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Chapter 3:
Ed Straker hung up the phone just as Paul Foster walked into the office.
“You wanted to see me Ed?”
“Yes, please sit down, Paul,” he said as he closed the door.
“You look worried about something Ed, what’s going on?”
“That was Colonel Lake; I’m worried about her Paul.”
“She’s still investigating that science fiction writer, isn’t she?”
“Yes, she’s going hiking with him and several others but she is going to be out of touch for the next few days.”
“Come on Ed, you know Ginny as well as I do. She can handle herself.”
“I know, but I heard something in her voice this morning that I haven’t heard in years, at least since Craig died.”
“You think she’s falling for this guy?”
“I think it’s a possibility, considering the tone of her voice when she spoke about him.”
“We ran all the checks on him, he’s clean. The only reason we’re looking further is Henderson insisted on it,” said Paul stopping to consider something, “unless your reasons for worrying are personal.”
“No it’s not that, not now. Maybe a couple of years ago,” he admitted. “I never would have thought she would be blinded by love. I would have expected that from you until a couple of years ago, but not her.”
“Gee thanks.”
“Don’t worry Paul; I’ve seen you mature a lot in the past couple of years, especially since you’ve been married. By the way, I understand that congratulations are in order?”
“Yes, thank you. Jane and I found out yesterday. The baby is due in February. Getting back to Ginny, why are you so worried about her?”
“I don’t know, maybe it caught me by surprise.”
“Doesn’t she deserve to be happy? She’s forty years old Ed, and I know for a fact that she wanted to be married and have a family. If she waits much longer the argument is going to become academic. Had I not had my head up my ass at the time, it might have been me. But she knew I wasn’t ready and that’s why the relationship didn’t go anywhere. I’ll tell you this much, the man who does marry her is going to be one very lucky man.”
“I see you still think highly of her.”
“Yes, don’t you?”
“That’s why I’m worried.”
As Matt loaded the Mooney with their bags and equipment Virginia did the preflight check on the aircraft.
“I still can’t believe you have a Mooney, it’s even the same color as mine,” she said.
“And I didn’t know you were a pilot, I’m very impressed. What else do you fly?”
“I have my multiengine and turbojet certifications. I can fly those small corporate jets.”
“How many hours do you have?”
Matt knew it was going to be much more than he had.
“Over two thousand hours, mostly in corporate jets.”
“Wow, I just got my instrument ratings last year, and I’ve only had this aircraft since March.”
“What did you fly before this?”
“I had a Cessna 172. It was a nice bird but it had a limited ceiling and it was slow. I have to fly out to Schaumburg, Illinois at least four times a year for training. It took almost nine hours in the Cessna. I can make the trip in five with the Mooney. I also don’t have to worry as much about the weather.”
Virginia nodded knowing what he meant. The Mooney topped out at twenty five thousand feet, enough to get over most bad weather.
They finished loading the aircraft and climbed in the plane.
Matt finished the preflight checks and turned on the radios to contact Boston Clearance Delivery. Once he had the information he switched to ground control and requested permission to taxi.
“Mooney Four Niner Bravo, taxi to and hold short of runway 4 left via taxiway Delta 2, Delta, Charlie, Tango, contact tower on 128.8 when ready.”
“Taxi to and hold short of runway 4 left via taxiway Delta 2, Delta, Charlie, Tango, tower on 128.8, Mooney Four Niner Bravo.”
Matt turned the aircraft around and proceeded down the taxiway. He handed Virginia the clearance info. “Would you mind setting the nav radios and autopilot for me Virginia?”
“Certainly, it’s busy this morning.”
“Yeah, that’s why I want to keep my eyes on the field. I’m not concerned about the big boys; they know what they’re doing. It’s some of these weekend pilots who don’t have a clue.”
“Don’t I know it,” she said ruefully. “It’s the same way at Heathrow. I finally moved my plane out of there so I wouldn’t have to deal with the mess. The only advantage was they won’t let you on the field without an instrument rating.”
“I’m surprised they don’t do that here, although they made a big change this year. If your aircraft isn’t equipped with an altitude encoding transponder they won’t let you in the airspace. Green down in Rhode Island is supposed to do it as well.”
“We did that a few years ago, sometimes they close the field to all but commercial traffic.”
“They do that here as well. Fortunately for me most of the controllers at Green know me and they know I’m based out of there. They may have to send me around a bit but I can get into the airspace most of the time. It helps that I do radio service work for them on occasion.”
Matt brought the aircraft to a stop behind a 737 waiting for takeoff. They were forth in line and the planes were stacking up behind them. He looked at the clock; it was 7:40.
“It’s a good thing we didn’t sleep in,” he said teasing her.
Virginia smiled back at him saying, “I know it, this seems worse than Heathrow.”
In a few minutes they were next in line.
“Boston tower, Mooney Four Niner Bravo, at runway 4 left, IFR to Twin Mountain, ready for takeoff.”
“Mooney Four Niner Bravo, Position and hold.”
“Position and hold, Mooney Four Niner Bravo.”
They watched the 737 lift off the runway ahead of them as the tower called, “Mooney Four Niner Bravo, fly runway heading, climb and maintain 5000, clear for takeoff runway 4 left.”
“Clear for takeoff runway 4 left, Mooney Four Niner Bravo, rolling.”
Matt pushed the throttle all the way in and the small aircraft sped down the runway. At sixty five knots he pulled back on the yoke and the aircraft left the ground.
After they had cleared the traffic at Boston Virginia said, “You handle this aircraft well for someone who as only flown it for a few months.”
“Tell that to my flight instructor, he almost grounded me on my check ride. I hit a gust of wind just as we were about to touch down. It scared the hell out of both of us. It was kind of a freak thing; I’ve done much better since then.”
“Well I hope so,” she said teasingly.
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Matters of the Heart (Read 8970 times)
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