Chapter 2

Ed Hanson had come in at 5 o'clock in the morning to finish installing the rudder. He and Jared had completed the sheet metal work last night and Jared had helped lift the rudder and install the first bolt. They smoked a little pot and decided to go home and let Ed finish installing the other two bolts in the morning. Jared said that it was too dark to do it right anyway. Ed hadn't had any problem finishing the installation except the top bolt. He looked but couldn't find the bolt that was supposed to go into the hinge at the top of the rudder. Ed went into the shop and looked for a bolt to replace the missing bolt. He found a similar bolt lying on the bench. The only difference was the bolt had threads its entire length. Ed installed the bolt. It was a little stiff but a few taps with the rubber mallet and the bolt went in. As he tried to install the nut on the bolt he found that the bolt was a little shorter than the stock bolt. He could only get three threads in the nut. He installed the nut and closed up the access panels and tried the rudder. It worked fine. He gave the plane a two-minute preflight, which assured him that the wings were still on, and sat down to wait for the pilot.

Ron and Cal arrived within minutes of each other. They pulled their cars up to the airplane and unloaded the gear they needed for the fishing trip. They set everything next to the plane and then pulled their cars to the parking area. After locking the cars they got a coffee from the coffee machine and walked back to the plane. Cal started checking the gear while Ron started pre-flighting the plane. Cal pulled everything apart making sure that nothing had been forgotten. Cal and Ron were going to check into the fishing lodge and then take the inflatable raft downstream. They would camp out two miles from the Lodge. This was a man's dream, nothing but two pals and 3 days of fishing and telling each other lies. The fishing spot that they had found was one of the best in Alaska. Neither would tell anyone where it was. Even the folks who owned the lodge didn't seem to know about the fishing spot.

Cal called Ron over and they took inventory of the gear again. Cal called the items out while Ron checked them off from the list they had made several weeks ago. Tent, 2 sleeping bags, inflatable 2 man raft, blankets, a couple of changes of clothes for each of them, cooking equipment, folding shovel, hatchet, waterproofed matches and disposable lighters, metal plates, some old silverware, boots, parkas, raingear, and food. Ron picked up the box of food.

"MRE's Cal?" Ron said with a laugh holding up one of the packages of dehydrated and precooked meals, "Meals-Ready to-Eat? I thought we were going to eat fish."

Cal smiled, "Knowing you, I'll probably catch all the fish and have to feed you. You never were a decent fisherman."

Ron picked up the bag that had the raft in it and saw Cal's 22-caliber rifle hidden under the bag. Cal liked to fire his rifle at targets if the fishing tapered off. Ron continued searching the equipment.

"OK Cal, where is it?" Ron said.

Cal grinned and stuck his hand in the rolled up sleeping bag. He pulled out his "toy". Cal loved his Glock pistol. It wasn't good for hunting, but he always brought it anyway. The Glock would blow apart any small game. Ron shook his head. Cal would take that pistol with him when he died.

They started loading the gear into the plane. They stored most of their gear for the fishing trip in the back seat of the plane leaving the baggage compartment for the luggage of the passengers. The rifle was on the bottom out of sight. Ron didn't want any mouth from the passengers about firearms in the cabin. As they were finishing storing their gear a Howell company van pulled up to the plane. The driver got out and opened the back door.