Chapter 73

I knew today was going to be busy, so I slid from bed and got ready to go out and do some forms. It was raining again, so after going back into the bedroom for my sports leg, I put a pot of coffee on and went to the gym room where the dreaded treadmills waited.

I did my stretches before beginning to walk slowly as I worked up to a fairly good running pace. When I had been running for about twenty minutes I slowed down to a walk then stopped. The girls began coming in with Lena and Mar getting on the treadmills almost as soon as I sat at the first station to begin upper body lifts. I advised them both to stretch out and they begrudgingly did their stretching.

I worked my upper body, arms, and finally my leg before getting up to go have coffee. That's when I noticed Lena and Mar were both braless and their titties were bouncing all over the place. I must have sounded like a parent when I told them, "You two need to wear a sports bra so that you don't bruise yourself. That's how some beauties like you get those big saggy breasts."

They looked at me like I had a third eye. Lena said, "That's how we can get guys' attention at the gym."

I told them, "Guys do like nice breasts, but they also respect girls who take care of themselves. You two are good looking and don't need flopping boobs to attract guys."

A couple of mothers and Wanda were in the kitchen having coffee when I arrived. I poured a cup and told Wanda that I would try to be in the office by noon. I really wanted to finish up visiting with people so that we could go to the islands Friday. Wanda again said that she didn't think it was necessary for me to come in today but that I should come in next week. She also restated that she wanted to use a couple more days of her vacation and go to Costa Rica with us.

We went to the patio for breakfast and the good coffee their machine makes. The mothers said they were going back home afterward so they could get clothes together for the few days in Costa Rica. Frieda said she needed to make a Walmart run for pull-ups and a couple of dozen T-shirts for the growing kids. The women didn't think in terms of onesies or twosies, but in dozens when it came to the kids.

Tiani thought it was time to make a trip to Sears or Penny's to see if they could find tennis shoes for the little people. They had always been barefoot to date, but they should have shoes if they want to run around outside more. The Hawaiian grass was easy on the feet, as was the grass next to the patio and in our back yard, but there wasn't that much grass in Costa Rica, so the little ones needed foot protection now that they were more active.

I suggested that the girls try to make a short trip to the mall to see if they could find some shoes. The problem would be that the shoes would be outgrown before they were hardly dirty. Maria wanted to get them kid's thongs as those would protect the feet and still give the kids freedom. Cassie thought flip-flops would be too easy for the kids to just pull off so that they could run barefoot the way they were used to. I reminded myself that I knew the women would figure it out.

Wes wanted me to ride to the Airpark with him and promised to bring me back early, but I told him that I needed to drive so I could go into the office straight from the Airpark. I went home to get the obnoxious Lincoln and drove out to the Airpark. I parked in front of my office area because I wanted to begin my day talking to Marty and Bart, my money guys for here and Costa Rica.

The two men knew I was coming because we had talked about it on the patio during breakfast. They had kept the two jobs mixed instead of one handling Costa Rica, and the other CS&S. Bart began with, "The more we're involved with the Airpark finances, the more we find out that you're the primary owner. Steve has let you buy in more and more because he thinks you might spend more time here and with your family. The surprising part of this is the way Steve has had you participate in the development of the aircraft Wes has produced. Your finances went through the roof when the fighter was licensed to the group headed by Grumman. We then licensed the turboprop twin to two companies, so we're now cash rich. Wes is quickly going through reserves while developing this new small to medium passenger aircraft, but he says that the company will make a fortune with the licensing if they are successful."

"In other new aircraft news, the helicopter projects are coming along, but their development is slow. I'm sure it will pick up but they have run into some problems that even Sal hasn't been able to resolve. The LSAs are still selling well with two main models, the biplane, and the camper with pontoons beginning to become very popular. We're selling five finished aircraft for every kit, and the projections are an even wider spread as we're selling the finished product at a price that is very attractive as well as profitable. One of our biggest costs is insurance, but I don't think we can cut that by much. We first tried to set up our own insurance company for the product liability, but the excess insurers, the insurance companies that cover really large catastrophic losses such as if one of our planes crashed into a schoolhouse, wanted a substantial company, somebody they know, to manage any claims. The main aviation risk insurers charged such a high fee for managing our claims without collecting an insurance premium that it ate up the savings. We're looking at what's called a SIR, a Self-Insured Retention, of $5 million, with a regular aviation insurer covering the next $20 million and excess coverage over that, but it's a new product line and all the insurers have been burned before, so they're still charging a big premium on everything they do. Our loss record is still at zero losses, but there have been a few small claims from people having small accidents in their garage while building the aircraft. I have to admit that the regular insurers are pretty efficient about dealing with those."

"These are the figures for that part of your Airpark operation. Let Marty tell you about the Airpark and charter services."

Marty moved his wheelchair next to me so that he could show me several sheets of paper. "The Airpark operation is continuing to be successful, Chuck. All the tenants are current, and most of them are using our repair facility, although a few have their own mechanics. We're keeping our fees low so that we can keep our hangars full. Our fuel prices are very competitive, but that is a separate entity."

I held my hand up and said, "Um, I thought S&S only bought out a percentage of the Airpark and that the former owner kept the fuel concession?"

"That was how it began, but he had credit trouble and needed us to buy out his portion of the Airpark and go into a sixty/forty partnership with him on the fuel concession. He's had us take his accounting over and he seems to be doing okay now. He was originally taking a very large salary that wasn't justified, and he ran into problems with his fuel supplier. That's when we had to step in. Tiny came out and helped negotiate the deal we now have. It works out well for us because we're not charging the charter company any airport fees. That really helps the charter company's bottom line, considering how much activity there is with student and charter traffic."

Marty continued, "CS&S Air Charter is a lot of fun; confusing, but fun. Tiny went nuts for a while and bought those 737s from the Saudi princes. We were able to use them for the Hawaiian golf tour business, so five of the seven are out west and have been converted to luxury passenger instead of straight luxury coach. You're almost continuously using one, and the others in our inventory are chartered nearly ninety percent of the time. Our other aircraft are doing very well with charters. Your personal aircraft are being kept busy, and that brings me to a question. We set up a separate bank account for the rental fees for your aircraft, as well as your portion of the divisible profits from the Airpark and charter services. That money is building and becoming a little obnoxious. Is there an investment fund you would like to put that in? Ben is handling most of your investments, but he didn't want to take money from this account because he said you might want to do something special with it. You've already paid taxes on it, and you need to do something rather than have it sitting in a low interest paying money market account. Think about what you want to do and let us know, Chuck."

Marty pulled some more sheets out, and said, "We didn't talk about the helicopter charter service yet. We now have four all turbine trainer helicopters. There are no more conventional engine aircraft in that group. Those four are almost always busy between lessons and rentals. The rest of our rotary wing inventory is now one Bell 206L4, one Bell 407, three Sikorsky S76s, and the monster Skycrane. We sold the old Huey conversion that we were using for mosquito control to the county. We still do the maintenance on it, but they wanted to own the aircraft instead of contracting the spraying. The good news is that the helicopter part of the charter operation is also making a profit, but we're talking single digits most of the time. Maintenance and insurance are the killers."

Bart began again, "Now for the real surprise. Our maintenance group is now up to thirty-eight men, and we're looking for a couple more. We've expanded to two fixed-wing maintenance hangars and one rotary wing. There is actually a waiting list for annuals, hundred and thousand hour inspections, and overhauls. Jimmy runs a tight ship, but he doesn't micromanage. He does inspect every piece of work that leaves here so he knows it was done correctly. The man is a phenomenal teacher and stresses safety and exactness on every repair. His reputation with Gulfstream and Boeing is becoming legendary and almost embarrassing. I know he's been offered a whole lot of money from other companies, but he says he's happy here. We've made sure he's among the top paid within the industry. I think a great deal of our success has been his input. Make sure you say hi to him."

I told the two men: "Trust me when I say that I respect Jim's abilities and know he watches out for every aircraft he services. I know he says I push my luck by not giving him my aircraft long enough for him to really go through it. Well, he has it now because the Citation gave me a warning."

Marty said, "Yeah, we heard you had a full stall when you landed the other day. That had to be a shock."

Bart said, "Back to business. Here are the P&Ls for each of the separate entities. The only ones that aren't fat in the black are the rotary wing charter and LSA groups, but that is because of the development of another aircraft. We'll all enjoy the licensing fees from the fighter bomber for a long time."

I had to ask, "What happened to our laser armament that we demonstrated on our fighter/bomber?"

Bart and Marty looked at each and shrugged, "The Feds came in and confiscated the equipment, our plans, and told us the weapon was not to be experimented with or to be recreated at this time. They said that our patents were being confiscated as well. We found out that they can do that and we have no recourse. So we're going to stay out of the military weapons business and concentrate on civilian transportation."

"That doesn't sound right. They gave you receipts for the equipment, didn't they? They have to have some justification to make that kind of seizure."

Marty said, "Ben has the original seizure warrant and the documents from it. The only thing we've heard since is that Lockheed and Grumman made a large offer to Sal and Wes to come work for them, but they both said they were going to stay here. The people who interviewed them said they would need them on a laser weapon project."

I told the two, "I'm going to find out more on this and get back to you. Why didn't I hear about this when it happened?"

Bart told me, "You were fighting some demons at the time, and Steve told us not to discuss it with you and to wait until you had some problems resolved. You've resolved them, so you're hearing about it now."

I was stunned as I had thought we would be able to supply that directly and fit it to all of the various military aircraft. I wonder if Sal really gave them all of his research data for the miniaturization. That was the key to the weapon.

"Thanks for all the information. I need to go see Wes."

Bart said, "We haven't shown you the accounting for all of your Costa Rican projects yet. Those are some nice ones."

I sat back down and suggested, "How about we make some coffee or go over to the new snack bar for something."

Marty said, "Let me make a pot real quick and we'll go over Costa Rica while it's being made, and we also need to give you the updates on the village."

Bart had a big folder and brought it out. Marty came back and pulled four separate groups out. He said, "The four profit centers are the resort, the airport, the mainland resort, and the box board plant. I'll go over the resort first. Eduardo has the resort in a constant state of change, and made an area that is more exclusive than the main resort as you know. That has been accepted beyond belief. We're looking at bookings for over a year ahead in that area. The resort as a whole is probably the most popular getaway place on Earth for the rich and famous. The people enjoy being able to come to the resort and not be fawned over by the public. The prices have kept rising just to keep the place exclusive. Some professional golfers have been coming during the off season, and say the courses are some of the best. I'd bet the new ones in Hawaii are even better."

Bart handed Marty a stack of papers for him to explain. "The airport is probably making more than it should. Our airport fees are not cheap, and our fuel prices are about ten percent higher than here, even though our costs are a lot lower. We felt the airport needed to be as exclusive as the resort. The airport hotel is constantly full of crew members, and now has a great restaurant and nightclub."

Marty shuffled his papers and said, "The maintenance group at the airport is making a killing. We're giving each incoming aircraft an inspection and giving the results to the crew and aircraft owner. They find all types of real problems, and then give them an estimate of the repair cost and a time frame for repair. The aircraft owner often uses the time to repair as an excuse to stay an extra week. You'd think it was a scam if you didn't know the mechanics. The men down there are all 'Jimmy products' and know those aircraft. Jimmy flies down in one of your Learjets if they run into something they can't handle, and they get the repair done. The two helicopters are now busy almost every day. The only down time is for regular maintenance. Those two birds are making some great money ferrying people between Limon Airport and the resort. We're making a lot of money from the airport."

Bart showed me some papers once again, but they were about the resort and golf course on the mainland this time. "That you built this resort was a stroke of luck. We've already completely rented it out to two movie studios for feature films. It took them almost a month to film the last one, and that one kept people all around Limon in pocket money by being used as extras. I think the police force has all new vehicles as a result of that movie. Besides that, the golf course is constantly busy because the locals enjoy it too. The fees are kept low so that people who stay at the resort can enjoy the extra benefit of the golf course. The hotel has added some of the amenities that are found at the main resort. This was to make the resort more exclusive by keeping out the day tourists who were coming just for the spas. There is a woman's spa that includes all of the features the main resort has. They also have a limited men's spa, but we have to be careful that it doesn't appear to be a bordello. You know what I mean, no 'happy endings'. The mainland resort is doing very well, as you can see. You know we should charge the other resorts a fee for attracting customers, because they've all been at near capacity since we opened."

Marty showed me a folder that had Box Board on the front. "That plant has been steadily growing, and is actually in the black now. You have two roving men who find the raw material and also sell the finished product. You're receiving waste paper from Venezuela, Columbia, Panama, and Mexico in railcar loads. There are no import duties for paper to be recycled, so the costs are kept very stable. Your manager is a jewel and seems to handle all the employees very well. He wants to look for a third traveling buyer and salesperson. We've told him to do it."

I sat back and said, "It's amazing that you have a handle on those four entities in that level of detail. You have to be proud that you two have kept tabs on everything here and down there. That's a lot to cover."

Bart said, "We do have some benefits. Marty and I fly down in one of the nice G550s at least once a month, and spend three or four days going over some things. We talk to the local accounting firm and all the managers to get a feel for how things are going. It's working out very well so far."

"So who is handling the Tool and Die school and operation?"

Marty laughed, "Tiny, Henry, and their group wanted to handle it since it's within the park, and could be considered more S&S than CS&S. We talk to those guys and hear about how that project is doing almost daily. Billy's going through a growth spurt with his silicon growing operation. Tiny says that the project is paying, so it must be."

Marty said, "You need to hear about your village. You do know that you're in the second phase now and have a waiting list of disabled men who want to come to live with us, don't you? Part of the attraction is being trained to be a machinists or to go to school for a professional career. We've been able to apply for federal and state grants to assist with the vets' education, and have even been awarded some grants to help with the housing construction. This was a one hundred percent cost situation in the beginning, but with grants you're now only paying about thirty percent of the cost of building and maintaining the village. We've purchased some adjoining property that can be made into third or fourth phases if we need them. The money you have donated and the continuous flow of cash you designated to use keeps the village running very nicely. I love my place, Chuck. It's small, but that's perfect for me since it isn't hard to keep up. I would need a larger place if I should ever be so lucky to find a woman to marry, but I probably won't be that lucky."

I told Marty, "Never discount that possibility. I have a friend who was paralyzed in high school and I heard he recently married a woman he went to church with. I'd love to visit with him and his wife soon. I don't often get back to where I grew up because of some hard feelings when my family died."

I looked at my black Rolex and said, "Well, so much for finishing with Wes before lunch. Let's get him and go back to the patio for lunch."

Bart said, "Wes isn't going to want to do that. Steve will have Wes, you, and me going to the gym before we go back to work. Let's get some subs from the operations café, and Wes can begin showing you around while you're eating."

I found Wes and told him what we were going to do. He reached for his wallet to give us money to buy him something. "I'm at a very critical point and need to finish what I'm doing. I should be done in a couple of minutes. Get me anything that's edible."

I waved off his offer to pay for lunch and walked to operations with Marty rolling with us and Bart walking on the other side. The operations building was a surprise as it had been completely remodeled with a pilots' lounge and expanded on one end to make room for a real restaurant. They had a counter that rivaled a Subway where they made sandwiches on demand. We had our four big subs and some bottled soft drinks in minutes. I said, "That transformation is amazing," as we left the building. "I haven't been in operations for quite a while. When did all of that remodeling take place?"

Marty said, "We needed a place for people out here to get something to eat. We also needed some kind of inflight kitchen for the food we serve on charters. That takes a large area and a decent sized staff. We built onto the building and brought in the man who was running the cafeteria at S&S to see if he could get it organized. He designed the kitchen and restaurant and suggested we remodel the operations building at the same time. Now we have a 24/7 restaurant that draws a lot of local customers, along with the neat sandwich shop you saw. The kitchen has to be open all night to prepare food for charters, so they just added night waitresses to the staff and the restaurant works fine during the night. We get a lot of the police who travel by. I think Park Place gets most of the night traffic, but we're a nice change. This is a busy place, so why not have some amenities?"

I called Wanda to advise her I probably wasn't going to make it in today, and I wouldn't be in tomorrow either if we were heading to Costa Rica for a long weekend. Wanda said, "Good, I can get the girls ready to be without me for a few days that way. I'm enjoying traveling with your family even if John can't. Do you think your women will mind if I share some of the big bed? I need to ask them if I can share you too, of course."

"It's business hours, Wanda, no talking like that." I was laughing as I said it.

She told me, "You know we should make the long weekend be Saturday through Monday or Tuesday, and be here for Friday. I heard Tiny talk about having some kind of party Friday evening. It will disrupt the Friday party if Steve goes with you."

I told her, "I'll talk to Steve and Tiny this evening. It would be neat if Steve and family could go with us to the island."

After the four of us ate in my office area at the Airpark, Wes said, "Now it's time for me to show off. Come on and check out what we're doing."

We went to what was the main LSA manufacturing hangar. The entire area was made up of aircraft in the process of being put together. Some would be torn down to be put into kits, while others would be completed and sold as tested aircraft. There was even another biplane in progress, along with six air-coupes, four high-wing, two campers, and the biplane. Twenty-six men were working on LSAs.

"How many men do you employ now, Wes?"

Wes had to think a minute before telling me, "Probably somewhere between sixty and seventy-five. You'll see as we check the other areas out. Almost all the men were transferred from the S&S main plant to here so they could remain employed. They do a great job training people there, so they are good employees when we get them."

Our next look was at the massive simulator area. There were several men working there giving flights to people within the simulator cockpits. Wes told me, "One of the problems with manpower is to have experienced pilots as instructors while the students are learning. That is a major cost factor and they don't generate as much revenue as they would be by flying trips."

We entered a hangar that was filled with four different aircraft. Wes explained, "This is our twin turboprop and short range jet area. Two of the aircraft being manufactured are conventional twin turboprops and two are similar to the small Cessna business jets. Ours are ridiculously cheap, so we're building them to satisfy the demand. We also have one of the turboprop twins that we are using as an experimental test bed for a STOL – Short Takeoff and Landing – variant. We've set it up so the engine nacelles rotate nose upward about 45 degrees for takeoffs and landings, so that we can actually launch and land with a full load in less than a thousand feet. It's not a full tiltrotor like the V-22 Osprey, and it can't hover, but short field performance is amazing. At first it was too unstable aerodynamically in tilt mode, but Sal programmed the autopilot so that it actually executes the takeoffs and landings and now it's smooth as silk. We're looking into the market for that conversion."

The effort of Wes' men was impressive. It was amazing to see how many various projects were in progress at the same time.

The next area we went into seemed crowded. There were four groups all concentrating on what looked to be a skeleton helicopter body. Wes explained that each group was working on a specific method of quieting rotor noise or getting better performance. There was also another group surrounding an aircraft body that looked like a flying ray fish. This thing was not that big, but appeared to be ready to leap into the air. Wes said, "What you're looking at is the next supersonic fighter/bomber. We'll have a long range bomber that can't be seen by radar and can deliver a massive payload if we increase the size and turbines."

This was amazing and I was looking at what should be under the watchful eye and security of the Feds.

Wes made me stop and said, "I'm now going to show you what you asked for. This is something special and will probably be an important entity to the U.S. aircraft export economy."

We walked into a hangar that contained the body of an aircraft. The wings were off to the side, but were obviously ready to be attached. Wes said, "Come inside the fuselage so I can show you what we have."

We walked up the stairs that seemed to be a part of an aircraft similar to the 737. Inside the cabin Wes showed me the dimensions of his creation. Wes said, "We can configure the interior multiple ways, so it really isn't important how the interior is arranged. We wanted to keep the aircraft in a manner that we didn't need to have a fly by wire plane. We do have electronic control of the elevators and rudder, but everything else is manual direct from the steering column and yoke.

We went into the cockpit to check that out and I was confronted with a cockpit that rivaled the Citation X or the new Gulfstream 650. Wes told me, "The idea is to make this similar to the Citation or Gulfstream so that cross-training is easier. We already have a simulator so you can fly the bird in-house if you want. We can have a bird the size of your Citation X, Gulfstream, or the size you wanted, without major modifications, when we get a finished product. The idea is to create the body to withstand Mach 2 or 3 and the engines to get it there without a major sonic boom. I think Mach 2 to 2.5 will be as fast as we can go. You hit a wall around 2.5 that seems to be where problems occur with heat and the sonic boom."

Steve walked up to us while Wes was leading me outside. Steve said Wes had told him to come out and share a ride with us.

Wes was smiling when he said, "Come on, let's take one up."

Holy shit, Wes already had an aircraft built to do what he wanted to do. I had to ask, "How much of this is you, and how much is Sal?"

Wes grinned and said, "About 50/50, Chuck. Sal tested each concept for us and kept suggesting changes until this is the finished product. Take a look at it."

There was a very plain looking aircraft outside the hangar with a stairway extended from the front area. Wes, Steve, and I entered the aircraft and were shown to the cockpit. I told Wes, "I don't think this is smart, Wes. Steve and I fly together, but we don't know anything about this aircraft."

"That's the idea, Chuck. Use the checklist for the startup and takeoff. I want to see how you do."

Steve read the list and I did the processes. I had to read to Steve as he spooled the APU up. He started the right engine from there and then talked me through the left. Wes said, "I've filed a flight plan to Panama City and back, with a detour out into the gulf, so let's get this bird in the air."

I thought this was a test flight for a new aircraft and wondered at being sent over water to get to our turnaround point. We climbed to forty-four thousand feet and almost immediately turned in a wide one eighty to come home. I was instructed to head out into the gulf on the way back, and to pour the coals on. I felt the surge as the aircraft went through an indicated Mach 1 on the way to Mach 2 while climbing to fifty-thousand feet, but Wes said to throttle back and to return to the Airpark.

Once down and parked, Wes said, "Do you know that you didn't disturb one dish in any cabinet between here and Panama City? We were able to pass through Mach 1 and travel here without causing any sonic boom disturbances."

Wes told me, "I don't know how I'm doing it, but I'm going to keep on until I know the reason, and then I'll have an aircraft going coast to coast in half the time they are doing it now. What we think is doing the trick is that the composite structure and especially its 'non-stick' surface creates a laminar flow of the slipstream around the fuselage and wings, instead of the emanating 'cone of boom' from a typical aircraft. We need more time in a supersonic wind tunnel to work that out."

Wes was looking for a high five and got it from Steve and me. It was almost five in the afternoon by this time, so Steve said, "Let's get home. I think we need to have a powwow about this weekend."