Chapter 36

Waking up on Saturday morning is always traumatic. For some reason, the body alarm gets out of whack and even though you aren't supposed to be anywhere, you feel guilty for getting up later than usual.

I lay in bed between the sleeping beauties, thinking about the two injured girls and how they were doing. Only a broken arm and a broken wrist between the two girls isn't that bad, so you have to think that they were lucky, having been in a head-on collision. It's always traumatic when someone you know gets hurt.

The need to use the bathroom and my growling stomach convinced me to get up and get moving. My slip-on peg came in handy as I used the bathroom and decided a swim would be good. On the way past the hot tub, I put the lid back on and walked to the pool, took off the peg, and dove in. Before I could go a lap, Wanda and Bobby dove in, and instead of doing our usual swim, the two wanted to play.

After nearly drowning me for several minutes, we did do some serious swimming. It felt good to stretch my muscles and use them to the max. When I was panting by the side of the pool, Bobby came up and asked, "Do you think we can fly up to see my sister today instead of tomorrow?"

"Sure, if they have a plane available, we'll do it. I'm interested in seeing if you can get into the right seat without being too cramped. You need enough room so your feet don't interfere with the pedals. We'll see when we try it."

Bobby asked, "I know there's not enough room for Jan and Wanda, but do you think there's enough room to bring Wanda with us?"

"Probably, but I'll have to calculate the weight and consider the weather. If it isn't too hot, we shouldn't have a problem. When the 206 is ready, I think we can get most everyone in it. Since Marie and Angie are both small, the total weight may be about right unless we have a bunch of luggage. Every pound counts."

As we walked back into the kitchen, Marie and Dennis were sitting at the breakfast table eating cereal. You have to give the young man credit, he did gawk at Bobby and Wanda a little but he really didn't show too much surprise. Maybe his family visits out at the nudist park.

The three of us that came from the pool showered, dressed, and came into the kitchen as Dennis was getting ready to leave. He was going back to the trailer park as Marie had decided it was a good day to go to Busch Gardens. She said she was going to get Jan and Angie up to see if they wanted to go with them. Dennis was going to get his sister and a couple of Kathy's older kids to come along as well.

Thinking about it, I asked, "What would you rather do Bobby and Wanda, go flying or go to Busch Gardens?"

Both women said together, "Take us flying."

Bobby said, "I really want you to meet my big sister. You'll just love her. Wanda, you will enjoy her too. She's much more laid back than Millie, more like my mom. She has a bunch of kids and isn't fazed by anything. Her husband owns a marina where people sailing the gulf come in to stay overnight or to refuel. He also has some boats with crews he charters on the weekends or full weeks at a time."

Angie and Jan came into the kitchen, happy to hear of the planned adventure to Busch Gardens with several people. Since they were taken care of, I told the two women that if they needed anything for the day to get it together because we were on our way to the airport. I reminded them to bring their sunglasses as it gets pretty bright up in the air.

I purposely didn't call before going out to the airport, as I wanted to see my new airplane before we did anything. Once we were out there, we walked over to the maintenance hangar to find three men working on a really nice looking white with red and blue trim 206. Two had the cowling off and were doing something with the motor while another was doing something to the side of the airplane.

As we walked into the hangar, John came out of the charter office and walked over to us. As he approached, he said, "It's a beauty isn't it?"

I pointed at the plane and asked, "Is that mine? Is that it?"

"That's the one, Chuck. You really got yourself a deal. Frank said he'll have the holes patched and painted by noon. And the Mauser twins are obviously heads deep into your annual. We don't hear any crying or cursing, so the plane must be in good condition. Kurt said the engine had a tear down about thirty hours ago. He found documentation signed off in Mexico from a reputable dealer for the rebuild. We'll get the information into the airplane's log and you will have dodged a very major expense."

"What does that carpet look like? Is it bad?"

"Not at all, come on, take a look. If you use a good cleaner, the little stain that is there might come out."

I looked at the small spot on the carpet and since there was no smell, I immediately decided I could live with the small stain. I looked over the plane to find it did have a communication system similar to the one in the S&S plane. This plane doesn't go that fast, but it has a decent range, somewhere around six to seven hundred miles, and it has about a 150 mph cruise speed.

The one thing that was the dagger in this whole flying thing is the cost of fuel. The hundred octane aircraft fuel was running around four bucks a gallon. That's three hundred and twenty dollars for eighty gallons to go about seven hundred miles. That can get expensive. I suppose I was going to have to plan my use of the airplane very carefully. The problem was that something like the 172 was only big enough for Bobby and me, plus maybe one more person.

We looked at the plane very thoroughly and I decided that if it became too expensive, I could make enough by selling it to pay for a smaller plane and have some money left over to fly it.

I cornered John, "What do you think of my chances of renting this thing out enough to help pay for the maintenance costs and to have enough left over to help pay for me to fly it as well?"

"Pretty good, Chuck. The 206 is perfect for business flights around Florida and even up to Georgia or South Carolina. It's perfect for flying down to the Keys and the air is full of planes going between Tampa and Melbourne because there isn't any decent road to drive. Since the plane can carry a small group, it is very useful and versatile."

"You'll have to fix me up with a contract so you guys can charter it whenever you need to. Oh, I need to reimburse you-all for the hotel for the kid that flew the plane up from Houston. Can I do that in the office?"

"I don't think there are any charges on it other than fuel since the kid stayed here waiting to get on the charter going that way this morning. He was happy to get in the hours of free flying in a nice airplane. From what he noted in the log, the flight was very nice and the airplane flew perfectly."

"Let me go see if I can rent a 172 for today. You can help me make up my mind whether my weights are too close or not. Come on, girls, we all have to get on the scales."

Bobby and Wanda looked at me a little strange, but followed me into the charter office. They had one of those big scales like you see in a Publix grocery store. I had Bobby go first and she only weighed 344 with clothes on. Wanda topped out at 141 and I came in at 182. That total with a hundred fifty pounds of fuel was going to be 817 pounds with a max weight load limit of 830 pounds.

I looked at John and said, "Unless there's a fudge factor I don't know about this, we are too close to take a chance on the weather factors. We'll just have to do this another day with just the two of us."

John immediately said, "Use our 206. I'm sure we'll give it to you for the same rental as the 172. You have a hell of lot more weight capacity in that one and you are checked out in it. Besides, in the 172, you should probably go around over land but in the 206 you can safely cut across the gulf to get up to Panama City. You'll get there a little faster and it uses only a little more fuel than the 172. Just the safety factor of the 300 horse motor should convince you."

"That sounds good, John. I think I'm up for that. Kind of a long way from the 150 isn't it. Let me do the weights for the eighty gallons. There's plenty of room plus we'll be going only a little under two hundred and fifty miles. I'll fill up if the gas is cheaper up there, otherwise I'll wait till I get back."

John and I pushed the 206 out of the hangar where we had Bobby climb up into the right seat. She fit but it was a little tight. The passenger seats behind her were even smaller so she said she could keep her feet off the pedals. I picked up some bottled water and made sure the girls didn't need the potty as we would be in the air for almost two hours.

I did my preflight inspection and had to go into the charter office to get my personal log book. I made my notation and used my cell phone to call in a flight plan and initiate it. I made sure Wanda was buckled in and the side double doors were closed tight before climbing up into the cockpit and pulling the checklist card. I went right down the line to start up the airplane and watched the gauges as they all came to rest in the correct positions.

After warming up, I called the tower for taxi and takeoff instructions and was given access to roll down the taxiway to get ready to take off. When I turned around to takeoff, I had this eerie feeling that this may be my first of many, many takeoffs in the years ahead. We rolled down the runway faster and faster until our airspeed indicator was where it should be and the airplane became lighter as it lifted off smoothly, climbing upward, turning toward the north, northwest.

When we leveled off at sixty-five hundred feet, I punched in all the information on the fancy Garmin GPS unit to bring up Panama City with the estimated travel time and our measurements of speed with the variables of airspeed compared to ground speed.

I clicked on the intercom and spoke to the two ladies asking them if they felt comfortable. Both said they felt safe but were glad they had the headphones to keep the noise down.

There were a lot of small aircraft up today. We were overtaking what looked like a small Cessna out over the gulf with an air coupe going the same way above us and a little faster. We were definitely going to have to keep an eye out for traffic.

Right at an hour and forty minutes later, I used the radio to ask for landing instructions. They gave me straight in instructions and had me get off the runway as soon as possible to head toward the general parking area by the private aircraft terminal. After parking on an open tie down spot, I shut down the plane, got out to help the ladies get out, and strapped the plane down.

We went inside to find out about a rental car. Bobby decided she would rent the car since it was her sister we were here to see and she knew where she was going. When the operations clerk questioned me about my gun, I showed him my badge but said I was on personal business. The man was nice and said, "Happy to have you here, you guys always get free airport services and a fuel discount if you need to fuel up before you leave."