Flying Lessons

The pic I snapped of KOZANOSTRAW as Lou makes his fly-by.


We are up for about ten minutes. I take her through the paces and feel out the flight controls. She is more responsive than Abby, but then again her size dictates that. Lou takes the controls and flys her for a bit, makes a couple of gradual turns and then I take it back. We say nothing about the fact that neither of us are really pilots, and that of the two of us Lou has the least behind the stick time. Bear thinks we are professional flyers and I don't want to shake that tree.
"Nice, huh?" Bear says as he leans an arm on the back of both seats. "Take us down and buzz the boat... scare the shit out of Agaki. He does that slow dance excersize stuff up on deck this time of morning."
I bank around and head back toward the boat. We come up on it fast and I fly as close as I dare. Bear laughs as he sees Agaki duck when we fly by.
"Yeah, you got him... got him good."

Landing, now that is going to take skills that I thought I would never have to use. Two weeks ago the thought of me landing a seaplane on the Venezuelan coast would have been as far away as the Mars Landing. But here I am, taking a long approach, giving myself a lot of room for error. I keep thinking in the back of my mind that I don't want to give myself too much room or I will be trying to "taxi" this thing a hell of a long way back to the beach.
"What are you doing?" Lou asks.
"It's called landing."
"Don't land in Colombia, for Christ's sake. Set her down close to shore so we don't have to motor around in this chop for too long."
I look at him, "What, do you read minds now too?"
I turn her around and head back toward the beach, taking her low and slow as I come into the bay, gauging an escape if it doesn't turn out right. I let her drop.
"Shit, give me flaps... ten, flaps at ten."
Lou moves the handle and she floats a little more.Gotta let her down nose up, let the tail down first and then ease her down onto the water. The beach is ahead of us, and for a moment I feel panic creeping up the back of my throat.
"Let her come down, Jake." Lou is as calm as a mountain lake.
I ease her down, backing off the throttles and pulling back on the column just enough to have her ass dip in the water first. It grabs, trying to nose her in, but I keep pressure on and pull the throttles back. She settles into the water like a fucking pro was flying her. I look at Lou and he gives me a wink. We did good. We just won't let Bear in on our little secret.
We are close enough to shore that within a minute we nose up on the beach. I shut her down and we climb out into the knee deep water and climb up to dry land.
"Well boys, I suppose you will want to fly her to your plane and head on home, huh?" Bear looks a little disappointed.
"What are you gonna do, Bear?" Lou picks up a shell from the beach and gives it a look, then tosses it.
"Same shit I always do, boys. It doesn't end unless I give up the ghost. Kind of a prisoner, you know."
"Nice prison, though." Lou gestures to the boat.
"Yeah, there are perks involved." Bear reaches out shakes Lou's hand.
"I really appreciate you saving Chris. His mother still thinks of him as her little boy. Hasn't been little for some time now, but try telling her that." He reaches out and shakes my hand now.
"You boys ever need to get a hold of me you call." He waves one of his men over and he hands him a business card and a satellite phone in a little case.
"You boys take this, it will work anywhere. And this is my personel number on this card." He hands the phone to Lou and I take the card. It is just a number, no name or anything.
"You boys stay safe." And with that, Bear is in the boat and headed back to KOZANOSTRAW.

We sit on the shore and watch the yacht pull anchor and get under way. The whole process from Bear leaving us to the yacht making tracks is about thirty minutes. And here we are, sitting on some beach with a new plane and new plans.
"Well, teach me to fly this bitch."
"Bitch... not a name I would pick."
"We can name her later. I want to fly."
I look at the plane, it is beautiful. I almost think I would trade flying with Jerry and just fly with Lou down here making runs over the Gulf, or up and down the coast. I shake the daydream off and do a little evaluating.
"What are your plans, Lou?" He looks at me kind of funny.
"You trying to get rid of me?"
"No, not at all. I just don't know where we are going with all of this. Are you going to fly back with me to El Corazon and we make plans from there? Are you going to go your own way and take her where ever you're going?"
I stand and pick up the satellite phone and card, tucking it into the case. "We have to make a decision whether or not to just take off from here and fly to the airstrip and get you flying from dry land, or if you want to fly from here... I mean we could practice here, but even from my novice standpoint, I think you ought to get a little training just flying over dry land first."
Lou doesn't respond at first. It feels like he is mad at me or something. So, I leave him sitting there and push the seaplane off the beach and walk her around like a dog in the water so she is headed out once again.
After a minute Lou comes sloshing up to me.
"I'd like to fly with you back to get Jerry and then back to El Corazon, if that is okay."
"I was hoping you'd say that."
"And I would like to try to take off and land just once before we head over to the airstrip."
That gave me the chills. I don't know why, just made me really nervous. I am not the one to be teaching anyone even how to fly... never the less how to take off and land a seaplane. Lou is going to have to learn how to fly in a few quick lessons. I am sure he can take off and fly her all the way home. It is the landing that is going to be difficult.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Yeah, Jake... what?"
"Why can't we just fly her over to the strip and start flying lessons from there. I mean, let me take her off from here. Hell, I'll even let you land it at the strip."
"Because if I kill myself landing, at least I will have taken her off at least once."
Well, you can't argue with that logic.

Lou is in the left seat. All of the time we have been flying he has been fucked up on smoke and alcohol. I didn't think he had been paying this much attention, but he does his set up like he has done it a hundred time, checking pressures, setting flaps and cowls, the whole bit. I just watch for a second before I start helping.
Lou points to the radio, "We will have to find a channel we can talk to each other on. I am going to have to have you talk me in when I am flying home."
"That shouldn't be a problem. The Dominican brothers installed that radio in Abby and it should be compatible. We just have to stay clear of the Air Traffic Control frequencies."
Once again her engines rumble to life. I don't like the fact that we don't have a name for her.
"Lou, you have to think of a name."
"What about Naomi?"
"Naomi? Indian name, isn't it?"
"I was fucking this Mexican girl in California, name of Naomi. I was caretaking this vineyard and she moved in with me. It was a time in my life where I wasn't sure where I was going, didn't really want to think of where I'd been, but having a helluva good time in the present... kind of like now. It seemed like an adventure. And man was she a beautiful girl."
"Naomi it is."

We bump the throttles up and move her off of the sand and head out. Lou looks a little stiff at the controls.
"Relax, Lou, you'll do fine."
"I could really use a drink, or a joint right now."
"Well, we'll scratch that itch when we are on the ground, okay."
I don't think he likes that answer.
"It sucks being pilot, doesn't it."
Lou cracks a smile and I see him relax a little.
"Flaps to five?"
"There at five, Lou."
"How much throttle?"
"Give her more and pull back on the column just a bit until she stops bucking on this chop." He gives her some gas and we porpoise just a little.
"Use one hand on the wheel and one hand on the throttles. Bring the throttles up and at the same time pull back, just enough pressure to make her ride the water."
We start to plane and he increases the throttles. "Pull back a little more, Lou... good."
You can feel the drag decrease, "Now lift her off of the water and throttles up at the same time."
Naomi rises off of the surf and we are airborne. Lou lets out a wolf call that curdles your blood. He is going to be trouble behind the controls of his own plane... a wild man with wings.
"That a boy. Get her up a bit and then put her through some paces. Get the feel of her." We get up to a thousand feet and Lou dips the wings here and there, but seems to be afraid to do anything else.
"Well, let's make a turn, Lou."
"Okay."
"Just turn the wheel and give it a little rudder."
He eases it into a turn and with the influence of the rudder it tucks around rather quickly.
"Good, not too fast. Did you feel that?"
"Hell ya, it was nice." He turns the other way now and quicker. Then the other way.
"Easy Lou, easy does it."
He has lined up with the coast now, the same direction the yacht took.
"Lets fly over the boat, okay?"
"Oh hell ya."
It takes about thirty seconds to catch up with the yacht and Lou comes down fairly low. He flies by and rocks his wings. I snap a quick picture as we pass.Lou is too busy looking out the side window and we start heading for the water.
"PULL UP... "
Lou snaps back to the controls and the attitude of the plane and levels her out.
"Why don't we fly on back to the airstrip and we can get a few touch and goes in before lunch?" I offer, hoping that he isn't serious about landing just right now.
Lou levels out about fifty feet above the water, drops his flaps, cuts back on the throttles and we do down.
"Keep the nose up, Lou. She is going to want to nose in once she... "

That was it, as soon as her ass hit the water she dove nose first into the next swell and a sheet of water blows over the top of us. I hear the engines strain as they blast through. We bob like a cork for a second or two and I reach over and give her a little gas to make sure we don't stall out. Lou has a bit of a bloody nose, which I point out.
"I've had worse."
"If she hadn't done it I would have myself. Nice landing."
"Fuck you."

Taking off in the open ocean is a bit different than a sheltered cove. The swells are hard to get on top of and Naomi fights me all the way. We pour the coals to her and it takes a lot to get her to plane while we try to hold an even track to get her up to speed. Finally she skims and then breaks free and we are up.

We head for the airstrip, following the beach. Not a word is spoken, just the sound of Naomi's radials and the wind. I feel a sense of loss... I think Lou does as well. He had found somoeone that had been where he'd been, lived what he had lived. There is that instant bond that is as strong as if you had known that person for years, and a loss of that friend when you depart with no plans to ever see them again.

Behind us we leave that new and influencial friend. I get the feeling that Bear would have liked to come with us. But that's just not to be... not now anyway. We all have work to do. Lou has to learn to land. We have to ferry both planes back to Tapia's and pick up Jerry and Ollie. We have to get Nester's cash back to him and get back to El Corazon.
And who knows what will happen on the way.