Surprise Melody Flintkote. Part Two
Copyright© 2019 by Old Man with a Pen
Chapter 46
I RETRACTED the GEAR!
Me! I did it ... such a feeling of accomplishment!
The compass said WEST NORTHWEST. In just a few minutes we flew over a town...
Junior pointed down, “Renfrew. We change course to dead west. East is 90 degrees. South is?”
I can navigate, “One eighty ... west is 270.”
“Very good, Surprise.”
Then she said, “Follow me along on the Yoke ... lightly!”
I found that the Goose flew the direction that the yoke told it to go.
I found that the foot pedals made a difference in altitude and that rudder turns were flatter than aileron turns. I had a great time.
I don’t know what other instructor pilots are like ... but Junior was great. But ... I didn’t know she was teaching ... if I had ... I probably would have been nervous.
We flew for a long time. Long enough to need fuel. Junior got on the ‘horn’ “Wiarton Keppel, Wiarton Keppel, Wiarton Keppel. British marked F 798, F 798. Grumman Goose. Princessapalia registered. Need fuel and potty ... and maybe lunch.”
“Wiarton, F 798, Is that you, Junior?”
“Nobody else is supposed to be flying my plane ... of course it is.”
“Come on down.”
Junior said to me, “One of the first things we did after the war was dump the FAA nonsense. IFF ... that’s a holdover from World War Two ... Identification Friend or Foe ... tells every radar station who we are ... where we’re from and ... if we’re legit ... where we’re going.”
We landed. I could see right off that the tricky part of flying wasn’t getting up and swanning around ... it was getting down.
Eileen Vollick Terminal received us with open arms. Well ... Arms anyway ... Wiarton is an International Port of Entry ... there are bad people out in the wide world and Customs is very interested in them.
I passed. They don’t get many New Zealanders so ... it took Junior vouching for me to keep me out of trouble.
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