Only Time Will Tell
Copyright© 2025 by Charlie for now
Chapter 2
Saturday morning, I took my “invention” for a spin. First, I figured out the coordinates for the shed, fifteen feet away, one foot up, and made the trip, successfully. Then I worked on a trip to Melbourne, Florida. I thought the best thing to do was to rent a storage shed down there, then thought about the locks on the door and a few other things. I could maybe get good coordinates ... Then I’d need to stop once on the way ... The chances of that going well without a site visit were slim, so I went truck shopping instead. I didn’t plan on going back there after I picked up the car and the plane was delivered, so I passed on the whole trip.
Pay dirt! I found a wonderful truck to replace my old one. Hard to believe you could still buy a gas-powered vehicle, but since the government went back to the right on the pendulum swing, things got a bit less insane and restrictive. It wouldn’t last long, but for now, everything was peachy.
Monday morning, I called the Embraer factory representative in Melbourne and placed an order for the set, the Duet, they called it. They had done this ten years ago or so and decided after its success to do it again. A matching set, a Phenom 330e and a brand-new Porsche 911 Turbo S, similarly painted and outfitted. Even the dash and upholstery of both were made to look similar. I didn’t need the car, I just thought it would be fun. I transferred a one-million-dollar, non-refundable deposit, and after doing so, was advised that another customer had cancelled their order, and if I wanted a Duet, Metallic Charcoal exteriors, with a tan and blue trimmed interior, I could have it whenever I wanted. The Duet was sitting in Melbourne waiting for a good home.
“Can I get some pictures, ma’am, just so the blue doesn’t surprise me?”
“Of course, sir. I just sent a couple of them. Can you take a look while we’re on the line?”
My phone dinged. “Yes. Sure. Oh, my, that’s a dark, conservative blue, and the tan is dark, too. That’s nice. How much for this set?”
“Well good news, and bad. Twelve point five, which is the cost of the units, minus the one point five the individual put down on the plane. It has been on one trip, a test flight, if you will, but was piloted by our people. It has two hours on it. There is one other issue, that is a breaking point for most corporate buyers. It has been modified, and only seats six at a maximum. There are additional fuel tanks in the belly of the aircraft that hold an extra six hundred pounds of fuel. We removed four seats, added a fully functioning galley, and left the small empty area behind the extended club seating arrangement trimmed nicely. All four seats in the club arrangement fold out to full length sleeping cots. They are quite comfortable.”
“Sold. I’ll be down shortly. Possibly even this weekend. Can your people fly it up to La Cholla in Tucson and I’ll drive the car home?”
“We can arrange that, but we charge seven thousand for delivery to that area. It covers the cost of time, fuel, and lodging for our personnel. Three of them.”
“That is totally acceptable. I’ll try to be there on Wednesday, if that’s OK with you all.”
“Yes, sir. If you are paying in full with a bank to bank funds transfer, we can send your own plane to come get you and keep that expense within your delivery fee if you like.”
“Sounds good. La Cholla, north of Tucson, would be best for me so I can get used to it out there. What time do you think they could be here?”
“Up to you, sir, but I’m sure a nine o’clock am pick up time would be satisfactory for us, then we can deliver the plane to you after you get home and can accept it.”
“Would Sunday be possible? It’ll take me two and a half days to drive back, I have an important date on Saturday, and would love to impress her with them on Sunday.”
“Yes, sir. It’s not impossible. I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thank you. Please let me know as soon as you can so I can get ready.”
“I will, sir. Have a wonderful day.”
“I will. Thank you.” I heard the phone click on the other end. I have no idea why that plane wasn’t already taken, but I’d ask about it when I got down there. Surely someone with eleven million bucks that wanted a new plane wouldn’t mind the modifications. Surely. It didn’t matter. The plane was under warranty, it was absolutely beautiful, as was the car, and I wanted it. I doubted I’d ever need to seat more than six people in it.
Insurance. I needed to call about insurance for the plane, but I thought maybe I should go to La Cholla and talk to someone out there. I jumped in my new truck and took off for my new airdrome.
I was surprised to see the condition of the airpark at La Cholla. It was still a residential airdrome, houses and such all around it. What was concerning was that it was a bit ... I’ll say sketchy, but it just needed some TLC, so I spoke to the airpark manager and got the lowdown skinny. Higher taxes and such had hit the residents pretty hard, but that issue was being leveled out since the change in the local governments as well. I asked about membership and was told that unless I was a resident, it wouldn’t be possible without a meeting of the board, and their approval.
I told him what my plan was and asked him how soon he could get them together.
“I can get a quorum for you now. What exactly are you trying to do, Mr. Chapman?”
“I’m looking for a friendly place to put my plane when it shows up on Sunday, and I don’t want it all the way out at Ryan or south at the Airport. I’d really like it to be here, since I just bought a chunk of the foothill over there,” I pointed to the foothills, “and like it around here.”
“Let me make some calls. There are five board members. Three of them I know will want to be here to make sure you fail, and one is in the air. The fifth, may just side with you if you are willing to pay a king’s ransom.”
“Get them together and I’ll see what I can do.” I looked around the park while people were coming and going from the operations building, and saw two planes, both single engine props, piston engines, taxi from their homes and take off into the wild blue yonder.
Even if I had to buy a lot and build a hangar on it, this might work. I didn’t necessarily want horses, and most of the people here had those, or llamas, as well as a plane, but I’d give it a shot. The least I could do would be to offer them some money to get some help and clean the place up. Maybe I could lengthen the runway to boundary limits and repave the damned thing. I just didn’t want to park in the boonies or down at the Tucson Airport.
I was walking down the transient parking area when the manager, Bob Livingston, came over to get me and walk me back to his office.
It was like I walked into the big cat wing of the local zoo, figuratively speaking. They wanted nothing more than to chew me up and spit me out.
Except one. An early sixtyish woman wearing a very conservative shorts suit and high heels. Very pretty, very polite, very knowledgeable. I recognized her from a picture on base, years, and years ago. The first female F-15 Eagle combat pilot in the Air Force. Maybe I had a chance.
There were four of them. “Good morning. My name is Charles Chapman. I’m a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel taking possession, ownership, of a Phenom 330e on Sunday. I would like to park here and am willing to offer some incentive for you to allow that. If I need to buy a small lot for my hangar, so be it. I’m willing to do more, though, since I have the wherewithal to do such. If I can make it worth your while, are there any of you that would keep me from parking here, regardless of what I can offer?”
One hand went up. An old man, short, stout, and meaner looking than a honey badger.
“Are you willing to listen, anyway, and maybe I can sweeten the pot?” I didn’t refer to him as a honey badger but laughed a bit internally at the reference.
“I’m a marine, colonel, and we don’t sway a lot. We let you in, then a hundred others, then what?”
“If I bought a place here, then that would be all right, correct?”
“None of the lots are for sale, fly boy,” the marine said.
“May I ask what you did in the service, sir?”
“Blackhawk pilot. Gunships. Southwest Asia. Nothing I haven’t seen.”
“Have you seen your runway improved, paved, and some of the weeds around it picked? Would it be possible to annex some of the property off the south end of the runway and lengthen it, THEN repave the whole thing with the new paving compound Limitless is advertising? Could you see your way for that? I just bought eight lots on the edge of Mt. Lemmon over there.” I pointed. “I’m building a new house. I’m moving in there with my new life. I’d like to move in here with my plane if at all possible.”
“Resurfacing the entire thing? Expanding?” The former Eagle pilot asked.
“Yes. Of course, if the city will allow the expansion.”
“We have an option on a bit of that property, Mr ... I’m sorry. Colonel Chapman,” she said, smiling.
“Charlie will be fine, ma’am. Thank you for your contribution to my profession, by the way.”
“My pleasure. I figured you recognized me by your smile. I’m willing to listen and think this over. You know we had that project bid out at one and a half million. The option to purchase what they will let us buy is for another nine hundred thousand. This place looks highbrow, but I can guarantee you, Charlie, after we fuel our planes, feed our horses, and pay the light bill, none of us have much left. We have not been able to do those things in the past. It would be nice to have a mile of pure clean runway, but I’m sure my colleagues are a bit skeptical of some cowboy walking in here and throwing three million dollars on the table.”
“Don’t be skeptical. I could probably buy the whole thing if I wanted, but that would be silly. I just want you to know I have the money to do it and the desire to make it happen. I DO NOT want any of you unhappy about it, though. I don’t want to go somewhere, show up somewhere, or try to stay somewhere that I’m not wanted.”
A middle-aged man at the head of the table, late forties, early fifties, spoke up. “You’re serious about this, Charlie?” I nodded. “Can you step out of the room for a second?”
“I can, but I’d rather not, and I’ll explain why. I’ll go back to my desire NOT to be somewhere I’m not wanted. If the marine over there is going to fight this, it will be very possibly not too much more expensive for me to buy some desert east of here and build my own airfield. That prospect is rife with issues, including FAA registration, fuel storage licenses and all that. You are established and I want to be part of your community ... If you’ll have me. Please talk openly but let me stay. I want to hear the negatives, if you have any, of me being here.”
The conversation went on for an hour but ended with all four of them wanting me to stay and help. They called the guy in the air, over the radio, and within thirty seconds, he was on board, as well. I never in my wildest dreams, until this morning, that is, thought I’d be knee deep in an airport construction project. I had to meet the airfield neighborhood charter, though, so in an effort to do so, I called my lawyer, got a referral to a friend of his that could help with land acquisition from the city, and we got to work. The wheels were turning.
Soon, I would own two acres on an airfield, as well as on the taxiway from my property to its runway. That afternoon, I hired Limitless to come in as soon as they could to start the survey and prep work. I told them what my personal area might look like, and they were to add that to the work list. Initial site visits were three weeks away. The board had approved me using transient parking for the near term. I wrote the manager a check for a hundred thousand and told him to add another grounds keeper with one task, and one task only. Vegetation control within twenty yards of the runway, starting with and especially near any lights and signs.
Then I called General Steel and asked them to start the process of calling Limitless for coordination, finding a concrete provider and assembling a pull through hangar big enough for two aircraft the size of mine, and include doors that could be controlled from the plane, the cars, and the doors themselves. I needed them to find a subcontractor that would add a bedroom, bathroom, and kitchenette, so that if needed, I, and/or another person, could spend the night there. I would provide them an address in a couple of weeks.
Yes, my plans were coming together.
Tuesday evening found me at The Maverick after a light dinner at a little place down the street. The bar was deserted compared to the Thursday night before.
“Hey, good looking!” I hollered at the pretty bartender.
Charlene turned and gave me a beautiful smile. “Hey, yourself, cowboy. What can I get you?”
“Just a beer, Charlie. How was your weekend?”
“Boring,” she said with a frown. “I worked around the house and walked a lot. How about yours?”
“Exciting. Rewarding. Successful. All those things and more. My Tuesday was even better.” She looked at me in question. “I saw you again!”
“Oh! Thank you! You’re going to give me a complex, Chuck.”
“Not my intention at all, hon. You are just the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen, and I need to celebrate that. It’s true, by the way. I’m not just blowing smoke. I’m also not just using words to get close to you. I’m dead serious, but I’ll stop now. Complexes are complex and I don’t want to cause problems.”
“A girl doesn’t mind hearing that they’re pretty, Chuck, as long as it’s sincere.”
“It is. Very much so. I won’t dwell on it, though.”
“Shucks.” She grinned, then left to take a woman at the other end of the bar a drink. When she came back, she asked me, “Why did you leave the Midwest, Chuck?”
“I thought you said you’d already figured that out. If I say it was the summer humidity I’d be lying.” She cocked her head and stared me down to get an answer. “Charlie, she got mean. Money changes people. Money brings out the worst. Can I tell you something and not have you change as well?”
“What, you struck it rich or something and the money got to her?” She snickered. “Yeah, right. A retired pilot? Probably Air Force?” I nodded. “They don’t make buckets of money. I don’t see how that would have changed her.”
“I also said I tinkered. I’ve invented some stuff and improved some avionics, electronics and the like. I put some change together selling my ideas.”
“Oh, still, a bit of money shouldn’t change anything between people. Hell, I brought quite a bit back from California with me. I don’t think I’m treating the world too terribly. In any case, you don’t look the type to be rolling in dough. Then again, I didn’t think my late husband was a drug lord. But, no, you just don’t look the type. You’re not stretching things to impress me, are you, cowboy?”
“OK, just close my bill. I don’t think you’re in the mood for the truth.”
“Shit, Charlie, Chuck, Chas, whatever ... Stop. Don’t go. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to open any wounds. I had no idea. What, exactly, are you trying to tell me?”
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