charged to S&S on the Cessna 206, seven, six, four, niner. "We got it, John."
"Okay, John," I asked looking around again? "Where's the tower? I don't even see a dog house on the ops building."
"Like so many small fields, there is no tower. The guy that owns this field is either in the little operations building or in the house over there at the end of the runway. He's probably in the ops building watching us right now. Before he goes to bed, he'll come out and lock up his tanks or shut off the electricity to the pumps. This is how our little field was originally. We only have a small tower and it's not staffed all the time. Pilots have to be responsible and have to take care of themselves and their hosts, like this little place."
After thinking about it a second I asked, "So what was the big emergency?"
John keyed the mike, "Cessna seven six forty-niner, request info on earlier field emergency?"
The radio crackled quickly, "Daughter's horses got loose again and were running all over the runway, sorry about the go around. Careful leaving, the Navy and Air Force are being nasty again if one of us private guys strays."
John said, "See, it was for a good reason, sometimes you have to have patience."
I went through the checklist starting the plane and almost forgot to request taxi and take off instructions because the field felt as if it was abandoned. Soon, we were off for the next location for a landing and takeoff.
We finally landed at Oklahoma City, parking in the area where we were directed. John watched as I helped the driver of a fuel truck refuel us and then as I tied the plane down correctly. He did offer some advice as to how to do the job efficiently. We took a taxi to the hotel we were to stay at and I was in bed by ten to three. I don't think I was still awake thirty seconds after lying down.
Friday morning came too early, but I was up, dressed, and ready to perform the station command change early. I was having a cup of coffee when a duty deputy found me and introduced himself. He joined me in having a cup, saying he didn't figure a D.C. guy would be up already. I had to assure him I was not from D.C. and was used to being up early. We left to join the entire staff of the station at a local Denny's. We had a long breakfast, which turned into more of a roast of the departing station chief.
The station was decorated to send off the retiring chief and to welcome in the new chief. Actually, the man taking over the job was the former Assistant Station Chief, so everyone was familiar with the man, and all seemed happy to have someone promoted from within.
The actual paperwork didn't take very long, but they had a huge inventory that seemed to take forever to count.
Lunch was a large layout of western style barbecue. The only people working this day were the ones on air marshal duty. I was bushed by three in the afternoon, but the folks at the station were planning on partying even more after work. I begged off and said, "Hopefully, I'll be able to come back to visit soon. This time, I have a fairly tight schedule that I need to adhere to."
Wanda said there was nothing important for me, so I said I was on my way to the airport, but I would probably not get home till around four or five in the morning.
I met John at the airport and immediately got hit with a surprise. He handed me an itinerary of locations he wanted me to fly through and said, "You'll be up front by yourself. I will not be available for you to advise or to ask what to do. This is a solo flight. Just forget that I'm on the plane. I think I'll just play on the internet the whole way home."
"I'm going to need a lot of coffee and a lot of food in order to stay up a second straight night. Let me go buy a bunch, including some water."
"I already have you loaded up. You have two thermoses, a stack of sandwiches, and some fruit within reach. There are also several bottles of water. You can plan this flight anyway you want, even to the extent of stopping along the way and checking into a hotel if you want. You're the boss; this is your first solo."
I did the flight calculations and figured out where I wanted to get fuel and stretch my legs. This was going to be a long night. We were finally in the air a little after five.
I was surprised that we seemed to be moving a heck of lot faster than what my airspeed indicated. The GPS said I was flying twenty-five knots faster than the airspeed showed. I finally figured out we had a hell of a tailwind at the ten thousand foot level we were flying at. I was worried about the heavy clouds and storms that could be in Florida, and was determined to check the weather there at the fuel stop coming up in Little Rock. I was glad I had scheduled a shorter hop than necessary. By the time we landed, I needed to pee very badly. This airport had a fuel island that small aircraft could taxi up close to. They were also smart, as they had restrooms built into the fuel island.
As soon as the fuel was topped off, I walked into the operations office to check weather the rest of the way. It looked like I would be clear all the way to Tallahassee. The flight was going good as the tailwind should continue all the way. I figured that I could check on the weather the rest of the way while refueling in Tallahassee.
There was one refueling stop in Birmingham where I was able to get more fresh coffee. At Tallahassee, I was able to see that the bad clouds had dissipated allowing me a clear flight straight through to Tampa. I was almost disappointed, as I was so tired.
It was four in the morning on Saturday as I made the approach to our airfield. I used the radio to key the code to turn on the runway lights. The electronics were all working, but the blue lights were different. When I turned off the runway to go back toward the S&S hangar, I felt good that I had been able to make it back home by myself. Actually, you would have to be pretty dumb not to be able to fly simply by using the radio signals, backed up by your exact location being indicated constantly on the GPS. Navigation is a no-brainer if you do what you have been taught.
John opened the door to the hangar so I could push the plane inside. We spun it around to face out so the morning men could refuel it and do anything else necessary with it. I cleaned everything up and hauled the trash out, along with the cooler and thermoses. I filled out the airplane log and made my own log entry. John added a few lines in my logbook, indicating the items I had completed. I was just about finished with the flight instruction. One more flight like this and I would be done.
John and I took off at the same time. I'm sure he was thinking about bed the same as I was. I backed in next to the garage and let myself in through the front door. I didn't bother to do anything but strip and crawl into bed, finding Wanda and Bobby sprawled out. The clock said five ten.
Primary editing by Pepere
Proofing by Sagacious