Chapter 53

Nikki's turn:

So here I am at our airfield with Terri for assistance, and I'm driving Dan's big extended cab pickup truck.

There's an app on our phones and that means that both Terri and I are tracking the real-time location of the arriving Johanna and Stoney. Still ten miles out, so I turn to survey our home airfield.

Yes, it's the proverbial 'cropdusting strip'. That means that if the wind blows the right way, you get a whiff of Jet-A fuel from those neat turbo-prop cropdusters ... oops ... Agricultural aircraft, and if it's from the other direction there's the exotic and probably not too healthy (in high concentrations – I hope) odors of the agricultural chemicals that they wash out of those neat aircraft.

Cindy and I both have been trying to talk Wally into letting us fly one.

"You," he told Cindy, "you're easy. You don't have ANY license."

"Yet." Cindy retorted.

"And YOU," he told me, "You've just gotten a checkout on taildraggers. And you're not even eighteen."

"Yet!" I said.

"I can just imagine the phone call to my insurer. 'Uh, yeah, this is Wally at Mid-State Ag. I just wrecked an Air Tractor. I need half a million dollars to replace it. Pilot? Sixteen year old girl.' Can you get that picture?"

We laugh. But one day he's gonna do it.

He walks up to us. "You said you need to rent that end T-hangar?" He shook his head. "Ain't big enough for a LearJet."

Terri doesn't miss much and she knows what she does to people. She turned and did her 'little blonde girl-child' thing with the blue eyes and the smile. "Oh, Mister Wally, not yet. This time it's a Pitts. See?" and she extended her iPhone to him."

Wally whistled. "Neat-o! Haven't seen one of those in a while." He looked at me. "So who's flying this one? A fourth grader?"

"No, actually it's our friends Stoney and Jo. She's a recent college grad and he's another one of those darned electrical engineers."

He rubbed his chin. About that time the speaker outside the office building crackled. "Mid-State Field, this is Pitts November eight eight bravo, three miles southwest, for landing."

Terri bounced. "That's Stoney!" and a little happy squeal.

Wally pulled the handheld radio off his belt. "Pitts eight eight bravo, this is Mid-State. No known traffic, over."

"Eight eight bravo, roger, we'll do an approach to runway one-eight."

"Roger."

And I know all that chatter is unnecessary because the airfield is uncontrolled, no tower, but we're prudent pilots, so we communicate. A minute later Terri squeaked "I see 'em!"

A minute after that, a sleek, shiny biplane was gliding onto the end of the runway. After the tailwheel was down and they slowed to a walking speed, Johanna was waving at us.

"Not a bad landing at all," Wally said. "Not bad." He looked at me. "Now I'd trade a ride in that for a ride in one of mine."

I know he's just messing with us. "It's not theirs," I said. "They borrowed it."

The idling engine pulled them up to the fuel pump, then stuttered to a stop. Johanna pulled the helmet off that outrageous red hair and shook her head, then bounced out, followed by Stoney, who didn't have enough hair to shake out with that military haircut of his. While he was introducing himself to Wally, Johanna came over to see Terri and me.

"Hi, pTerri-dactyl," she said, getting the broadest of smiles from Terri. "Hi, Sis!"

Of course, the answer to that was returned with squeals and hugs.

Stoney had the tanks topped off and now he and Wally were arguing over whether to push the plane a significant distance to the open hangar or to crank the engine and taxi. I don't know who won, but the two of them climbed into the cockpit. I thought they'd just taxi the few hundred feet to the hangar, but instead they taxied onto the runway and took off.

Johanna sighed. "You people turned my Stoney into an airplane nut."

"I'm sorry," I said. "I just thought it was a fun tool for getting around."

"You know I'm kidding, right? He's jealous because our instructor says I fly better than he does." She sighed, but she was smiling as she did. "So where'd everybody else end up?"

I recited the roster. "Cindy's talking her way through a four-hundred level physics course. Susan and Tina are both in regular classes..."

"Hmmph!" Jo snorted. "Regular second year classes or..."

"Or not," I said. "I got out of a computer science course by giving the guy a diagram of our new interface box, including the conversion matrix and logic array that controls it. Of course, waving a contract under his nose where we actually SOLD it sort of helps."

"You and Cindy ... I'm jealous."

"You're jealous. If your husband doesn't leave your flute in an Alabama pine tree, then I'm the one who's jealous. I play a triangle, Jo. A TRIANGLE, for pete's sake."

"But you – did you look at the manual for the sound system?"

I nodded. "Actually, we unpacked it and did a trial run. Terri, let Johanna listen."

Terri held her phone up, letting a bit of impromptu bluegrass roll out.

"I like it," I told her. "That's an excellent application of the hardware and whoever did the software, I wish I could get hold to the source code."

"Talk to my husband."

The sound of a screaming Lycoming engine wafted in. We turned. There they were, a few thousand feet overhead, coming down the backside of a loop, swooping into a roll.

"Dammit, Stoney!" Jo spat, "We promised we wouldn't do any aerobatics!"

"Boys and their toys," I said.

At least they finished up the roll and descended back to the field for a landing. This time the plane ended up with its tail pointed into the empty T-hangar. Stoney and Wally were laughing as the pushed the sleek Pitts back into the open doors.

Jo and Terri and I walked up. Stoney's not stupid. He caught The Look.

"I know, Princess," he said preemptively. "But Wally's an old fighter pilot. We couldn't resist. And you know loops and rolls aren't VERY much..."

Wally looked remorseful. "I shall take the lashing for it..."

Jo's grim look morphed towards her more customary smile. "I was more worried that the luggage compartment would open and dump our stuff all over central Alabama."

"Oops!" Stoney said. "Well, Wally kept us in a positive or zero G the whole time."

"Thank you, Wally, for leading my gullible husband astray in a competent and safe manner. Perhaps we should remind him that aerobatics are prohibited with baggage on board."

"Oh, jeez! Forgot!"

"Anyway, thank you for bringing him back safely."

"You're welcome, ma'am," Wally said, touching the brim of his cap. "Thank you for letting me have stick time in that little thing."

We loaded up bags and people and got on the road. The Pitts biplane was only one topic. We crossed over several.

"pTerri-dactl, are you practicing like I told you to?" Jo asked.

"Yes, ma'am. Every day. All of us."

"Good! We'll play together, then," Jo smiled. "Stoney, Nikki wants the source code for your sound system."

"Oh," said Stoney, "I can't get you the commercial code, but I still have some of the early stuff. Why?"

"I wanna look at it. See how other people approach problems. My thing, you know. I like the system."

Stoney laughed. "How long before you had the lids off the boxes?"

"Well, you didn't say NOT to. It was kind of like you sent a sheep into a lion cage, you know."

"I know," Stoney laughed. "Just remember, most of that's patented and protected."

"Oh, we'd never do anything to compete. We're just interested in how you approached the rapid data recording and synchronization. I mean, the equipment's pretty simple, once you look at it."

"Glad you see that," Stoney laughed. "I banged my head pretty hard over some of it."

I laughed back at him. "The wheel's pretty obvious too, after you've seen the one somebody else built. Then it's obvious."

"Very adept at salving my guy's ego, Nikki," Johanna laughed.

"Speaking of guys," Stoney said, "Where are your handlers?"

Terri tittered at the 'handler' comment.

"Mine's at a facility in Mobile looking at upgrades for their power system. Jason's in class trying to keep up with Susan. Dan 1.0..."

"Cindy's Dan?" Stoney asked.

"Yeah, Cindy's Dan, he's half a day east in Georgia. Tina's hubby is actually in the office working through some bid packages."

"Wow! Lots of work?"

"More than enough. Want some?" I asked, eyeing Jo in the rearview mirror. I know they don't need to work for the money, but I'd sure like a way to keep 'em around for a while.

"Might be interested. Johanna's ... You tell 'em, Jo."

"It looks like we are going to do a little crossover music symposium for the college. Part performance, part lecture, part practical. Me. Stoney. Kara."

"And Kara hasn't said a word ... I'm surprised."

"Told her to keep it quiet until we got everything finalized. It's gonna be fun. Most of it's Kara's fault. She's deep into the music department there and showed off some of our stuff."

"And just like that, you're in as instructors?"

"Well, almost," Jo said. "We're under the umbrella of one of the professors. They want to see a PhD, but we're on the page with him as guest lecturers."

"Neat-o!" Terri squeaked.

"Neat-o? Who still says 'neat-o?"

"Me when I'm being retro," Terri chirped.

Stoney shook his head. "Eight years old and knows 'retro'."

"And a vocabulary to go with it," Johanna said. "We're gonna steal you, Terri. You can be our little girl."

"I'm already the community's little sister. Well, me and Rachel. 'Sides, you and Mister Stoney, you need a red-headed kid. So you'll have a set."

"A set," Jo mouthed with a smile.

"By the way, we made up our second bedroom for you," I said. "Or you can do Cindy's."

"We were gonna get a hotel..." Stoney said.

"Well, if you're more comfortable that way, then I guess so, but really, we – all of us – are really missing you two."

Johanna's smile. It changes to a little grin. "We cancelled the reservations at the hotel before we took off."

"Good!" I said. "Now, a car..."

"Let us rent one," Stoney said. "So we don't drain the resources."

"Okay."

Stoney was punching on his iPhone diligently. "Okay. I'm sending you the address of the rental agency. We can run right by there and you can offload us, then we'll meet you at the apartments."

"Awww," Terri whined.

"Terri!" I said.

"Oh, why don't you come ride with us, Terri," Johanna said.

"You're spoiling her."

"Look at that face!" Johanna said, causing Terri's smile to brighten a few hundred watts.

"It's not the face that dangerous, Jo. It's the brain..."

"I'm just a little eight year old girl," Terri said in an exaggeratedly squeaky voice.

"You're almost nine, and you're my evil niece." I glanced in the rear-view mirror. "How much baggage do you get to carry in that thing?"

"Twenty whole pounds," Stoney said. "Jo's concert flute and our little emergency clothes bag."

"We Fed-Exed our regular luggage to your office," said Jo.

"Yeah, we got that," I replied. "Smart move, considering your mode of transport."

"Cindy's jealous," Jo said. "I promised her a flight. But NO AEROBATICS!" She cast an eye at Stoney. "And I mean it! You know how you are with redheads." She paused, made sure I was paying attention. "And Nikki!"

"And Susan. And Tina," Jo laughed. "You just know we're gonna have to spend a whole day at the field giving everybody a ride."

"I dunno," Stoney sighed. "Cindy's got time in that Extra. Our poor ol' Pitts is a step back."

"Cindy likes to fly. We all do. But Cindy flies better than me. Her Dan checked me out in their 180 so I could get some taildragger time. (Auth. Note: 'Taildragger' refers to an airplane with two main wheels up front and a single small tailwheel in the rear. It is considered a bit more difficult to handle on the ground than the more common tricycle gear) I can do it. But I can't do it like Cindy. She's won our spot landing contests more times than she should."