Chapter 2

She’s a natural, thought Jack, as he watched Sultry cut lazy circles in the sky.

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Slow down heart! Stop shaking knees!, thought Sultry.

The preflight was straight forward, Jack put the card in her hand and said, “This tells you what to tell me to do.”

So ... she started to read and Jack showed her what each written direction meant.

Like shake. The chart meant SHAKE! Jack SHOOK it.

There were a few times that it seemed like abuse but she kept reading and Jack kept showing. Everything was covered ... three times. From removing the red-flagged pins to checking for water in the fuel to fetching the ladder to make sure the latches on the fuel tanks were actually closed ... and putting the ladder away so the next pilot would know where it was.

“Your turn.” Jack started reading and Sultry did the doing.

Things like “Match the engine hour readings between the log book, the engine hour reader on the dash and the engine hour meter on the firewall under the cowling.” seemed to make sense.

Jack said, “Suppose the written hours in the logbook and the reader don’t match the engine hour meter under the cowling?”

Two seconds. The light flashed in her eyes, “Somebody has been flying my airplane and I didn’t know it.”

“The reader is electric. It can be disconnected.” He explained, “The meter is mechanical ... hooked directly to the engine. Disconnect it and the engine runs out of oil.”

She said, “Using my airplane with the meter disconnected is committing suicide.”

“You saw how hard I shook it.” Jack said. “Shake it like it shakes in the air.”

Jack looked in her eyes, and stomped the pavement. “The President had it wrong. The buck doesn’t stop in his office. The buck stops here!” He stomped the pavement again.

“What happens if it breaks off up there?” He pointed at the sky.

“Umh ... I stop here?”

“Right. Now shake it.”

So she shook it a little harder.

“When you’re dancing ... how hard to you shake it?”

She shook the aileron hard. there was a slight resistance.

“It’s hard to shake,” she said

Jack explained, “That’s because there’s an elasticized cord that’s holding the wheel stationary and the brake pedals up.”

“Oh.” A little ponder. “Why is that?”

“The cords keep the surfaces from moving when the wind blows down here.”

“Ok.” That made sense.

“Sorta push the aileron from side to side.”

She did, “It moves a little. But you said it should ... so it doesn’t bind.”

“You’re not as dumb as you act,” he said. “I’ve noticed your English cleans up when it’s just us.”

She blushed. “You seek perfection in a mate.”

“No ... I seek brains ... inside beauty. Not that there’s anything wrong with the outside.”

So ... they went over it all. Even the reason there was a yoke and not a stick.

“More former bomber pilots fly than former fighter pilots ... bomber pilots are used to wheels. Ex- fighter pilots ride motorcycles.”

“Well, Sultry? Is it ready?”

‘Let’s see how the teaching took,’ he thought.

“As ready as we can make it. Life can always get in the way. This is a big deal to me. You’re changing me ... my life was laid out before me ... and now it’s an adventure.”

“For the first flight you ride in the right seat.”

For some unknown reason, she said, “Yes, Sir.” She walked around the tail and opened the right side door. “Mounting an airplane in a skirt is a bad idea.” She chuckled as she said it.

Most 140A’s have well upholstered bucket seats. This one had bare metal frames with seat pack ‘chutes. All Jack would say about that was, “We might have to get out.”

“The ‘chute buckles to you...” The seat had a different set of buckles, those buckles kept you in the plane “ ... don’t unbuckle the wrong ones.”

“All the odd instruments are on the left side.” Jack said, “The reason is because the right side needs only the basics. If something happens to the pilot your first job is to land. You don’t need all the crap to land. He slapped each one as he described it.

“Magnetic compass — Like the compass you have seen in a car or boat, it tells you the airplane’s heading — the direction it’s flying. It requires no power source.

“Airspeed indicator — It shows the speed of the airplane through the air.

“Attitude indicator — This instrument is like the horizon you see looking out from the pilot’s seat. It tells you whether the nose of the airplane is pointed above or below the horizon and whether the airplane is turning (banking) to the left or right (left wing down or right wing down).

“Altimeter — This instrument shows the airplane’s altitude in feet above sea level.

“Vertical speed indicator — This instrument tells you how quickly you’re climbing or descending in feet per minute. When you’re in level flight, it reads “0”.

“Heading indicator (directional gyro) — This instrument is another compass. It shows the direction that the airplane is flying. It’s usually bigger and easier to read than the magnetic compass, but requires some power source.