Chapter 337

After listening to the arrangements between Chief Grimes and Robbie, I went back to my quest to find anyone associated with the C17. I finally walked the hall to the tower and went to the top in the elevator.

There were two agency personnel operating the tower today. Ryan Emory had been through the training program and a couple refreshers. The other man I saw in the restaurant with the spook crowd several times; he was always in white shop coveralls. I took him to be some kind of technician.

"Ryan, what can you tell me about the C17 on the tarmac?" I asked.

"Not as much as I would like to because I know very little. The pilot and crew was a transfer crew delivering the aircraft from Boeing to Dover AFB. Because Dover was still snowed in last night the crew diverted here. The reputation of the airport and the national coverage of Atlantic 709 has gone far and wide."

"That is the last C17 off the Boeing assembly line before it was shut down in December. It was supposedly built for one of our allies with the standard prepayment schedule that Boeing requires. They were supposed to take delivery of it as soon as it rolled off the line in December. After several rescheduling, it was to finally happen on Monday at DAFB. Now after the plane landed, the ownership transfer has been canceled again."

"The Boeing transfer crew is pissed. They have to fly the plane back to California or Seattle then fly it back to Dover again when the issues get settled, unless you lease them a tie-down spot. DAFB will not allow Boeing to store the plane on base. To complicate matters, they do not want it stored at a major airport for obvious reasons. The sales and transfer pilots are to be here very soon to talk to someone," Ryan said.

"I will give Lorrie and Marcy a heads up so they can as least have a ballpark price for them, if it goes that way," I replied.

"Boss, just for your information that thing will use most of a full load of fuel - 35,000 gallons - to fly back to California or Seattle. That's 70,000 gallons to make the round trip to get it back Dover at 4 bucks a gallon - that's $280,000. Marcie may want to faction that into the cost of a parking spot for a month," Ryan stated.

"Thanks Ryan, I'll pass it on," I replied.

I closed Lorrie's office door and filled both of them in on the conversation I had with Ryan, including the part about fuel. Lorrie started researching tie down fees for an aircraft that size. When she had finished I asked how much jet A fuel we had in the fuel farm, just to satisfy my curiosity.

"The tanks were filled before the storm. If the snow does not interfere with the vacationers, we have 25 flights to Florida Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Six of those are with the Bombardiers. All of the vacation houses are rented included the extra ones we leased. Everybody wants away from the snow and cold," Lorrie replied.

The loud speaker called passengers to board Atlantic 709. All the baggage had been through the TSA scanners and now the passengers were going through it with the carry-on baggage and the body scanners.

The equipment had been installed when the terminal was built and was used very little. This was the first real test and use. DHS was finally getting a return on the salaries of four full time employees assigned at Morton Field.

But that was going to change very soon - in fact as soon as the local vacation season started. The Chesapeake Commuter Service was going to be a reality this summer after month's talks and potential contracts, and finally contracts. The official county stop was Morton Field.

The service was going to run daily flights from BWI, Morton Field to Ocean City Municipal Airport. CCS had even entered in talks with Lorrie about contracting one or both Bombardiers on Friday, Saturday and Sundays if their ventures were positively received locally.

Lorrie, Marcy, Ching Lee, Vicky and I went to stand by the big heavily reinforced windows by the tarmac door to watch the boarding. Hanna was outside interviewing the passengers as they headed to the stairs to board.

When she was in between people willing to talk, I tapped on the window to get her attention. When she looked my way, I gave her a thumb's up. I was rewarded with the mouthed word, "Chicken," as she wrapped her arms around her and shook indicating that she was very cold.