Chapter 5: Life! ... and Pay Pal

Carl watched Blue grease another landing. Bill had told him that the airplane was big ... he wasn't kidding. A Beach H18S trike has those huge radials hanging off the front of the wings.

Carl was used to seeing the same aircraft when he was serving his time in the military, but almost of those were taildraggers and the nose on one of those sticks up way to hell and gone in the air. A trike doesn't look as tall but it's still up there.

This is the same airplane that was used for NGP training during the war. That's Navigator, Gunner, Pilot. Thousands of personnel learned to fly, shoot and find their way home in them.

First off the line in 1937, they had a production run that made them the VW of twin, piston engined, aircraft. Sure, nations built more bombers, fighters and semi official civilian planes ... but, the Beech was a passenger plane first, a trainer second and a passenger plane last ... eight thousand of them between 1937 and 1970 ... and the engine modifications stretched that record well into the '90's.

By the time Blue was born ... the kinks had pretty much been ironed out. Two hundred critical modifications ... like wing spars and engine mounts ... had seen the 18 become a favorite pontoon aircraft for getting into and out of ... tight wet places. Air America had a whole fleet of them.

(In case you didn't know, here's what Wikipedia has to say about them:

In August 1950, the CIA secretly purchased the assets of Civil Air Transport (CAT), an airline that had been started in China in 1946 by Gen. Claire Lee Chennault (of Flying Tigers fame) and Whiting Willauer.

In 1951, the parent company of Air America's forerunner, Civil Air Transport (CAT), was reorganized. The owner, Chennault, was approached by the CIA, who bought out the company through a holding company, the American Airdale Corporation. Under this agreement, CAT was allowed to keep its initials and the company was reorganized as Civil Air Transport, Inc.

On 7 October 1957, American Airdale was reorganized to add another layer of obfuscation to its ownership. The new Pacific Corporation became a holding company for Air Asia Company (Air Asia (Taiwan)), Ltd; Air America, Inc; Civil Air Transport, Inc; Southern Air Transport; Intermountain Aviation; Bird and Sons (known as BirdAir); and Robinson Brothers. CAT attempted to change its name to Air America at the same time, but objections from Air France and American Airlines delayed the name change for two years.

Air America's slogan was "Anything, Anywhere, Anytime, Professionally". Air America aircraft, including the de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou and Fairchild C-123 Provider, flew many types of cargo to countries such as the Republic of Vietnam, the Kingdom of Laos, and Cambodia. It operated from bases in those countries and also from bases in Thailand and as far afield as Taiwan and Japan. It also on occasion flew top-secret missions into Burma and the People's Republic of China.)

"Nice landing, Mina."

"Don't look at me, Megan did it."

Megan blushed. "She made me do it," Megan said.

Carl looked at her, "you're not old enough to fly, Megan."

Mina got all defensive..."As long as there's a licensed pilot ready and able to take over, it's no big deal."

"I'll be 17 in August," Megan said. "I want to be ready."

"There's rules and there are rules ... then there's their rules and everybody knows who they are. We can 'fudge' a little on some of the rules, but we can't fudge on the FAA ... and I wouldn't want to. They keep the idiots out of my sky and I like it like that."

Mina was preaching now. "You think, 'I don't need to do that.' but there's dead people out there that didn't do 'that.' And the rule was made because someone was an idiot and ended up dead. It's too bad driving a car isn't like that. There are states where you don't have to be able to read to get a license. The FAA rules are set up to keep idiots out of the air ... Megan's not an idiot."

"Ok-ok-ok ... you're right. When I drive I operate under the old saying... 'I'm the only sane one out here ... all the other drivers are crazy ... and they're out to get me.'" Carl was confessing. "You know, I learned to fly twin engine in one of those." He pointed at the Beech. "Except it wasn't a trike."