Chapter 16: It's not the Cherries ... It's the Pits

"Mina, It's very unkind of you to make me stay home"

"Sorry, Bill ... girls night out."

"A night wouldn't be bad ... you're going to be gone a week."

"Or more. Megan needs us"

"Shit!"

"Life is full of disappointment and anguish, Bill."

"I know, I know. I'll get over it."

"Or not." Mina laughed

"Or not."

"Bye, Bill."

"Bye, Mina."

"Bye, Laurel ... stay out of trouble."

"Damn you, Bill, I was going to say that." Mrs. Fox pouted.

"I know ... you're a mom."

"Bye, Bill." The two women loaded up and taxied away.

"That's a pretty plane, Bill."

"I know, Mike ... we going to rescue airplanes today?"

"Nope ... I need to talk to the railroad."

"Ah..."

"I want to see how much it will cost to rent an engine."

"If you don't mind steam, Pollwaithe has one." Bill sprung that on him.

"Huh?"

"It's not very big. It's a standard gauge quarry switcher ... a saddle-tank H.K. Porter 0-2-2 wood burner. It runs ... Pollwaithe says it does. It's cute ... got one of those turbine stacks ... it might be all of 15 feet long. She says it'll pull all eight of their flatcars."

"The more aircraft we can haul on the railroad the longer we have to check the airworthy ones." Mike was reminding Bill of something he already knew: Time limits.

"Mike, Mrs. Pollwaithe says they're all airworthy. Zero hours on the engines. You can, at the very least, ferry flight them to the hangars. Polly has all the logbooks and they've all been issued certificates of airworthiness ... but some haven't been flown in 25 years. Hoops, Mike. You gotta run though the hoops."

"Bill, I can't afford that. I can fly the stagger-wings today and I'll be happy."

"That's aviation history you're going to flush ... and you know how I feel about history. Can I have three days to see what I can put together?"

"Three days ... no more."

Bill snapped open his phone and called Mrs. Pollwaithe, "Polly? Bill ... listen ... Mike is going to let the rest of the planes go."

"Yeah, I know. He's a business man."

"I'm an historian ... kinda."

"These planes are history ... America's history ... they need to be preserved. Someday my kids will visit a museum, like the Smithsonian, and be able to point at the Bee Gee hanging from the ceiling and say, 'Mrs. Pollwaithe gave that plane to my dad so he could restore it.' Or, that TravelAire, 'Daddy flew that.'

"I want to save whatever I can ... can I use your train?"

"Thank you."

"I'll tell him. Today."

Bill closed his phone.

"Mike? Load up ... We're going up and fly the 'Wings out today. Let me call ... I know..."

"Wendy. How can I help?"

"Bill!!"

"You need me to come down and fly some planes?"

"Oh really?"

"Really? That many?"

"Uh huh."

"He has his, too."

"I can come up with about 15."

"Tonight."

"Count on us."

And so it was that the all Austin's that fly, flew down in the Il-14, nicknamed "The Illusion", and worked for a week disassembling aircraft after aircraft, loading them on flatcars and shipping them to Amarillo. The aircraft really were in prime condition.