Chapter 26

There was some commotion in the bed, so I opened my eyes and saw Bobby getting out of bed. A three hundred fifty pound beauty isn't very graceful getting out of bed. Wanda and Jan were both watching and must have seen my eyes open. They smiled. Bobby turned and came around the bed to give me a kiss. "You got back fast, just four days. The way John talked, it was going to be a couple of weeks. Go back to sleep, I'm sure you have at least one incident day coming."

"I need to get up and exercise. A good swim will do me good."

I got out of bed and went to the pool and all three girls came with me. We swam hard, making us all feel good. Marie had come out and came up to me when I was hanging onto the side of the pool and gave me a big kiss. "Glad you're back, Stud. I thought I was going to have to find a sub. I'd have to go out to that park to find one though."

Jan gave me a nice kiss and fondled me. "I need to clone you for when I'm horny. I go out with these women who don't know how to love me. You've just spoiled me, you know."

Wanda gave me a hug and kiss as well. She just said, "I missed you too. You are important to all of us."

Bobby slid in front of me and hugged me. She looked at me and said, "I'm getting' closer. You keep this up and I might say yes. Then what are you gonna do?"'

I smiled and hugged her back and bent down and sucked a nipple into my mouth. I pulled off with a pop and said, "Yum." That got a laugh from everyone.

After showering outside, eating breakfast, and getting ready, Wanda said, "Your boss told me that since you were coming in late last night or early today, you were not allowed into the office until Monday. There's nothing happening, so just stay away and rest up. This is Friday, enjoy it."

I was still tired, so I lay down on the couch with the TV on, and promptly fell asleep. I woke because of a lot of racket going on outside. I looked out the front window to see one guy on a big commercial riding lawn mower, one guy edging, one guy trimming bushes, and another blowing things around. I thought, "What the fuck, when did we get a lawn service?"

I called the station and asked Bobby. "When did we get a lawn service?"

"Since you decided to be a wheel and I made Station Chief. Tell me when you have time to do lawn work. There's also going to be a guy coming by to do the pool. He probably doesn't earn what he gets, but he does vacuum it and check the chemicals. He also does the hot tub, so if you see someone out there, he's supposed to be there."

At that second, a strange woman came from the hall with a pile of bed clothes in her hand. "What? Who? Bobby, there's a woman in the house, what's going on?"

"That's Maria. She does Frank's house and had Tuesday and Friday open. She does all the heavy housework for us and our basic laundry. She does a hell of job ironing too. Treat her nice."

I just hung up. There's too much going on.

"I'm sorry, Senor Chuck, I thought you were still sleeping. I tried to be quiet."

I smiled, "No problem, Maria, I don't need to sleep all day. I'll put some clothes on and get out of here."

I put on Jeans, a T-shirt, and boots. I pushed the bike out of the garage and shut the door. I was about to leave, but thought better of it, and went back inside, put on a big loose vest, and slid a clip-on holster on my belt. I cranked up the Harley and headed to Jonah's.

The big titted blonde barmaid was working while talking to some guy that I thought I recognized. I nodded at him and he said, "Johnson, Deputy Marshal right?"

I nodded, "And you are?"

Before he could answer, the blonde said, "He's my husband and he's a deputy sheriff so you better be nice."

I laughed at the outburst.

The guy said, "I've been at a couple of your confrontations. I was out at the airport a little while ago when that sniper was knocked down. You did a good job out there."

"I was lucky."

He nodded and turned back to the blonde.

Jonah came from the back and greeted me loudly, saying, "Double D, bring this man a beer and some of the chili I just brought in."

Fitting name for the babe. She must be used to the nickname, as she didn't flinch over it.

I drank a beer and ate chili while Jonah and I discussed our past weekend. He said he didn't think he could handle that kind of craziness very often. "My wife is nuts. When she gets a wild hair, she goes crazy. Between Bobby and her, I don't know which one is the worst voyeur. They both seem to get off on what most women would cut our balls off for."

I nodded, "Seems so, doesn't it."

"Stick around; the monster lady is coming by in a little while. She's probably ready to entertain you and me by now. She's just over her period, so she's hornier than a woman has a right to be. It'll take all of me just to take the edge off. If you stick around, you can help me out."

"That's okay, Jonah, I seem to have enough to take care of at home without wanting some of yours."

"You don't understand, Man," Jonah said, almost begging. "I can't handle her when she's wound up. I don't think any two men can. You would be doing me a favor. I'll take movies so Bobby won't get upset she didn't get to watch."

"Shit, Jonah, what's wrong with this picture.? You're trying to get me to play with your big lady, and I'm turning you down. But remember, I have my own big lady to try to keep happy."

"You're right, Chuck, it's my job and I guess I have to do it. Good work if you think about it. But Millie will just flat fuck me near to death sometimes."

"My heart bleeds for you. I'll send flowers, Jonah. I'm going to ride a little, get some wind in my face. I'll talk to you later."

I didn't have any special direction, so I headed north, thinking I could always stop at Park Place for a beer and shoot some pool. Instead, I headed over to the private airport to ask a few more questions about flying. Perhaps I could get a short flight in one of the little trainer planes they had.

I went through the gate and parked the bike in front of the charter office. The hangar on the left was empty of the jets, but the hangar on the right looked pretty full. Across the tarmac, the opposing hangar was open with a prop jet being worked on, but the eye catcher was a bright red with yellow accent bi-plane. Now that would be fun.

I went inside the office to see who I might ask questions of. Steve and Star were standing at a board, discussing something. They looked my way and both smiled. Steve said, "Fancy seeing you so soon. I figured you'd still be catching forty winks."

"Can't sleep while the rest of the world works. I did take the day off, though."

"What can we do for you, Mr. Johnson," Star asked?

"Call me, Chuck, please. I came by to possibly schedule one of the introductory flights you mention in the brochure for flight training."

"We can do that Mr., ah, Chuck. What evening or day would you like? I have openings for tomorrow, Saturday, at two and most days next week. After five it gets busy with lessons, but we can work in a check ride."

"How about tomorrow, it sounds like a good time?"

Steve was waving his hand, "No, no, no. If you want a check ride, you get one right now. I'm goofing off today anyway, so let me check out a plane and we'll go flying. First though, I need to check on my new toy. Did you see that red bi-plane in the hangar across the aisle?"

"That's a nice looking airplane. I didn't think they still made those. It looks new."

"It's a home built type plane. They are considered experimental, but are certified after they are built. I've only flown it twice and it's a blast. The little thing will do almost a hundred fifty and is rated for aerobatics too. Hey, how about a ride in that, then we'll go up in a boring little Cessna 150 series to show you what you have to learn in."

My smile must have been a giveaway. Steve said, "Let's go see if it's ready."

We walked across to the other hangar and over to the bi-plane. Steve picked up a clipboard that was in the plane and looked through the papers. He walked over to a mechanic that was working on the turboprop and went to a board to hang his clipboard among several others.

He walked back to me and said, "Pick the tail up and swing it around and I'll push up at the wing. Let's get it out of here first."

The plane was nicely balanced and easy to pick up. We were able to push the plane out and set it back down facing toward the ramps and runway. "You sit up front. The helmet has a built in headset so we can talk to each other. If you would, don't put your feet on the pedals, and if you do, don't push. You can feel how I push them. Treat the stick the same way, you can put your hand on it but don't push, let me control it."

Steve began doing his preflight check, explaining to me what he was doing. He checked the fuel for water, checked all the moving parts on the plane, moving the tabs back and forth. He even kicked the tires. He opened an access door, checked the oil, and buttoned everything up.

"Let's go flying. Use the shoulder harness, but don't pull it so tight it cuts off the circulation. Remember what I said about the stick and pedals."

I climbed up and slid into the seat, getting the shoulder harness over my shoulders and buckling the seat belt. My feet were on the pedals and I felt Steve pushing each pedal down and I watched the stick move around.

There was a click, and then the whirr of what was probably the fuel pump or something like that, just before Steve hit the starter. The motor quickly caught and Steve let it idle for a minute or so. The few instruments in the plane had leapt to life when the engine started, and I even recognized what a couple of them were.

Over the helmet, I heard Steve identify himself and ask for permission to access the taxiway. When the other voice said, clear to runway something, Steve just taxied over, pulled out onto the runway, and opened the throttle. The little plane didn't roll far before the tail came up and the whole plane lifted off just a short distance later.

We slowly climbed higher. After flying in the Lear, I had a misconception of how airplanes were supposed to fly. We were pretty high by the time we cleared the end of the runway. We banked back to the north and flew north above Highway 41 before banking to the West to follow Highway 52 toward the coast.

The altimeter showed we were right at five thousand feet until we came to the coast, then Steve took us down to about a thousand feet. He told me to check out the rays and the sharks as we paralleled the beach. We banked left again and began climbing as Steve picked up Highway 54. When we were out over farm country, Steve asked, "Want to do some fun stuff?"

"Go for it, I'm game."

Steve gave the plane more power then flipped it over so we were hanging in our harnesses. He flipped us back upright and climbed until the altimeter read over ten thousand feet. He did a complete three hundred sixty degree roll, followed by climbing steeply and falling over backward to slide into a shallow dive until we were level once again. We did some sharp banks, a fairly deep dive, and ended up with Steve asking permission to land back at the air park. He rolled the plane to a stop in front of the little aircraft hangar and shut the plane down.

Once out of the plane, he asked, "You like that?"

"That's what I want to learn, how to fly for fun like that. I might need to fly myself somewhere, but the fun part is what I want. I know I'll have to fly a bigger plane for Bobby to fly in with me, but we could fly up to see her sister in Panama City easily instead of that long drive up there. This little plane would be a blast, but Bobby may not fit in it."

Steve nodded in agreement, "Don't worry, as long you don't try to carry a lot of other people, you'll be fine. You have to figure that Bobby is two people, so if you fly in, say a 172, you could take one additional person, but that's all."

"Let's get a little plane and get bored. I'll let you fly it a little."

Star was smiling when I went inside, as directed, to ask for an airplane. She handed me a book and pointed at the number on the front. I thanked her and went into the hangar to look for the corresponding number on an airplane.

There was a bright yellow Cessna 152 with S&S Flight Training painted in bright blue on it. I walked over to the plane and was looking it over. Steve walked up and took the book I had and opened the left door and checked a gauge with a number in the book. He then pulled a checklist book from a pocket over the seat and said, "Let's do the preflight inspection just like you would do it if you were going to take a lesson.

We went through the items one at a time, with Steve showing me where everything was, and the proper names for the parts of the airplane. He explained, "This plane can have a maximum gross weight of sixteen hundred pounds. That's on a cold day. On hot days, the air is too thin and the plane can't get off the ground if it's too heavy. So how much do you weigh?"

"Probably one eighty, one eighty-five."

"I weigh about one ninety, so together we weigh just under four hundred pounds. It's not that hot, so if we add the four hundred to the little over a thousand pounds the plane weighs empty but full of fuel we'll be two hundred pounds lighter than maximum. We should be able to take off without a problem."

Once again, we pushed an airplane out of a hangar. This time though, we didn't have to pick up the tail. This one set up on three wheels. We climbed into the only two seats in it, and continued with the checklist until Steve flipped up a switch and held another up to engage the starter. The little plane started right up. As soon as the propeller was turning at a good speed, the little plane wanted to move. When the gauges all read as the checklist said, Steve radioed for access and it was granted once again.

This time we went all the way to the end of the runway and turned around. Steve explained how, and why, each plane requested and was granted runway access. Pretty much common sense, but I imagine some people still need to be told. We turned up the runway and we began rolling faster and faster until Steve lifted the front wheel and the little plane seemed to leap into the air.

We climbed even slower than the bi-plane had, but we reached five thousand feet fairly fast, heading north. Steve took the time to explain each instrument and what it meant. As he was flying along, he said, "Take the controls and try to keep the plane level. You can use the artificial horizon," he tapped a gauge, "to make sure, but try to do it by feel or sensation first."

I flew along for a few minutes until the motor seemed to be groaning. I looked at Steve and he smiled pointing at the instrument on the dash. The nose was up pretty good. I eased the stick forward until the instrument showed level again.

"You did what most people do. You pull the nose up and continue that way until you are near stalling the airplane. Fly north some more and try to keep the plane level. Let the plane do what it wants, as it will fly level if you let it."

Sure enough, as long as I didn't let the sensation that I needed to keep the nose up take over, the plane's attitude remained level. Steve had me descend to four thousand feet and asked me to climb back to five thousand feet. He had done that before and adjusted the amount of fuel he was giving the motor. I advanced the fuel about what he had done before and gently headed higher. No groaning of the engine, so I didn't stall or almost stall. I set the fuel back to where it had been to keep the plane level.

He pointed outside and said over the intercom, "That's Brooksville. Let's turn around and go back. Use the compass and turn in a wide bank until you're going in the other direction. We were heading at about 004 degrees, so I banked and ended up trying to get right on a heading of 184 degrees. I had to right the attitude a little to stay at five thousand feet, but I got it right. This would just require practice like anything else.

Back on the ground, we did the checklist and he said to leave the plane out next to the bi-plane so that the fuel truck would know which ones to refuel. When we went inside, Star smilingly asked, "Are you ready to sign up?"

"Sure, why not. I don't want this to go on and on, so I want to try to take lessons and fly as often as possible. I need to plan on that instrument school as soon as I have my regular license."

She went over the costs and said, "If you want to start studying your ground school stuff, we can get you in the class for Saturday and Sunday. If you think you'll be ready, you can test on Sunday."

"Okay, what time tomorrow?"

"Be here no later than nine. The class will be in the operations building. It will not be out until three. If you take the test on Sunday, you'll have two and a half hours to answer sixty questions. They are not hard if you read the material and have a lick of common sense. Here's the binder for the class. Read it through. The instructor is going to be halfway through it already as it usually takes two weekends for ground school. Good luck. If you don't think you're ready Sunday, come to the next two weekends and take the test in two weeks."

I could do this, I know how to study. Walking out of the charter service office, I found Steve waiting by my motorcycle. He said, "Most Fridays, we have a gathering out at the house for people who work at S&S and some of the clothing people. It's a lot of fun. I know for a fact that we are having a larger than average blowout to celebrate some company stuff, so we'll have ribs and chicken, and I'm told even a pig. Bring your lady and those other ladies I was told about. Free beer, free food, lots of good people. The party starts at five and usually lasts till nine or ten or so. What do you say, will you come?"

Bobby shouldn't be hard to convince, and she was the most important. The others may or may not come. I like this guy and his wife, so why not. "Sure, we'll come. Tell me how to get there. You said you lived in a trailer park, right?"

He gave me directions to a trailer park that was pretty near where we were. I thought I would just drive by to check out the place so I'd know where to go. I called Bobby, "We've been invited to a party tonight at the pilot's place near Land of Lakes, or Lutz, actually. I'd like to go. They are going to have food and booze and lots of people. Can you ask the others? If they want to come, if they do that's good, if not, that's fine too."

Bobby asked what kind of food. I told her, "Barbecue ribs and chicken, and he said they were cooking a pig too."

"I'm in," Bobby said. "I'll call Jan. Marie will follow us anywhere and Wanda will follow you anywhere."

"Then just come home and pick me up. If you guys want to change clothes and get casual, that will give you a chance. Don't dawdle, as Steve says the party starts as soon as people can get there after the bell rings on Fridays."

"We'll try to get out a little early like last week. We've all put in some extra this week so it will be fine. See you soon."