Chapter 5

Earlier the same evening...

Jeff did go around to the Lunch Box. The kitchen was like an ant’s nest. Everywhere staff was busy with the preparation of not only serving customers out on the restaurant floor but assembling food parcels for distribution to the fire-fighters through the kind intervention of the Gift of the Givers NGO.

“Looks like I’m a bit in the way here?” he asked as he surveyed the kitchen.

“You can help butter the slices of bread...” Sue instructed.

“Don’t you think that butter would melt in the heat of the fires and make the bread soggy?”

“They don’t eat while working but are relieved every four hours to take a break. Then out of the fire line, they will be given a safe place to rest and that is where they will get the food,” Sue told him with a smile.

“Oh, you thought it through well.”

“I’ve been dishing out the food for over fifteen years! I should know how it works; besides, my late husband was a volunteer fire-fighter. I learned from the best!”

“This happened before?”

“The fire? Yes. A few times, but not on this scale.”

“Well, let me get busy ... I can’t stand around and make the place look untidy!”

“Yeah! If you got nothing to do, don’t come and do nothing here!” she chuckled and was joined by two or three of her helpers.

“Here, take this butter knife and that loaf of sliced bread and get going.”

Jeff did as he was told and started to butter the bread. A helper came along and took the slices of buttered bread away to another helper that started to place slices of cheese, and sliced ham onto the bread.

And so, the production line proceeded. At the end of the long table, the wrapped parcels were piling up. Some helpers were taking the finished products and packing them in big carton boxes.

An hour later, Sue checked on the packed boxes and declared that there would be enough for the first batch to go out. Washing her hands in the sink in the corner of the kitchen, she called Jeff over:

“Now, we can take a breather. How about some tea or orange juice?”

“Now you’re talking! It’s warm in here.”

“It’s the ovens and water boilers that heat up the kitchen. Come, let’s step outside for a while. There’re some tables open out front. We can go and sit down some.”

“Yeah! It’s hard on one’s back to be spreading butter on slices of bread. I did not count but estimate I have done around two hundred slices!”

“All for a good cause,” and they sat at a table for two out in the restaurant side of the Lunch Box.

Taking a sip of his tea, he looked over to Sue. “So, you say the Citation is just sitting in the hangar? What about keeping it running?”

“Oh, I’ve rented it out to some guys that wanted to go to the Kruger Park, and once or twice to SA Airlink for charters, but else I just go and start up the APU and charge the batteries.”

“But it must be serviced to keep the airworthiness certificate alive and up to date.”

“That I have done, but I think there’s something broken on the avionics...”

“How can there be something broken? What gives you that idea?”

“Well, I start the APU, and it automatically powers the panel. But both the PFDs show a heading fail error in red with a red cross over the ADF and VOR needles.”

“It should!” Jeff chuckled. “You first have to align the IRS before it will register the correct heading.”

“What is the IRS and how do you do that?”

“Are you going to make more food parcels tonight?”

“No. We have six hundred available to go out tomorrow. Why? Are you tired?” Sue asked, winking at Jeff.

“No, but we could go over to your hangar, and I’ll show you how to do the alignment of the IRS and FMC. The IRS is the Internal Reference System, and the FMC is the Flight Management Computer. And there’s two of each. One system for each side of the cockpit.”

“Boy, oh boy! It’s complicated. Where is my Cessna? But, okay ... Sounds like a plan. Anyway, I think I’m done for the day. Samuel will lock up at closing time.

“The Citation Ten IS a Cessna! But I’ll show you. It’s as easy as eating a pie.”

“A garage pie? I don’t want heartburn!” Sue laughed.

“Okay! Easier than riding a bicycle, then.”

“But I can’t ride a bicycle...” Sue replied, but with a sly smile on her lips.

“You’re messing with me...”

“So, spank me.”

“SUE! Never mind...” Chuckle. “Wee-men!”

“What? Can’t we girls have a little fun?

“Okay, you win.”

“I did not know we were having a competition...”

“Yes Dear...” sigh.

Chuckle.

The two, Jeff and Sue, made their way over from the Lunch Box to the airport in Jeff’s bakkie. It was easier to get into the airport from the gate just across the road from the Lunch Box, as Jeff had clearance to do so, and he always had his air-band hand-held radio with him.

Airport security and the tower enforce the law that states: whenever any authorised person needs to be on the airport operations side of the fence, they must have a working air-band radio with them and adhere to instructions from the tower to prevent aircraft-vehicle oopsies. Even Bobbie had a radio while travelling on the airport.

At the hangar, Sue unlocked the side door, and they both entered. Sue switched on the overhead floodlights and for a moment Jeff had to blink his eyes.

“Damn! You have bright lights in here. You just dimmed the rest of the airport with all this electrical current you are using in here.”

“Oh, I thought that all hangars are lit up like this.”

“I have seen much, much worse than this. Usually, you must take a torch along and shine it on the bulbs to see if the lights are in fact on,” he joked, and she chuckled.

“You’re a riot, you know...”

“A torch is safer. You can’t light a match, because with all the gas vapour inside some hangars, you just might singe your eyebrows off.”

This brought her to stitches, laughing so hard that tears were rolling down her cheeks.

“Stop it! You comedian!”

“Yes Dear...” he teased and again she screamed with laughter.

Jeff looked at the bright white and navy-blue jet parked in the middle of the hangar. The craft looked mean. The two Rolls-Royce engines seemed too big for the short fuselage. Prominent on the tail was the registration of the craft; ZS-SUE.

“She has your name...” Jeff observed.

“My late husband thought it was appropriate to have her registered like that. The registration was available, so why not?”

Still taking in the sleek lines of the Bizzjet, he ran numbers through his head. The aircraft is capable of Mach 0.92 at between 31000 and 37000 feet and can cruse at 525 KIAS at her max altitude of 51000. A fast and agile craft, but an expensive one to maintain and fly.

“What did your late husband use it for?”

“He had business dealings in Africa. He used to fly to Botswana, Namibia, and the DRC.”

“This is a two-pilot ship. He did not fly it alone, did he?”

“No, he had a copilot that used to fly with him, and sometimes he would take some of his staff with him...”

“You miss him, don’t you, Sue?”

“I miss him every day...” and for a moment a cloud passed in front of her eyes. Then she shook her blond hair and looked up at him. “But ten years is a long time ... I have to move on...”

“Is it one of the reasons you want to sell the jet?”

“Maybe...” Sue looked thoughtful for a moment, and then continued. “But that means if I need to get rid of everything he left me, I’ve got to sell the yacht too. No, Jeff, time has come for me to tread a new path ... to make new memories ... the ones I have are good and sweet ... but it is over...”

Jeff reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Sometimes it’s good to remember, but eventually you need to let it go...”

“Now is my time to let it go ... And maybe it’s time for you to let it go as well...”

“Why do you say that?”

“I can see that you have been burned also. Burned badly...”

“Yes ... that’s true ... But let’s go to the office up front and let me show you how to show this baby where she is at.”

“Yes, Jeff, but when the time is right ... we’ll trade sad stories...”

“Yeah ... We will, but first, let’s open the hangar doors and get the air conditioner going.”

“Why? It’s not that hot in here...”

“No, it’s not, but when you start up that APU in this closed environment, you might just gas yourself with the burnt A1-jet fumes. We don’t want that, do we?”

“Gee, I never thought about that! Maybe that’s why I always had a headache after running her inside the hangar.”

“Kiddo! First lesson in running turbine engines: Do it outside in the open!”

“We’re not going to run her engines, are we?”

“Although there’re two generators more to charge the batteries, we will leave the big boys silent for now,” he replied as he opened the cabin door and let the air-stairs out. “Ladies first!”

“Why, thank you!” she purred as she went up the air-stair to the cabin. Jeff followed after he opened the motorised hangar doors and switched on the hangar air conditioner.

“When last were you here?” he asked as he entered the cabin.

“Two weeks ago, why?”

“It smells like gardenias in here. Not like an aircraft that was shut for two weeks.”

“Oh, that!” Sue chuckled. “Look over in the galley, I’ve put a holder with pot-pourri there.”

“Just remember to put out some Ratex as well.”

“Ratex?”

“Rats like to chow on aircraft wiring ... Build themselves sixty room chalets in a dark corner of the fuselage...”

“Oh!”

“Yeah ... You don’t want to find out after a take-off that something serious is not working. Like the pressurization system, or the heating system, or the oxygen release system...”

“Stop it! You are just convincing me more and more to just sell the crate!”

“No! You will not! We are going to have some fun with her yet, Kiddo.”

Sue giggled. A forty-five-year-old woman giggled like a teenager.

“Now, park yourself in the right seat and start the APU,”

“Aye-aye, Captain!”

“We’re in an aircraft, not on a ship!”

“Rodger, Skipper!”

“Oh, brother...”

Giggle.

“Now, you know the procedure for getting the Auxiliary Power Unit up and running?”

“Course I do! I’ve done it before...”

“Right, get it running.”

With a flick of a few switches, Sue got the APU started, and the whine from the back of the aircraft grew as the APU turbine engine started up.

“See! I can be useful for something!”

“Yeah.” Jeff groaned and watched the numbers on the little display running up. Sue set some more switches to relay the current from the APU generator to the main batteries.

“Nice! Don’t switch on the bleed air to the main engines, we’re not going to start them. Now watch. First see the ‘Database Out Of Date’ thing displayed on both the Flight Management Computers?”

“Yes.”

“Now press the CLEAR button on both systems,” he instructed, and she complied.

“Next, press the bottom button on the right side of the display to set the LOCATION from the GPS.”

“Will it work? We are inside the hangar; will the GPS get a signal?” Sue questioned.

“This is a Garmin G5000 avionics suite glass cockpit. The GPS chips inside these units are of the most sensitive in the industry and will receive the GPS signal inside this hangar.”

“Oh...”

“Besides, I can see your late husband was a real good pilot and left nothing to chance ... He installed a GPS repeater system inside the hangar. So, we’re good.”

“I did not notice...” Sue replied, and then pressed the button to retrieve the GPS position.

“Okay, now you have three choices. See the one that says GPS ONE LOCATION? Press the button next to it.” Sue complied. “Right, now do the same with the other FMC. And remember; GPS two will be the same location as GPS one. So, select GPS two on the second FMC.”

Again, she complied, and Jeff silently chuckled at the frown of concentration on her face.

“Good, Sue! Now the FMC knows where it is. Now we need to get the IRS to think the same way. See that round dial under the FMC?”

“Yeah...”

“It shows ‘OFF,’ ‘ALIGN,’ and ‘NAV’.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, now let me show you a trick that is not in the manual but works just fine.”

“Okay...”

“Turn that knob straight to ‘NAV’ and ignore the flashing lights.”

Sue turned the knobs on both IRS systems to the NAV location.

“Now, press the TEST button and watch the Primary Fight Display on my side of the cockpit.”

Sue did as she was instructed and as she pressed the TEST button, all lights on the IRS system went out. As the lights went out the red error message on the left PFD screen went out and was replaced with a blue heading bug.

“Now do the same on the second Internal Reference System unit,” he instructed, and she complied. The copilot PFD showed the correct heading the aircraft was facing, and the blue heading bug appeared right on the heading of straight ahead.

“Wow! Now that was easy! But there’s still a red cross out over the little airplane icon?”

“Not to worry. That will come right once you loaded up a flight plan, but yeah, it was a trick I discovered one day by accidentally pressing the TEST button, instead of going through the complete alignment ritual. Neat hey?”

“And you say it’s not in the manual?”

“Nope! Maybe the tech writer who wrote the manual did put it in, but some simple-minded engineer thought of making life difficult for us pilots, and removed that line of text.”

“Damn engineers!”

“Or ... maybe the engineer did not tell the tech-writer about it. We will never know,” Chuckle.

“But is it standard procedure?”

“No. But don’t tell the CAA. They might contact the FAA and have the aircraft re-certified and the manual rewritten. It could take five years or more.”

“My lips are sealed...” Giggle.

“Next lesson will be to get a flight plan into the FMC. But we will leave that for another day.”

“Gee, thanks. I have to go and write this all down somewhere for future reference, before I forget the steps,” Sue mumbled.

“You won’t forget. Not a clever girl like you! Now shut down the APU, and then the rest of the aircraft to cold and dark state.”

“Aye-aye, Captain!

“Oh brother ... Save a nation with such a woman!”

“You know, Jeff ... there’s more aircraft under the sea, than submarines in the sky...”

“Yes, Dear!” Jeff chuckled at Sue’s joke.

The next morning.

The wind was still howling around the cabin. The sunlight was hidden behind a thick cloud of dust, ash, and smoke. The smell of bushfire burned in my nose, and I knew that we won’t be flying today. Another day of sitting around and twirling my fingers.

I did my morning chores and instead of donning my flight suit, I dressed in a long sleeve shirt, blue denims and running shoes. Yeah, the shoes would be a chuckle for Jeff, as he knew I won’t be jogging anywhere. I just used them because they are comfortable.

Last night, Jeff went to offer his help to Sue in getting the food parcels sorted out. Maybe I should volunteer today to take the food to the Joint Operations Centre, and hand it over to Gift of the Givers NGO. They would do the distribution of the food parcels.

Thinking of last night brought a frown to my face. After Bobbie came down from her room, she was detached and silent, not her usual cheerfulness. That was just after she talked to her mom on the phone. I wondered if it was just the longing to see her mom again, or was there something else that could have upset her? One would never know, so I let it pass.

I was about to leave for the office when my cell phone rang. Jenny.

“Hi there! You’re up early?” I greeted.

“My normal time. Morning, Louis. Are you coming into the office?”

“Yeah, on my way, actually,” I replied.

“Good, come around to my office first. There’s something we need to discuss.”

“Oh, okay ... I’ll be there, ten or so minutes. I’m going out the door now.”

“No rush but drop by first. I’ve got coffee going.”

“Oh, goody! See you just now. Bye!”

“Bye, Louis.” And she disconnected.

Arriving at the office, I parked my bakkie next to my office and made over to Jenny’s. In this howling wind, her office door was shut, but one can understand that. I opened the door and went in, ensuring to close it behind me. I had to use some force, as the wind was battering hard against the door.