Chapter 12

The VALLEY

Star – Day Nine part 3 - Tuesday

This is fabulous.

I wake up each morning feeling even more excited than I did the previous day. I've got more men arriving; I wonder what Bob's going to be like; and Jennie says the charter market's gone mad. Even if she had twice the number of men and aircraft, she says that she couldn't satisfy the demand. It's our low pricing. Should we increase them? Probably not, since Tiny would say that if we're covering our costs and making a reasonable profit, keep them low. It would be nice to get the figures checked; we need an accountant. I don't think Fritz is up to it, though. From what I've heard, this is the sort of explosive growth that S&S had at the very beginning. I'd better talk to Tiny, as he'll know what to do.

Chuck and Steve keep buying more and more aircraft, and it's my job to put them to work. Only now, I've also picked up the buying urge.

We had a quick breakfast because I couldn't wait to get down to Spring Field, and Jennie wanted to checkout the fax machine before she allocated aircraft to flights.

"Well," she announced, as she chalked pilots' names against the aircraft tail numbers on the special boards that Joe Miller had made for her.

"Look at that. We've got Gulfstreams going to Boston and Dallas, Lears to Ottawa and Minneapolis, and a G-550 is flying to Honolulu tomorrow. I wonder what your friends there will say. It's too bad the aircraft don't have the CS&S logos painted on them yet.

"We're doing a whopping 47 charters today and we're using every pilot except yourself and Dermott. There's no sign of him again, I'm afraid. We're going to have to hire two more part-timers as well."

I needed to do something about the logos, so I picked the phone up and punched in the S&S main desk number. When a new girl answered, I asked for Ruth.

"Hi. It's Star, how are you?"

After a quick exchange of pleasantries and catching up, I had to tell her about our 47 charters, then I inquired about uniforms for the pilots, and overalls for the mechanics. She promised to send me patterns and said I was to get everyone measured and the garments made locally. She was sure her man would recommend someone.

"I also either need Tom with his spray gun, or some CS&S decals for the aircraft," I continued, "Who should I talk to about that?"

"Tiny's here and he wants to talk to you. Ask him," Ruth replied.

"Hi, Star," came Tiny's familiar tones. "Steve tells me that everyone is saying what a good job you're doing. Well done, and keep it up.

"I wanted to tell you that I'm coming over to see you myself tomorrow. I'll have Bart Moleson, plus the computer guy, and a new accountant, Roy Bean, with me. Can you please put us up in that palace I hear you've got?

"As for Tom, I'm afraid we can't spare him to paint all the aircraft you've been buying, Girl. I see the figures, so I know. Keep it up, and any you buy and you cannot use yourself, we can either move them here, or Steve will steal them for the Junction. You've got a really good man there in Bill Bates. Chuck says we need to keep him to do all our buying for us.

"We're now getting decals of the logos made in various sizes. I'll bring all I have with me; but that won't be enough, so I'll bring patterns and you can have what you need made locally too.

"Now my wife here needs some attention, so I have to go. Bye."

He hung up on me, and I never got to say a word.

I heard a cough, and found a tall, smartly dressed man standing in the doorway. He looked very distinguished with dark hair which was starting to gray at the sides, and piercing gray eyes.

"You're..."

"Hi, I'm..." We both started talking at once, but ever the gentleman, he let me finish.

"I'm Star," I said, "Welcome to the madhouse we call the Valley."

"And I'm Bob Packer."

We shook hands.

I looked at my watch.

"Come on," I said, "We can talk later. Come and meet the men."

We walked through to the small conference room which was jammed with pilots, all trying to write notes about what Jennie was telling them. When she was finished, I hollered for their attention.

I introduced Bob, and told the men that I hoped he would still want to be Chief Pilot after he'd discovered what a madhouse we lived in. No apologies for repeating myself, I liked the word.

The men greeted this with confident grins and laughter. They were all dressed like the pilots they were and I was pleased at the cheerful, happy atmosphere. I thought that we must be doing something right.

The room quickly emptied, despite the real bottleneck at the door. I have to talk to Fran when she gets back. Maybe we should hire a tent like the one used for parties on the patio...

"Georgie," I called, "We need some temporary space. Go get a tent."

A head appeared around the door.

"Yes, good idea, Boss. I'll get right on to it," and the head disappeared again.

It seems Bob has already met Jennie, for they stood looking at the boards and animatedly talking together.

Bob turned to me as I walked over.

"Yes, good idea, Boss," he joked, "You're right about this being a madhouse."

Before he could say anything more, Jennie grabbed his sleeve.

"Are you free to fly a charter down to LA this afternoon?" She asked him.

"Yes, if you need me to," he replied, after catching my quick nod over Jennie's shoulder.

Bob and I went out on to the apron to watch the aircraft takeoff on their various charters.

"Georgie was saying that her father, who I'm looking forward to meeting, by the way, has never had problems finding pilots when he needed them, even at the last minute. Don't you think we've got enough on the payroll now?"

"Hmm, maybe," I replied. "It's certainly something we need to consider. But I feel we must keep in mind that Chuck, our majority owner, wants to find jobs for as many of you ex-military types as possible. I think we need to hire at least 6 to 8 more pilots who're trained on both fixed and rotary winged aircraft, and who, hopefully, are instructors as well.

"Are you aware of the history of CS&S? No, probably not. If you'd been hired in Tampa you'd have gone through the full induction process. I have to get Ruth to send me some of the folders they hand out on those courses."

I spent the next ten minutes going through the history of S&S, Quality Wear, and CS&S, including Chuck's and Steve's charity work.

Bob was astounded at their achievements, and he somehow seemed to stand taller after I finished.

I went on to outline what I'd done here and how I saw things developing in the future.

"So you see," I concluded, "Steve's motto has always been that one should let demand dictate your expansion. That's been the core of his success, and he must be a billionaire by now. He couldn't have achieved this without our CFO who oversees all the corporations. His name is 'Tiny' and you'll meet him tomorrow. I think we need one of his people here to keep looking over our shoulders permanently.

"Provided we can 'Ride the Tiger', the sky's the limit."

I grinned, and Bob enthusiastically shook my hand.

"I'm with you, Partner," he exclaimed.

When we went back inside, Jennie was standing, waiting for us.

"Can I have a word?" She asked. "There are a number of things you need to know about, and I've got a couple of questions.

"I've been talking to Betty at Lutz, and she's got some good suggestions. She's adding us to the national air charter website, and says we need to offer 737-700 charters too. There apparently is talk of basing some of those at the Junction with an ex-USAF Lt. Colonel, Kurt Eccleston, who has just been transferred there by Chuck as the acting General Manager."

"Kurt Eccleston!" Bob exclaimed, "I know him, and he sure is a good guy."

"We talked about our rates for charters and rentals. Betty said that we should talk to Tiny tomorrow, but using Lutz's rates, with a fuel adjustment, sounded fine to her. If we're significantly undercutting everyone else, she said that was OK too. I told her that we were paying Lutz pay rates, which seem to be higher than the Californian ones, and she started laughing. Why did she say that this was Chuck's good luck operating in our favor?

"There's been a lot of interest from Reno in our Lear 60s, and why do people keep asking if we've got any of the ones with the fancy cartoons on them?

"Most importantly though, I think I've found a market sector that nobody seems to be covering. The agents apparently have a lot of inquiries from clubs and groups who can't afford jet charter rates to visit Reno and Vegas, so they are forced to buy blocks of tickets on scheduled airlines, which aren't very cheap. I've done some figures and I bet that if we had a 30 seat turboprop, we could rake the money in. I spoke to an old friend of Georgie's who runs SallyAir, and he said he's got a spare 328-120 (the STOL version) that we can have for two days. Can I see if I can rent it out to test this idea?"

"Fine, if you think you can do it and break even, go for it." I told her.

She rushed off, beaming.

Jennie had only just left us when young Billie came up.

"We've got on top of the aircraft readiness issue," he began. "Of course, all the aircraft that Chuck transferred from Bill's sales department are fine. The six St. Louis aircraft are in surprisingly good condition; they've been well maintained according to the logbooks; they just needed washing and a good cleaning.

"We're doing a flight test on the second 737-300, and you can have it in an hour. Jennie said she had work for it today.

"Hey, what's this 'Perfect work' thing I'm hearing about?"

I laughed.

"Come to supper at the big house tomorrow night and you'll meet a man who can tell you all about it," I told him. I must make Tiny earn his keep, I thought while chuckling.

Things were looking good, so I decided to take Bob over to meet Willie.

On the way to the gate, I drove round the airpark to show Bob what we had. It looked like the contractors would finish repairing the last two hangars a day early. As we drove around the end so I could show him where the new hangars are going, I realized that the places had already been staked out.

Just then, Bob gasped.

"Look," he said, "Those cattle over there have broken through the fence."

We pushed them back into the pasture where they belonged, and while Bob stared at the broken fence, I got my cell out and punched John Huff's number.

"Hey," I told him, some of our cattle just got into the Spring Field perimeter area. Can you quickly get someone down here to mend the fence?"

He promised immediate action.

"OUR cattle?" Bob queried.

"Yes, Chuck bought the whole Lacy Estate, and we now own a number of farms as well as a few aircraft. You'll be staying at the Mansion tonight; I think you'll like it."

As we drove along the road on our way to Lacy Field, I pointed out the land on both sides that was part of the Estate.

"The Estate Manager reports to me," I explained. "In addition, because Chuck purchased 20% of Lacy Field here, I'm also responsible for this when old Willie, who is the majority owner, is away."

"Wow! Some job," Bob commented, as we drove through the gate.

I took him up to Willie's really very nice office with its panoramic view over the airpark to the tree covered hills beyond.

There was an incredibly handsome man talking to Willie.

Hi, I'm Hugo Hamersley from SallyAir," he gushed. "You're just the person I wanted to meet."

He shook our hands as he continued.

"I forgot to ask that nice girl who runs your charter operations if you needed pilots to fly my Dornier that you're borrowing?"

Before I could even think about it, Bob answered.

"Yes, please."

"Right, I'll get on it," Hugo said, as he was leaving. "That Jennie is going to cause a lot of green faces around here; she's shit-hot and really knows about air chartering."

I'd hardly had time to introduce Bob to Willie, when Jennie rang my cell.

"I've just met your friend, Hugo," I told her, "He seems to like you."

"Do you know," she told us happily, "I've got two Reno charters for the 328 today, three for tomorrow, AND I could have rented the aircraft out another three times over."

Hmm, sounds like another money maker, I thought.

Turning to Willie, I asked him.

"Know of anywhere where I can beg, borrow, or steal two or three small airliners? I think Jennie has struck a gold mine."

Willie grinned and I heard a stifled gasp from my new chief pilot.

"I don't," Willie said. "In the absence of our friend, Bill, though, the man to ask is your boyfriend, Gunter."