Chapter 31

Steve

It was after seven when I woke up to an empty bed. I was still sleepy, but got up to at least start the day with everyone.

When I sat down and joined the regulars with a cup of coffee, Sue came over and kissed me good morning, "Morning, Sleepyhead. I know you didn't get back until after four, but it's unusual for you to sleep late."

"If there was not so much to do today, I would just go back to sleep for a while," I said, looking around while hugging my wonderful wife.

"I see you didn't have to go to DC yesterday," I said to Sue, before taking a sip of coffee.

Sue smiled, "We did go, but you were too busy buying helicopters and jet planes to notice. We were up and back quickly. They gave us new material specs to try out on a run. This kind of settles it, though. We're going to build our own material plant. Some manufacturer convinces the DoD to change specs to fit their material so they get the business, then the DoD gets a bunch of complaints from the field. We usually just go right back to the original material blend, but in the mean time, we're up to our eyeballs in excess material. The manufacturers make the minimum shipments huge before they give us any kind of discount. If we make the material ourselves, there will be a lot less excess lying around."

I asked, "What do you do with the excess material?"

"So far," Sue answered, "We make up a line of men's, lady's, girl's, and boy's, shorts, pants, and various tops with what we have. To date, Wal-Mart will buy just about any camouflage garment we make. We even used a huge amount of cutting scrap to make camouflage slouch hats. That was a real moneymaker. A couple of amusement park vendors even bought a bunch."

Looking around, I saw Betty and Joy. They were having breakfast with Jimmy and Angie. It was good to see them getting along and becoming friends. Betty saw me looking at them and came over to me, "Joy and I have found a place to rent right here in the park. That lady over there, named Betty," Betty pointed to another woman on the patio, "rented us a nice place, very clean, and two streets over." She pointed again toward the park entrance area, "And it's only a short walk to here."

"That's really great, Betty. It's nice that you will be able to be a part of our big family here. Today, you need to come with me over to Orlando and help mark all the equipment so we'll know how to unload it. What I will do for right now, is to move you into the offices that Wes has. I'll move him upstairs so you can be on the ground floor. You'll have access to both the helicopter hangar and the one where the Sikorsky is."

"The stuff that won't quickly integrate into our hangars will be stored in another hangar next door to ours. Hopefully, by the end of today, everything will be on its way or already here. I'll get Kevin to get some men and drive the vehicles over."

Betty asked, "Do you need Joy to come with us?"

"Sure, that way you both can get the movers to get your personal stuff and they can bring it over at the same time. Is Betty's trailer ready?"

Betty said, "It sure is, and that's a great idea. I'll be out of Orlando for good. I hate that city sometimes, and it has been nothing but nasty lately. I'm going to like it here, nice and friendly and, hopefully, peaceful."

Kevin had come over when he had heard his name and said, "It may be sort of peaceful around here, but sure isn't calm. With all these kids, there is always turmoil. They are always busy. What do you need, Steve?"

I explained about a bunch of trucks that needed to get from Orlando to the airpark right now. I asked Betty about the fuel trucks. "Betty, I guessed that both of those fuel trucks belonged to Alcam, is that right?"

Betty said, "Two fuel trucks, a van, two pickups, and a big flatbed that can carry a helicopter. You know you probably have about two thousand gallons of fuel in the ground too. The one truck is empty and the other is about half full, so you should be able to pump it all out into the trucks. The fuel is clean and the pumps are certified. You can make another trip if necessary, or maybe sell any leftover fuel to another company over there."

I said, "This field sells the fuel, but I'm sure we can work out something for him to own the two trucks. If he doesn't want them, we can use them ourselves and still buy fuel from him. He gives us a decent deal now. I would hate to have him suffer because we took over our own fuel."

Betty said, "That's nice of you. Those men from Alcam would screw their mothers out of a nickel if they could. They didn't trust anyone and they tried to steal everything. We had to buy parts with cash since the dealers didn't trust us anymore."

"Well, right now, Betty," I smiled, "we're in good with the parts vendors and have open accounts. Order anything you need. Tiny will give you dollar thresholds, but if you have to exceed them, call him for authorization. We have to rely on our people to keep the aircraft flying."

Betty waved at Joy who came over. She told Joy about going to Orlando and picking up the rest of their belongings. Joy asked, "Can the mover bring my motorcycle back with him? The trailer we're renting has a shed to keep it in. I think Betty and I will be good roommates. I'm going to be busy learning from Jimmy, so I won't be around much. I love his shop. The man seems to know everything there is to know about airplanes and what makes them fly."

Abe was sitting near us and said, "Then you haven't met our resident aircraft geek then. See that tall country lookin' guy over there with the dark headed girl? That's Wes, our geek. The man's forgotten more about airplanes than most will ever learn."

Ruth said, "And he works right next to you, and from what Steve just said, he'll have his office upstairs over Betty's."

I said, "He's engineering and building a new light sport aircraft. We are going to attempt to get into that market, as well as manufacturing and selling them as kits."

Joy said, "Wow, that will be great. That industry is about to explode. It's a lot safer than all of those experimental kites and powered gliders."

"That they are, Joy. Let me get dressed and we'll head over to Orlando and get this show on the road. We're supposed to meet the movers about nine."

I turned back to Kevin and said, "Bring the big tilting flatbed with a forklift you can stick on the back. Bring about seven guys so we can get the ladies' vehicles back here. That should do it."

I said to Ruth, "Move Wes upstairs today. I know you have the place wired up there already, so all you have to do is to move his furniture."

Ruth said, "No need, "I have about the same furniture upstairs, as down. I'll have to move his drafting table, but that's all. The alarm system is already installed up there, and is a separate zone, so he should be fine. I'll have that done and get the downstairs cleaned early, although he really hasn't had much time to get messy yet."

It took me ten minutes to do the triple S and dress. I took Betty and Joy with me to the airpark and was going to have Jimmy prep a 208 for me, but he reminded me that we were sold out today. When I asked DeDe she said, "Get Tank or someone to fly you over in a helicopter. You have plenty of those and I heard Tank say they only had flights for two."

All I could think of was, we have a bunch of aircraft and I can't even get a 172 to fly to Orlando. I found Tank and said, how about a ride to Orlando in one of the helicopters?"

He said, "I would do that, but I have a charter that I have to meet in about forty-five minutes. You're in luck, though, the little girl standing next to you has a bunch of hours in either the Bell 210 or the 206. I think the 206 is a nicer ride, but you might get off on flying in an old Huey."

I looked at Joy and asked, "So you can fly us?"

"Sure, and I know the 206 I want to use too. It's in perfect condition. I worked on it last." She was walking toward the helicopter hangar.

She had me help her push the helicopter on its rolling stand out of the hangar, then began a detailed preflight inspection. When she was done, she said, "Mount up, both of you. Betty, sit in the back so Steve can ride up front. I'll start introducing him to a helicopter right now."

Tank watched as she had completed her inspection and how she went through her startup. She was talking to me the whole time, step by step, pointing at gauges and listening to the rotors. She was smiling when she looked out at Tank and gave him a thumbs up. He smiled back with a thumbs up as well. I guess we were on our way.

With our headsets on, Joy asked for permission to access the runway for takeoff. The airpark was used to granting helicopters quick access as they would get out on the runway and head straight down the runway while climbing.

Joy called in a VFR flight plan as we headed toward Orlando. The helicopter had a Garmin GPS in it that was similar to the ones in the 172s. We didn't go that fast, only about a hundred knots but it isn't that far across the state. Joy explained that this 206 was a 206L-4, a stretched version with a more powerful engine. It can seat seven, including the pilot, and get up to a little over a hundred twenty knots

We set the helicopter down near the hangar where the office was so Betty could begin tagging stuff. I told Joy, "Why don't you get the fuel truck over here and refuel this helicopter, then fill both fuel trucks from the storage tank. Let me know how much is left so I can sell it here."

The mechanics and pilots all came out to greet us. A couple of mechanics began helping Joy, and the pilots said they could assist Betty and could help out in the hangars marking stuff as to where it needed to go.

The movers backed their trucks into the hangar and we separated stuff that we could put in our regular buildings from what would go into our storage building. The men were smart, as they began making an inventory of what we were going to store.

An hour later, Kevin showed up with two big trucks to begin hauling vehicles. The first thing was to load and chain the two big tow motors. Kevin then got with the mechanics and had them point out their tool chests and the company's special tool cabinets. Kevin personally used the forklift to gently put the chests on the one big flat bed trucks. When they were done loading tools, the big truck was loaded to the max.

They filled up the van and pickups with file cabinets and small parts, then finished filling up the other flatbed. When everything was chained down, he said, "I think I know where everything is going, so we'll unload everything and come back in an SUV or something, and help clean the place up. As the movers clear a building, we'll sweep up."

The trucks moved out in a convoy. The fuel trucks were full as were the two big flat beds. Betty's and Joy's cars were at the airport, so they sent them on to Tampa too. They figured they could get a ride from our guys when they got back.

Around noon, I had a couple of the pilots run out to get a few dozen subs. I gave them three hundred for two hundred worth of subs and a hundred worth of soda and iced tea.

About the time they came back, Kevin pulled in with his men. We were just starting on the third hangar and when I told the movers to stop and eat, they were very happy to eat with us.

We all ate while planning how to handle the rest of the day. Betty said, "I think everything is tagged as to where it's going to go. You guys are doing a great job inventorying for me, thanks. If we can get rides to our places and have the movers stop by, Joy and I can be completely moved today."

One of the pilots said he would take them and one of the movers said, "I have another small truck that can run by and pick up what's at both places. I'll have two men go so the loading will be fast. We're going to need another trailer for everything here, and I'll have it out here before we finish lunch. We'll get this done in a day. We won't get it unloaded today though. It takes longer to unload than to load."

I told them, "Bring it in the morning or come over and stay the night in the hotel, your choice."

The mover said, "We'll get a fresh start tomorrow morning about seven. We'll be there a little after nine and take the day to unload. That will work. We have to begin a pretty big office move day after tomorrow, so this gave us a nice fill in job. The men are all happy this week."

The pilots and mechanics got me off to side to talk to me. The oldest of the pilots had become their spokesman. He started out by saying, "I'm not going to embarrass you, but I have to say something for all of us."

The man looked around then back at me. After taking a big breath he said, "We will not haul or handle anything that is questionable. We want you to know we just won't do it. The first time there is something shady going on, we're gone, all of us. We went through all of that shit already and don't want any part of it. We fly and fix what we fly. That's what we do."

"Next, if you're good with that, all of us are willing to move right away. Only two of us own our homes and have families. They will be more difficult, but they are willing to move as well. We want to get moved, so all of us want to come over and hunt for places as soon as possible."

The men just stood and looked at me.

"First guys, I can assure you that you will never haul something that is illegal, or at least you and I won't knowingly haul it. We just don't do that. I respect the way you feel and agree with it. If you ever feel uncomfortable, come to me and let me know."

I smiled, "For the two who own their homes, get with our guy named Tiny. Everyone knows him. You find where you want to live and he'll work something out for financing and to buy your house here. We'll take the responsibility to get it sold so you don't have to worry about it. For the rest of you, there are condos all around where I live. For those that might enjoy living in a trailer park, I live in one, and we have a great time. I'm sure there are rentals available. Just see the manager of the park or see one of the ladies where I live. They know the gossip and will point you in the right direction."

"Now, while you are looking, you will be my guests at the Holiday Inn in front of the big business park near where I live. Plan on staying there until you find a place. When you have the place you want, again, tell Tiny and a mover will magically appear and you will be moved."

"The deal is, that you are all going to be busy very soon. Our sales and marketing group is already canvassing the area to market our helicopter charters. We'll be very busy, very soon. They will have the Sikorsky busy on a daily basis, so we may have to get some more men trained on it. Hopefully, we can keep all the other aircraft busy too."

For you instructors, there are several people to train in helicopters. Begin training with those little ones and then start right in using the Bell 206s and the 210. If we need other training helicopters, tell me, we'll get them."

Okay, for those who are the instructors on fixed wing and can teach the two jets, I have a dozen people that need to be checked out. We can do some of it on charters, but if we have to burn fuel to get everyone proficient, we'll burn it."

I looked around and asked, "So, who's going to come over and check in at the hotel tonight?"

They all huddled together and the lead pilot asked, "If we come early, can we come over to that place Betty and Joy said you have?"

"You bet. You, your wives, and your kids are welcome to come for our cocktail time and for supper. The other women will entertain the women, the other kids will suck up your kids, and you gentlemen will be beat up on by all the regulars that will be there. Go home now, get your families together and get over to the Holiday Inn on 41, just south of 54. Easiest way is to take I-4 to I-275 north. Turn left on Bearss, right on Florida, and a few miles down the road, the Holiday Inn will be on your right. Someone from the patio group will come get you. Or rather, I'll send a bunch of carts over to get you."

There were smiles all around as they high fived each other and headed toward their cars. Kevin had taken the two women to their apartments and drove back with both women. I asked, "Are you going to have to stay over to get it done?"

Betty said, "I had the most and it's moved. The van could hold mine and Joy's. They put Joy's motorcycle in it too and strapped it down. It will be waiting for us when we get there."

I said, "What do you think, Kevin? The movers have everything loaded and your guys are sweeping the last hangar."

He said, "Why don't we all make one last thorough inspection to make sure we're not leaving anything. The guys even took down the telephone system and all the paging equipment. I'm not sure why, but they did. You said strip it, they did."

We walked through the three hangars and decided there wasn't anything left. Betty looked around and said, "It's like we've never been here. I didn't think you could do it this fast, but it's done."

I said to Kevin, "Get your guys and get home. By the time you get there it will be quitting time anyway."

I said to Joy, "Let's get this whirlybird checked out and get flying. I think this is the last time we'll be here unless it is to pick up or drop off a charter."

Joy showed me every step of the preflight again. She didn't have a checklist and that was one thing I wanted to implement. When we were doing the startup, I said, "You did it differently than you did before. This morning you did some kind of reset on the instruments before you spooled the turbines."

She said, "You were watching. You don't have to do that every start. If the aircraft has been on the ground for an extended period of time, it's always good to do that. Otherwise, just begin the normal start. We have checklists for this and the other birds. We've gotten sloppy about using them. We'll have to get them back out."

"Good thinking, Lady. I want to fly perfectly safe. You'll hear me say 'perfect' a lot. That's the way things work best and how we stay in business. We strive for perfection. Everything we do, we try to be perfect."

Joy said, "I saw the signs over all the doors, "Is it perfect?"

"That's what I want you to ask yourself on every job you send out the door."

"Are you going to be tough to work for?" Joy was looking at me, while still checking instruments.

"Yes and no. I'm tough about the quality of work we give our customers. I won't ever beat you up on the time it takes to be perfect. I figure we make more by doing it right the first time. Just always do the absolute best you can. Jimmy is going to drum that into you. Tank is still learning, but he likes the concept."

As we lifted off the ground, Joy said in the headset, "I like that. I like the idea that every bird is perfect before it leaves the shop."

Joy had me work the collective and stick on the way back. The stick was like any other stick except if you pushed forward too fast the nose dipped and if you pulled back too fast the tail dipped. The collective controlled power, which you could turn into either altitude or airspeed, depending on how you moved the joystick. There was more to do when flying a helicopter, but I could see that it would just take practice, a lot of very expensive practice. I guess the big difference is that with a regular airplane you can trim it up and it almost flies itself, even without autopilot, but you have to control a helicopter all the time.

When we were ready to land, Joy said, "Okay, keep your hands lightly on both the stick and the collective and feel what I do as I set it down. I'll try to set down square on the rolling stand."

She did something I thought was different. She came down until she was about three feet off the ground, but to her side of the stand. She held the helicopter steady then slid sideways until we were over the stand and lowered the craft until the skids sat on the stand. She cut the pitch and let the helicopter settle and then went through about the same shutdown as you do with a Lear.

When I opened the door, I was impressed that she had set the helicopter down as square on the stand as was possible. When I complimented her on her landing, she said, "I've always been good at getting up and down, but have a hell of a time maintaining level flight unless I'm going balls to the wall."

Her delivery made me laugh. As Betty got out of the helicopter, she said, "These things are the perfect taxi. I can't imagine that more executives won't use our services. Did you know Joy had music playing over the headphones in the passenger area? It really made the flight very nice."

Joy just smiled as she began a check of the aircraft. She went from point to point, shaking and pulling on various parts. She looked closely at almost every inch of the machinery from the tail to the gear case under the rotors. When she was satisfied, she went looking for the fuel truck.

I walked with Betty to her new office. We walked through the helicopter hangar, and through a door that had not been used previously, into the office area. We entered into a hallway where there was a large break room to the left, and an office area to the right. Betty exclaimed, "All my file cabinets are here. All the flight records and maintenance records are already here, perfect. Look, at this nice desk, and wow, you guys have new computers. DeDe from the fixed wing charter said you have a great charter program. It tracks equipment usage as well as scheduling and maintenance. Whoever set this up left me a user's manual on the program. This is so nice."

Betty looked through her stuff for a while then declared, "If I begin messing with this stuff, I'll be here all night. I'm getting hungry. Let's see if we can find my car."

Outside, I looked across to the operations parking area and pointed. Betty nodded and said, "Yes Sir, mine's there and so is Joy's."

Tank came out from his little office and said, "So how was your ride over and back?"

"Great, Tank, you'll have to go with Joy to test her proficiency, but she seems to know what she's doing," I remarked.

"The lady should; she was an advanced instructor until she wanted to be in maintenance full time. She flew two separate tours in Iraq. The lady can fly; she just likes working on them more, kinda like me."

I said to Tank, "Well, perhaps she's the answer to your personal personnel search. I've heard several times you were too picky when it came to women. Carter told me once you almost asked DeDe out, but decided against it at the last minute."

"I didn't chicken out. She only knows fixed wing and loves those little aircraft as much as jets. I'm into rotary wing and like those jets. I figured we were two different people."

I said, "You're a riot. You'll have to check Joy out. She seems to like fixing any kind of aircraft. She likes to fly too."

Tank smiled, "Oh, I will, Steve. A lady that likes to wrench, and is that good looking, has got to have something going for her."

"Oh yeah, Tank, and did you know she rides a motorcycle? She had the movers bring it over for her today."

Tank said, "No shit; that might up her value a lot. I'll talk to her, other than about work, that is."

Betty and Joy came out of the charter office, waved at me, and headed for their cars. I was surprised to find Abe in the charter office. He said, "You having all that stuff in the spare hangar is like when you first bought all that equipment from your building at the auction. I sure hope you're as lucky with this venture as you were with your first one here in Florida."

Abe picked up a stack of papers and said, "They did a good job listing the inventory of what they brought. You know, you're going to have to learn a lot about these whirlybirds. I think we'll have to clear an area so you can land one of these by the shop. That way you can travel back and forth between here and there faster. I think your folks down at the shop will go nuts if you land one of these in the parking lot. You better learn real quick like."

"Come on, Abe, it's time for a cold one."

"I'm waiting for Alice. She went up to Philadelphia to see her sister and caught a ride with little Lisa. They should be here any minute. I kind of like that Alice can catch a ride to different places with you guys. Sometimes you can go both ways with one of your flights."

Abe kept looking out the windows expecting an airplane to magically appear. When a G5, or some other bigger passenger plane landed, there was enough noise to know they were there.

"Well, Abe, DeDe, I'll see you for supper." On the way home, I called the shop to make sure there were no emergencies that needed to be taken care of. The only person I needed to talk to was Chuck.

"Hey, Chuck, what's up?"

"I was just wondering if you were headed home soon. I'm at your place with all the women from my house, except for Lisa. They're just waiting for the men, or for some miracle to occur so they can gawk at it."

"I'm on my way right now," I told Chuck

"Good, I have a couple of things for you when you get here."

I said, "See ya in a minute."

When I pulled up, there were a lot of carts already parked. It was only four forty-five. I went in and Chuck handed me a tall Beefeaters. He was grinning at me as if he might have had too much. He waved me over to the corner of the bar and said very softly, "I think we just made a grand slam."

"What do you mean?"

Chuck was shaking his head and said, "Last night we found out that there was money supposedly stored on the Brazilian business jet."

"Okay."

"Well, Sarge and company tore the thing apart and found a bunch of money. I mean a bunch, close to fifty million."

"That's nice," I said. "Too bad we don't have it."

"That's the thing, Steve. We may get it all."

"What do you mean, Chuck, how?"

"You see, we bought those airplanes and they were paid for and title transferred to us before they found the money. Sarge says that there is an ownership problem. It may be like found money. My boss, John, called the Marshal who happened to mention it to the AG and that guy flippantly said that it was finders keepers."

"No shit. What are you going to do with it?"

"What do you mean me, what are we going to do with it? That is your airplane."

"Sorry, Charlie, or Chuck, but in this case, it's your airplane. You bought it and I wasn't intending on buying it from you. If there's a lot of money, it's all yours."

Chuck sat back in the high bar stool with a glazed look. He mouthed without saying anything out loud, "What the fuck."

I patted him on the knee and said, "I'll be right back. I have to say hi to the family and go potty."

As I went into the house, I got lots of hugs from four lovely ladies. One of which was not Sue. Glenda told me, "Sue called from Atlanta and said she was on her way."

"Atlanta? What is she doing in Atlanta?"

Mercy said, "She went up with Hannah to see about some machinery that's for sale up there. She's planning on building a material plant. She needs some special weaving machines."

Kathy said, "She already has Terrell out on the back property, figuring on how to place the new factory so it blends in with the rest of the buildings. She says it's your fault. You were the one that came up with making your own material to make T-shirts. She says if you can be successful doing that, she can be successful making her own material. She has already projected hiring another four hundred people. You better tie her down or she'll build out all that lovely property back there."

After using the bathroom, I went back to find Chuck still catatonic, staring at his glass.

I asked, "Where's John?"

"Oh, I took him down to Key West for the week."

"I thought all our aircraft were chartered."

"They were, but I flew that new Eclipse Jet. I had one of the pilots check me out in it and flew it down. It's not fast, doesn't carry many people, and it doesn't have a long range, but it does fly nice and it seems to be in good shape. I had to hunt all over to find the checklists for the thing. I don't think anyone ever used them before."

"So you're already checked out on both of the new jets?"

"Yeah," Chuck smiled, "how about that? The Brazilian jet isn't too bad to fly, but seems wobbly at slower speeds. You have to burn in when landing to keep it from wobbling. There was only about a fifteen-knot crosswind and I had to crab like crazy to land. The pilot who checked me out even said that it wasn't nice to fly in windy conditions. We'll have to be aware of that and land with some speed."

"So tell me more about this money, Chuck."

"That's about it, Steve. Sarge and the Marshal asked a federal judge to make a ruling. The Service isn't even bitching about it. You and I both know that it's money that they came about illegally, and it probably came from out of the country."

"Don't worry, Chuck, you'll have to pay probably close to half of what was found in taxes. Hey, if you have enough, let's fly to Hawaii and see if there're any deals over there."