Chapter 6

[Janice]

It picked back up but now the pilot and her passenger were both alarmed. Bennie said, "Gently, climb some. Height gives us more time to decide what or where to do something if this miss reappears and is worse."

He continued, "I think we may have a clogged filter. If I'm right, we have a problem. Keep the road in sight and head for Churchill." I did both and climbed some more. I tried rocking in case the problem was something that would loosen and allow us more airtime. I continued to climb and we flew along for a few minutes. The miss in the engine became steadier and power was being lost. I tried to maintain height but the engine would not keep us up. As the missing got worse, we could at least see the airport in the far distance.

"Bennie, should I find a place to land while there is a little power or try to get close and dead stick it when the time comes?"

"Stay up as long as possible. This is a good plane and we might make it back to the airport. If we don't, we can walk back and bring tools."

"That's assuming we can walk."

"That could be an issue. Let's still get close."

I flew along gradually losing altitude and speed. I was flying over the road and saw a long straight stretch ahead with no poles. I said, "Bennie, that's it. I'm going to put her down here while I can see and it's pretty clear."

"Okay, Janice. Bring it in nice and easy. Keep it going along the road as long as we can."

I landed on the gravel road and bumped along. The engine still ran though it was propelling us along the road at a slower and slower rate. The engine continued to miss but didn't seem any worse. About two miles later, the moment of truth came. There were two trees too close for me to make it between them. Bennie saw it and said, "In about one hundred feet, turn us around and kill it here. We'll have to walk the rest of the way."

I did that and he jumped out. He chocked the wheels to prevent the plane from moving. I climbed out with our rifles and the emergency kits. "How far will we have to walk, Bennie?"

He answered, "Five miles or so as the crow flies. There are some creeks and ravines for us to cross. Otherwise, I would say go cross-country." I had the key in my pocket and we shouldered our rifles and the packs and set out on the road for the airport.

We walked along making good time and maintaining our usual vigilance. It was quiet and stayed that way. We made the airport at dusk. We quickly decided to prepare a meal and plan for tomorrow when we would fix the plane. We decided to load tools onto a four-wheeler in the morning. Bennie said there was a trailer and once the engine was running, the other could drive the four-wheeler back to the airport. I said that wouldn't happen. We'll pull the four-wheeler off the road but there was no reason to take anything back. I said, "Bennie, there's no one here and we will not be back. One four-wheeler would still be there and that's sufficient for any need we have before we leave.

The next morning, we loaded up one four-wheeler and a trailer with tools and some miscellaneous parts. Bennie was right. The fuel line was clogged. We pulled the filter and cleared the mess out. Bennie said, "We will get back and drain the tank and check the filter again. After that, we will prepare to leave tomorrow unless you have something else in mind."

"Nothing right now but I'll think on it."

I pulled the four-wheeler and its trailer to the side of the road. Bennie put a few tools into the plane and we left the rest. We entered the plane, went through the checklist for pre-flight carefully, and took off. The flight was uneventful and Bennie landed us without any problem. We used the shorter runway and taxied to our parking spot. We drained the tank and refilled it making sure the gas was filtered. Then, we spent the day doing little things and getting ready for our trip back to Winnipeg. We had decided to go back to Winnipeg before thinking about any different route back home.

After supper, we strung the antenna and called on forty meters. The distance was not good for the band so we just let it be known that all was well and we would be heading back in the morning.

That worked out well. We made the trip back to Winnipeg at a good speed and landed at the airport without incident. Bennie was flying us today and he parked the plane at the same spot as before. Before doing anything else, we refueled and went over the plane for its next trip. We roamed around a little and saw nothing different and no tracks of people or even large animals. We got on the radio but were still quite distant for forty meters. Momma said that we could talk easily on twenty but that we had no antenna for that band and forty was working well enough for short reports. We told them that we would vary our route back and would discuss that later tonight and make a decision. I signed off, "This is Bennie and Janice, your intrepid explorers, signing off and preparing to travel to somewhere south in the morning." Momma came back and said to be sure to call tomorrow and tell them where we were. Before calling it a night, we reviewed our maps and decided to head south for new country. Our first stop would be Fargo, ND, though we could go farther and might depending upon how we felt and how the plane was running.

Loading up and getting to the runway was quick. Bennie and I were both eager to head south. Winnipeg was cold for this time of year. We took off with Bennie piloting the plane and I was on lookout and navigation. We were headed due south to Fargo and, with the flat land; it shouldn't be hard to find Fargo. It wasn't. We were flying a little faster because we really didn't expect to find anything and vision was excellent. We flew a little higher, too. It was better and I felt we weren't missing anything while we could see farther to each side. We reached Fargo having seen no sign of man but did see a lot of cattle and buffalo. No people to hunt or control them helped speed their take-over of the plains.

We flew into Fargo's main airport and Bennie set us down. We taxied to the general aviation area as usual. Bennie wanted more gas even though we weren't in need. It was a conservative approach and I agreed with it. We took our rifles, tester, and pump. Bennie had modified the pump to have a filter to prevent pumping another problem into our tank. We found good gas on the third try and rolled a barrel over to the plane and began to pump. Bennie stayed at his task while I built a small fire away from the plane and the fuel. I cooked a small lunch. We were running out of food slowly but steadily.

At lunch, I told Bennie and he suggested we raid a store for canned goods and shoot a cow and butcher it. Most grocery stores would have knives enough for our limited purposes and we would dry the meat we would take with us.