Chapter 4

Jeff received an email from Emily Radish, one of his former First Officers. She asked him how he submitted his bid for next month’s route to fly. She said she would like to submit her request the same way in the chance that they could be paired up together. The training and the knowledge he gave her she said was why she wanted to do this.

He gave her the information she requested. In doing this, he wondered if she had found a replacement boyfriend. She was facially attractive and had what appeared to be a slim figure. He now was thinking if there was a possibility that something could develop between them. Then again, there was the saying that you shouldn’t be dipping your pen into the company inkwell, but he had done that with flight attendants and thought there wasn’t any difference if he was to do it with a First Officer.

It turned out that the route Jeff was assigned for the month was a good one. It was O’Hare to San Diego and back with a departure time of ten-thirty in the morning. Emily was also given this assignment which meant she was to fly with Jeff on this route.

On the second time they flew this route, Jeff had Emily do all the duties of Captain from the pushback, taxing, takeoff, and landing. In Jeff’s opinion, everything Emily did was by the book and there were no corrective comments he could make on what she did. He thought he would make a recommendation as to her being promoted to the Captain’s position.

When they had time before the return flight Jeff said, “I don’t know what more I could teach you. Your flying ability in calm weather is as good as it can be. Do you own a computer flight simulator program with foot controls besides a joystick?”

“Yes, I have one at home that I practice on.”

Then I would think you would want to set it up where you have flights in bad weather with heavy winds and where certain instruments fail you. Challenge yourself to handle all these situations.”

“Have you ever had a serious situation in flying a plane?”

Jeff thought about it for a while and said, ‘Well, it wasn’t me, but there was another pilot in our air group who had a situation with the AWACS plane he was piloting. They were coming back from a long mission and were getting ready to land, but the landing gear wouldn’t go down. They did all that was said in the checklist to do when that happened, but the gear wouldn’t go down. They were running out of fuel and were too far away for a tanker to come to them to refuel.”

“Like I said, the command pilot was a First Lieutenant and while he was young, he had a good head on his shoulders. He contacted the tower and asked them to phone Boeing Headquarters for him, which then was in Seattle. He figured that Boeing had to have an engineer on duty. There was an engineer on duty and the pilot told him of the problem and what they tried to do to have the gear go down.”

“The engineer said it was not on the checklist but to do this and then this and then do this. They did what he said to do and the gear came down. What they did is now part of the checklist on that plane when the landing gear won’t go down. I know it sounds phony, but that is a true story.”

“Unbelievable, “said Emily.

The flight back was uneventful with Emily doing the landing.

When Jeff had time, he worked on the painting of the golf hole. Eight days later, he completed the painting. He phoned Diane to tell her it was done. She said if he didn’t mind, she would drive to his place to pick it up. She said she would like to see the other paintings he said he had. Jeff gave her his address and she said she would be over tomorrow at around four.

Diane seeing the painting was pleased. She said her Dad would be excited to receive the painting that she was going to give him as a gift on his birthday. She looked at Jeff’s other paintings and asked if he would mind if she took some photos of them. He told her to go right ahead.

She had taken the photos and was getting ready to leave when Jeff said, “I see that you are not wearing a wedding ring. If it doesn’t present a problem, can I take you out to dinner now?”

“Why would you want to take what some people would say was a spinster librarian out to dinner?”

“It’s just that I find you to be intelligent and attractive, and I think we could have a nice time.”

He could see his remark was a little bit of a stunner and she didn’t immediately respond. After about ten seconds she made a decision and said, “Yes, we can do that, but I need to make a phone call first.” She made the call but Jeff couldn’t hear what she said.

They both drove their cars to the Maplewood restaurant, where they entered and were shown to a table. Both of them ordered an adult beverage before perusing the menu.

Jeff enjoyed dining with Diane. She was a good conversationalist and asked Jeff several questions about his life and being a pilot. That he was single and never married was mentioned. Diane, in turn, said she married soon after college to Steve Curtis who like her father, is a successful attorney. The marriage lasted for close to five years, but then they both agreed on a divorce. She maintains a cordial relationship with Steve who has since remarried.

Diane explained the reason she took photos of Jeff’s oil paintings. “A friend of my mother’s owns an art gallery. She is looking for paintings to show and sell. I am going to show her these photos as well as have her look at your golf hole painting and see what she says about your work. I will let you know what she says about your paintings. You might want to consider letting her sell your paintings if she thinks she can do that.”