Chapter 4: N1BF

{date:+7a}

I had a pile of luggage on the door stoop at noon and Josh double-parked as we loaded it all into the back of the Porsche. I ended up with my bulky coat on my lap. I wondered how it would fit in the overhead compartment on the plane. Today’s morning temperature in Aspen was forecast to be about twenty degrees.

As we pulled away from my apartment, I noted that Josh headed in the opposite direction from Boston’s Logan Airport.

“What gives? Where are you taking me?” I asked.

Josh smiled and said, “Remember, just go with the flow. You’ll like it. I promise. I am not abducting you, except in the nicest of ways.”

I relaxed and enjoyed Josh’s skills at negotiating the expensive and fast car onto Storrow Drive and then out Route 2. Eventually I figured out we were going to the airport in Bedford, Massachusetts. I thought of it as a general aviation airport with a few specialized flights from time to time. The field used to be a military base and then a shared use facility.

Josh wheeled into the general aviation side of the field, pulling up in front of a large electric gate and pushing a button on the car’s visor to have the gate open for us. This was special somehow. As we drove through we passed row upon row of single-engine private planes.

Josh then turned abruptly and pulled up next to a sleek corporate jet. I noticed the tail number on the jet was N1BF.

I looked at Josh full of questions.

“My plane,” he explained tersely. My mouth fell open again. My ‘boyfriend’ owned a corporate jet! Oh, my God. He was even richer than I thought when I saw his apartment.

Josh saw my look of awe and added, “Actually the plane belongs to the foundation, that’s why the ‘BF’ is part of the tail number. It stands for Bannock Foundation. Officially, I get to use it for any reason as a perk.”

As I walked around the sleek jet, a lineman carried our luggage from the car and into the plane. Josh asked him to put the car in the hanger and the man drove carefully away towards the huge vacant hanger that had apparently housed the jet until sometime this morning.

“Who’s going to fly this,” I asked since there was no one else around.

“I am,” Josh said with a widening smile. He produced a small high-intensity flashlight, and then walked around the plane, even getting under the wings and looking up at the landing gear. I stood and watched.

He said, “Normally, this requires two pilots, but I had the instruments rejigged in the plane so it qualifies as single-pilot crew.”

After a circuit around the plane, he gestured to the stairway, “Come on, let’s get in and get going.”

Josh helped me up the stairs and into the posh jet. I started to head towards the passenger seats in the rear but Josh pulled my arm.

“Come and sit up front with me. You’ll be my co-pilot today. Take the right-hand seat and don’t touch anything.” Josh emphasized the last three words and I got the message loud and clear. He turned and secured the door to the plane after the stairs folded away automatically.

I think my jaw was hanging open again. He could fly jets.

“I don’t know ... you don’t expect ... are you sure...” I started blabbering and then put my hand over my mouth so that I shut up. I maneuvered into the co-pilot’s seat.

Josh waved his hand at the plane. “This is a Cessna Citation Ultra. It was built in 2003 and I’ve owned it since 2014. The engines are almost new. We will cruise at about 40,000 feet and go directly from here to Aspen, Colorado – a distance of 1,640 nautical miles. The flight will take about four hours and three minutes at a speed of 456 knots, give or take a little for winds at altitude. The winds are pretty good actually. I’ve planned the flight and put our flight plan on file.”

He helped me attach the co-pilot’s five-point harness and adjust the seat. He also showed me the quick-donning oxygen mask and a few of the other safety features about the plane. He explained that the plane had a small ‘head’ if I needed relief as well as a small galley that had been stocked with sandwiches, soft drinks and coffee for our flight.

With that, Josh finished attending to his own seat and starting touching dials and levers. Almost immediately the entire instrument panel before me lit up and a minute later I heard an engine spool up behind us and then another one. Three LED displays appeared. Josh put a headset on and apparently was listening to something on the radio.

He handed me a lightweight headset and said, “Here, put this on. You’ll be able to talk to me better as well as hear both sides of my conversations with air traffic control – just don’t talk while they are, okay?” I nodded still awed by all going on around me. This was way beyond super-cool.

Josh adjusted the frequencies on one of the radios and I heard him say through my headset, “Bedford Clearance, November One Bravo Foxtrot at Hanger Two, ready for our clearance to Aspen, Colorado – Alpha Sierra Echo.”

After thirty seconds the radio sparked to life, “November One Bravo Foxtrot, you are cleared to Alpha Sierra Echo as filed. After takeoff climb and maintain runway heading to four thousand, expect ten-thousand ten-minutes after. Contact ground on one-two-one point seven when ready to taxi.”

Josh repeated the clearance instructions back. He touched one of the radios, changing frequencies and then I heard him tell Hanscom ground control that he was ready to taxi.

The tower responded immediately, “November One Bravo Foxtrot cleared to taxi to runway two-niner. Contact tower on one-one-eight-point-five when ready for takeoff.” Josh touched another button and the plane started to read off a checklist to him. He touched each of the items as the plane ‘spoke’.

With great excitement the engines got louder and the large aircraft started to move. I had a smile from ear to ear and so did Josh. I noticed the lineman outside the plane waving with two batons as we turned and left the hanger area. I waved a little ‘thank you’ to the guy. He saluted me with the batons.

We rolled slowly down one of the taxiways. Josh explained that he had checklists for everything and that we’d spend a minute at the end of the runway going through the pre-takeoff checklist then let the tower know we were ready for departure. He said the automated checklist the plane used was adequate but that the lists he used had a few more items on them.

At the end of the runway, Josh parked the plane and pulled out a laminated card. He vocalized each checklist item as he went through it, often pointing to an instrument or lever around him to confirm its setting. After two minutes with the checklist and setting some information in some of the instruments I heard his voice on the headset again, “Bedford Tower, November One Bravo Foxtrot is ready for takeoff.”

The radio again came to life, “November One Bravo Foxtrot, hold short of two-niner.” Josh acknowledged the contact. In another minute the radio came to life again; November One Bravo Foxtrot cleared for takeoff; runway heading to four thousand.”

The plane turned slowly out of the run-up area and made a ninety-degree turn onto the runway. When the plane was right on the centerline, Josh pushed the throttles forward and I could hear the two jet engines wind up behind us. Then suddenly we were hurtling down the runway and just as suddenly he rotated the plane’s nose into the air and we were airborne.

Josh’s hands flew around the cockpit for a few seconds and I heard a communication from the tower, “One Bravo Foxtrot, contact departure on one-two-one-point-four, good day.” Josh repeated the instruction and bid Hanscom Field goodbye.

He contacted Departure and they cleared him direct to Aspen and up to seventeen thousand feet just like that. We rose rapidly and I watched the earth slip away beneath us. As we approached seventeen thousand feet (Josh showed me how to read the altimeter), Departure Control handed us off to Boston Center. Center immediately cleared us to flight level four-zero-zero – O. M. G., about eight miles above the earth. The radios then got amazingly silent as we finished our climb to altitude.

I’d been remarkably silent through the entire takeoff and climb. Now I finally told Josh, “So, I am unbelievably impressed by all this. I bet you’re trying to get into my pants.” I grinned at him.

He grinned back and said, “Nope. Been there; done that.” We both laughed.

“So, can we talk now?”

“Not until you open up the door to galley and get our two box lunches and a diet coke for me and whatever you want to drink.” I unbuckled and pushed my seat back and made my way to the galley area and served the captain his lunch. The deli sandwiches were superb.

As we were near altitude Josh nodded and pointed outside my window. A couple of thousand feet below us a United Airlines passenger jet swept by on a path perpendicular to ours but a couple of thousand feet lower. I grinned again. This was so fucking cool. I sure hope I could tell lots of people what a ’temporary girlfriend’ got to do.

We sat and ate. I collected the trash on my side of the cockpit, and eventually took it to the back when we were through. I got us new drinks. As I sat, I said, “I asked about your philosophy on life, love and happiness, or something like that. We got sidetracked and I’d still like to hear it.”

“Tall order,” he said. “I have thought about it when you weren’t otherwise distracting me – which has become most of the time in a very nice way. Let me talk about it – unless I have to talk to ATC – and then you can ask questions.”

I nodded.

Josh began, “Okay, first about family. I think my family is important – I feel close to my brother and sisters and we all talk at least once a week – sometimes three or four times a week, so they must feel that way too. A lot of our talk is about the foundation but we are open about how we feel about each other and I feel we are supportive. There are no hidden feelings, although I feel guilty for hiding my social status from you at first. Also, if I think Van, my brother, is being a dork I tell him and vice versa. That, by the way, is why they’re all riding me so hard about being my age without a serious girlfriend. We’re open about feelings and issue raising.”