Chapter 35

Steve

It's amazing how well an operation can function without micro managing all the various components. Abe had delegated the job of developing the new military vehicle to a sharp young man from his rebuild shop. His qualifications were six years in the Army in a mechanized infantry outfit.

His name is Gilbert Mary, but everyone called him 'Chance' for some reason. If someone called him by his last name, Chance would get a dark face and look threateningly at the mouthy person.

Anyway, Chance had taken the challenge and was working furiously on three separate projects. He was working on a small troop vehicle like the Humvee, but a little smaller, and just a little larger than a Jeep. The second vehicle was a wheeled armored personnel carrier with a gun, and the third was a tracked vehicle that was a cross between a tank and an APC.

Every time I saw Chance working on the small troop vehicle, it got larger until it rivaled the Humvee in size, but actually had more usable room inside. Chance was experimenting with multiple styles of the same product. He made some open, some partially open, some that were more like utility trucks, and some enclosed with gun positions.

Jeff was having fun, as Chance would sketch an idea and Jeff would put it into his CAD and work up the body. They would argue over what the use of the vehicle would be for, and finally agree on a design. Jeff would immediately cast the body to fit the universal frame they had made so they could test the vehicle to see how functional it was.

Abe had contributed two types of engines. One was a heavy diesel and another lighter, less powerful, diesel. He didn't want to use a gasoline engine as he said it was not as efficient and was more hazardous. Abe advised us that Sherman tanks in WWII, with gasoline engines, were called "Ronsons" by their crews, because they lit up like torches whenever they were scratched. They were using GM transmissions instead of designing one of their own, but said they could if it became necessary.

At breakfast one morning, Abe told me, "Chance is ready to show someone what he has. He has the small utility vehicle in four basic body styles, a wheeled APC, and his version of a tank vehicle. The least acceptable is the tank type vehicle. So far it has taken some heavy hits from rockets, small arms, and even a 120 millimeter tank round. The big round disabled the vehicle, but it appeared that the occupants might have survived. They would be deaf and possibly have some broken bones, but would be alive. We were able to get the vehicle running again within fifteen minutes. So it did well, it's just not big enough to be really threatening."

Abe said, "I'm going to use that new accountant guy that Sue has to help set up a review by the military. We're not going to try to sell them on the product, but show them our materials and why their suppliers should use our material and have us cast parts for them."

"Good deal, Abe, set it up. That should be an interesting presentation. Will the presentation be held here?"

Chance was now with us and said, "Of course, we'll show them the vehicles here, give them some rides, then we'll have the helicopter folks take us out to the bombing range. There, we'll mistreat the vehicles for the folks by driving them over bad terrain, and then we'll shoot at them. We are going to have multiple types of ordinance fired at the various vehicles, with the finale a couple of fighters strafing the APC, and finally, firing a rocket at it. We've tested it several times, and the vehicle has stood up so far. I think we'll turn some heads."

"That's exciting, guys. Make sure you let me know when it is. I want to be there for the show."

Wes came over, with Jimmy tagging along with him. Wes said, "Speaking of shows, we have an FAA observer coming this morning to watch our first test flight. Jimmy is going to fly the biplane and the air coupe. Something I didn't tell you was that we did build the second biplane with a smaller engine for the LSA designation. They will still be considered experimental when individuals build them, but they are really nice."

I asked, "So tell me, do you only have one air coupe?"

Wes grinned, "No, I built the other one, but with a full deck of avionics. They fit very nicely and don't add that much weight to the plane. We are still in good shape for a little over four hundred pounds of human and about a hundred pounds of luggage. With a full load of fuel, we'll be under max weight by over a hundred pounds."

Wes asked, "Will you come out to watch this morning? This is pretty exciting."

I said, "I wouldn't miss it, and I bet there are a lot of other folks that will want to watch." I turned to Tiny and said, "Use the PA and announce that we are going to flight test our new aircraft this morning. Jimmy is going to do initial test flights in four aircraft.

While Tiny was announcing the test flights, I called Chuck and told him, "I don't know what your schedule is today, but Jimmy is going to test four of Wes' creations this morning. I'm not sure of how this works with the FAA guy, but this is also a defining moment for Wes."

Chuck said, "I'll be there. I'm scheduled for some Schweizer flight time. I'm coming up on a hundred hours and feel pretty confident. I think I can fly any of the helicopters we have except the Sikorsky."

I said, "You've really taken to those rotary wing aircraft, Chuck. I'm surprised you have such a touch with them. It's no wonder though, the way you took to flying as well as you did. Sue and I are still struggling to land on the platforms. We just can't hover that well."

Chuck said, "I'll stay and watch the test flights then I need to get over to Baton Rouge today. I won't be there long, but I need to get there."

The patio was soon almost empty as people headed out to their various workplaces. Sue, Mercy, Kathy, and Juanita came with me to the airpark. When we got there, we could see Chuck messing with one of the little helicopters. Mercy said, "I'm going to see if Chuck will give me a ride."

She walked over to Chuck as he was checking the little Schweizer. They had a conversation and Chuck pointed at the left seat of the cockpit. Soon, the two were in a helicopter with the blades spinning. Chuck lifted off and gently drifted sideways out to the open field where the helicopters practiced their maneuvers. We watched as Chuck spun the helicopter around a couple of times then raised straight up to begin to go around in circles in one direction, then changed direction to do them the other way.

Chuck did something that I hadn't seen before. He went to the far end of the field and went from end to end going up and down as if he were flying over small hills. He actually did this pretty fast. Then to show off, he landed in the middle of the big painted circle right on the X. When he lifted up, he made his way over to the platform and gently set the helicopter down right in the middle of the platform. Chuck was really good.

After he shut down, Mercy came bouncing out of the helicopter with a big grin on her face. She said, "Wow, that's fun. I have to learn to do that."

Just what I need, multiple wives wanting to learn to fly helicopters.

The FAA inspector had inspected all four aircraft and was very impressed at their precision. He said, "If these fly as nice as they look, you may have a winner. I hope these biplanes fly nice, I love these things."

Jimmy wanted to fly the small basic air coupe first. The aircraft was out on the tarmac where Jimmy gave it one last physical check. When he was inside the cockpit with the headset on, he radioed the inspector to establish contact then started the perfect motor that Abe had supplied.

Jimmy and Wes had gone through the startup multiple times, so this was routine by now. We heard Jimmy request permission to taxi and he was granted access straight through to the runway.

We watched as Jimmy went to the apron of the runway, ran up the engine, and released the brakes. The little plane didn't use five hundred feet before it leaped into the air. Jimmy took it up to about five hundred feet and flew back and forth across the open area where we practiced with the helicopters.

Next Jimmy began climbing and was probably at about five thousand feet where he began to try to stall the aircraft. Jimmy went through multiple stalls, as well as several severe banks. It wasn't long before Jimmy climbed higher, then did a dive of about five hundred feet and pulled out smoothly.

He went higher and dove deeper to pull out equally as smooth. The FAA inspector kept having Jimmy do various maneuvers until he finally said, "Bring it in. We'll do the checks on the stress points and see how it held up."

Jimmy's landing was very smooth and short. He taxied up to Wes' hangar and shut down. All the mechanics were immediately checking over every part and component of the aircraft to see how it took the first flight.

Jimmy said, "Wes, that bird is perfect. I'd fly it anywhere. It makes you want to see what it will do when you do some fancy flying."

The inspector said, "While these guys look over the aircraft, which one do you want to check out next?"

Jimmy said, "Let me fly the other air coupe. I'll put it through the same procedures so we know they are both good. I'll use the instrumentation to land. That will be an interesting experience."

The other air coupe was quickly in the air and Jimmy went through all of the same tests. When he finished with the radical banks this time, he flipped the little plane over on its back and flew upside down for a while, then climbed a little to drop over, diving and lifting out of the dive. Jimmy was showing off a little. The last thing he did was at full power; he climbed straight up and fell over to drop about five hundred feet in a stall. There was not ever a ghost of a chance he would get into a flat spin. The little plane obviously handled very well.

We watched Jimmy come in using the instrument landing system (ILS), made up of the localizer and glide slope indicators. He touched down flawlessly again and taxied up to Wes' hangar. When the plane was shut down, the FAA guy said, "Having fun up there today, Jimmy?"

"Couldn't help it, Sir. The little aircraft wants to play. You should fly one, you'd love it."

Jimmy had a bottle of water then began going over the small engine biplane. When he was satisfied, he climbed into the cockpit. Wes came out and handed Jimmy a leather helmet like the World War One pilots used to wear. Jimmy grinned and put the helmet on with the headset over the top.

Soon, the biplane was on the apron of the runway. When Jimmy took off, he only used the first two hundred and fifty feet. The lift on the aircraft was tremendous. Jimmy took the plane through the exact same tests and landed after about twenty minutes. He almost ran to the big motor biplane, and as he climbed in, said, "I've paid some special attention to this one. Be ready guys, as this is a real toy."

Again, Jimmy was in the air quickly and performed all of the tests the same as he had on the other three aircraft. That's where the similarity stopped. Jimmy was doing vertical climbs while spinning the aircraft. He did several barrel rolls, along with some fairly steep and deep dives. The FAA inspector even cautioned Jimmy over the radio, "Be careful, Son, you don't know whether it'll hold together."

Jimmy came down and landed, dropping the tail when the plane was almost at a full stop. He taxied back to the hangar with a big smile on his face. He was yelling at Wes, "This is going to be one hell of a show bird. We'll sell this to all of the show teams."

Wes, Jimmy, the FAA inspector, and another FAA inspector went over to some tables with forms spread all over them. While they had coffee, they looked over all the forms, initialed them, and put them in different stacks. Jimmy signed his test flight forms saying that he felt completely safe every minute he was in the air.

When all the paperwork was done, the FAA inspector asked, "Would you allow me to fly one of the biplanes?"

Wes said, "I would be honored if you'd do that for me. Which one do you want, the stock bird or the high performance one?"

The man went to the high performance bird and checked to make sure there was plenty of fuel. Jimmy wouldn't let him off the ground until he topped it off. When that was done, he went over the controls with the inspector and watched as the man started the engine.

We watched as the little biplane circled the field a few times while still climbing. When it was very high is when the inspector went nuts. He did rolls, loops, and dove while twisting. The man could fly and had become totally trusting of the aircraft.

While he was flying that one, the other inspector wanted to fly one of the air coupes. He took up the fully instrumented air coupe and flew fairly conservatively around the field, never going higher than about five thousand feet. The two aircraft came down about the same time, with biplane landing first and the air coupe using the ILS to land. When the aircraft were parked and gone over for stress cracks or excessive wear once again, everyone was excited about the success of Wes' project.

Tiny was showing Wes some spreadsheets and said, "Your S&S air coupe can be sold on the market for forty-eight thousand, nine hundred and ninety-five dollars. That's about as cheap an aircraft as is possible to make."

The second FAA inspector asked, "How soon are you going to be manufacturing them?"

Wes said, "As soon as all of the inspections and approvals are in, we'll begin selling them. We already have a few orders, we just need all the certifications."

The first FAA inspector said, "Well, you passed this with flying colors. We have to do this again within thirty days. See if you can get some hours on the aircraft and we will repeat the tests. That'll give you clearance to begin selling them."

Wes was sitting in a chair with a smile on his face. He said to Steve, "Thanks, Steve, for giving me this opportunity. We'll get these through a second test and have them ready for Sun and Fun. I'll bet we'll be snowed in with orders. Then I can make my next aircraft. I want to make that camper Jeff has molded for me. I'll bet that will be a popular little aircraft. Then we have to make ourselves a little S&S cub. We'll call it something else, but it will have both conventional and pontoon landing gear. Hopefully, we can build it within the same cost area."

Wes looked around and asked, "Okay, guys, we need some hours on these aircraft. You can't go far as we're restricted to fifty miles of the home field, but we need the hours. Help me get them on."

People were scattering as most had places to go. I watched Chuck take off in the Phenom and Lisa and the other little girl pilot take off in a G5. Two helicopters left for charters, and the big Sikorsky came out of the hangar to go lift a giant air conditioner to the top of a building.

DeDe came to me and asked, "I have a short fast flight to Mobile, would you mind taking a Lear or the Eclipse over there?"

"Sure, where's the passenger and we'll get right on it."

DeDe said, "They're in Mobile and waiting. You'll take them to Orlando, and come back here. One of our helicopters is meeting you in Orlando to take them around the city. We'll take them back to Mobile in two days, but I'll have plenty of people then." I was looking across the tarmac between the hangars and I noticed that the only helicopters in house were the little ones. I asked, "Are we really renting out that many helicopters?"

DeDe said, "You'll have to talk to Betty about that, but several of our charters now also include a helicopter for short distance travel instead of using a limo. The customers like the time savings."

Over in the helicopter charter office, I asked Betty, "How are you doing, Betty? It looks like you're busy."

"We're doing great, Mr. Sharp. We've chartered our aircraft everyday this week. Even the trainers are up for at least a couple of hours everyday."

I asked, "Do you think we need to look for more aircraft?"

Betty thought for a second and said, "Probably not. We do pass up some business, but so far we're keeping up. We could use a helicopter that holds more passengers. Some of your G5 fares want a helicopter to get to a beach resort or downtown somewhere. We don't have that covered, but that's about it. I think we're good. Ruth found me another pilot mechanic that is spending a lot of time in the air. He's been on a couple of fixed wing charters too. We're doing pretty good, Sir."

I told Betty, "If it looks like we're missing too much business, let me know. Same if we look like we're not renting them out enough. This whole helicopter thing is new to me and us."

"I'll watch out for you, Sir. We're doing well, and your company is doing well."

DeDe found me and said, "John's back from his flight to Miami. He'll take the flight to Mobile."

Sue and the girls came for me to take them home for lunch. There we ate, did our afternoon exercise, and finished off at the pool for some sun. Mercy said, "The Magellan engineer is coming back for another designing go around. He has videos of what they have done, plus some design suggestions. It took them a while to realize that there were two family groups with an unusual amount of women. Chuck's ladies have the size of the bed they want as they already have a bed that size at home. The engineer wants to have the kids in bunk rooms like the crew. They said we can have big rooms for both the boys and the girls. They think that would give us more room for other adults."

"How many other adults will we have?" I asked.

Sue said, "Mom and Mercy's mom. Maybe dad, but I doubt it. Merlin won't come either. Glenda and Martin are coming, and Maggie wants to come with us. Dewey may show up, and of course, we'll probably entertain the Irish a couple of nights. From what Chuck's women are saying, Don and Jan may come over to be with us a little while, along with Wanda and John. Dennis and Marie are planning on coming with us for most of the trip too."

I asked Kathy, "How many of the older kids do you think will come?"

Kathy said, "Barb will come, and possibly Ben, but the other two are not going to be able to get off. The military has them tied up now. Carl should have passed on the academy but he said it was too good an opportunity to pass up. J.J. should finish all of his training next month. His unit is due to rotate for a tour in Afghanistan. We'll have to worry about him then. The only thing that will keep him here longer is if he is accepted in SEAL training. He was recommended and has applied."