Rendezvous II
Copyright© 2017 by Old Man with a Pen
Chapter 27
Hairy
Amy woke up and glanced around, the sun was behind the mountains. Denver is unusual. The mountains do block the sun but the evening is very long. She slowly realized that I had let her asleep for hours.
“You are a natural. Where did we go?”
I reached in the door pocket and took out the chart. I realize it’s a map, but pilots call maps charts. I showed her the pencil lines and the airfields I did touch and goes ... and I do mean touch. A bare skim and outta there.
“Fourteen? You landed 14 times?”
“No ... I landed once ... over here ... for fuel.”
“But...” her eyes got big. “That’s in Kansas.”
“I paid cash ... no paper trail.” Then I took out my wallet and checked the cockpit engine hours. “Nine at Fifty.” I counted out four hundred fifty dollars and handed it to her.
“Nine fucking hours?” she said. “God! I slept like a baby.”
She was looking at the chart ... and grabbed my logbook.
“Lamar, Arlington, Rocky Ford, La Junta, Las Animas? Walter Ranch!”
“Grass strip ... same as KX...” I grinned.
And that was the end of my lessons. From then on I drove ... she rode ... so to speak. She slept a lot. I didn’t fly out of state again ... but I did fly over to Animas Air Park and treated her to the narrow gauge tourist train to Silverton and a steak at Kendall. I got my shirt tail cut at the legal 20th hour solo. The next fifteen was trips, some under the hood ... she stayed awake for that ... you betcha!
Right at 40 I met the examiner.
“Drive me around,” he said.
I handed him the check list.
We did the list outside and in.
I fired up and away we went.
The examiner shut off the engine ... just like they all do ... but she wouldn’t start when he turned her back on.
That was just the beginning of a bad day. The battery went to zero ... no radio, no lights, no nothing. In this condition we couldn’t call in.
“Behind me there’s a duffle.” I said, “Would you get it for me?”
He fetched it.
“Your aircraft.”
“I got it.”
I had a battery powered handheld in the bag.
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