Emily and Alex walked into the main lobby of Signature Aviation at Hanscom Field. They timed it so they’d be there a few minutes before the two man crew was scheduled to arrive with the Hawker. Dressed in white shirts with epaulets and dark blue ties, they blended in well with what was expected and no special notice was taken of them. Alex walked up to the FBO desk with nonchalance. This was not his first time in such a place. “Hi, how’s it goin’?” he asked the woman behind the desk.
“Hello,” she said. “How can I help you?”
“We’re picking up a Netjet Hawker coming in from Chicago.” Alex looked down at a piece of paper he carried with him. “N45KG is the tail number. Have you heard from them yet?”
The woman looked down at some paperwork of her own. “Yeah. They called in about ten minutes ago. They should be on final by now.”
“Oh, good. We’ll wait here for the crew.” Alex walked into another room that had a computer and started surfing the web for weather information. He knew this would be expected of any pilot about to go flying. This was not the time to start raising eyebrows.
Emily stood beside him and began taking notes as she had been instructed. “Do we really have to take out the crew? Isn’t there another way?” she whispered to Alex.
“We have no time. We need to get their badges and we need to make sure they don’t raise an alarm.”
“I just feel so exposed. I really don’t know what I’m doing.”
“Just do what I told you and follow my lead. Everything will be fine.”
“Can you really fly one of these things?” Emily looked out the large windows at several jets sitting on the tarmac. “They look a lot bigger than that tiny little plane I saw you with when we first met.”
“Fly them?” Alex looked up at the planes with indifference. “Yeah, no problem.” He looked back at the computer screen. “It’s the landing that’s got me worried.” He looked over at Emily whose mouth was somewhat agape. “Just kidding. I have hundreds of hours of flight-time in many different kinds of airplanes. I don’t see a problem.” Not much, anyway.
They heard the whine of jet turbines and smelled burnt kerosene. Looking up, Alex saw a white and orange plane taxi over in front of the FBO. On its tail, he read “N45KG.”
“Here we go!” said Emily.
“Just be patient. It’s going to take the crew a couple of minutes to shut everything down.”
They watched the plane as it stopped. Within a few minutes, the turbine whine decreased in pitch and then stopped completely. “Are there any passengers on board we need to worry about?” asked Emily.
“No. The plane is on a deadhead from Chicago to pick up Todd.”
Emily gave him a confused look.
“It’s empty,” said Alex in explanation.
“When is Todd due here?”
Alex glanced at his watch. It was 0805. “In about four hours. We have plenty of time to do what we need to do, get the plane refueled, and get out of here. Now stop worrying.”
Alex moved away from the computer and walked back over to the woman behind the desk. “Did the crew call in for fuel?” he asked her.
“Yes.” She looked through some paperwork, then back up at Alex. “Full fuel in the wings, nothing in the tail. Sound right?”
“Sounds perfect. Can we be ready to go by sixteen hundred Zulu?”
The woman turned her head sideways a little and looked at Alex with a puzzled expression. “Are you replacing the incoming crew?”
“Yep. Last minute schedule change. Don’t have the foggiest why.”
She nodded and looked down at her paperwork again. “We should have you ready to go no later than... fifteen hundred. That okay?”
“Perfect.”
“Are you going to need anything else?”
“Not unless the other guys have something to add.” He hoped they didn’t. They wouldn’t know anything about a pilot change and Alex didn’t want them to talk to the ground crew in case they might find out their unofficial change in itinerary. “You don’t have any messages for us from corporate, do you?”
“Nope. Nothing here.”
A few minutes later, two young men dressed identically to Alex and Emily walked in through the security door from the airplane ramp. They both had lanyards around their necks attached to plastic badges. Alex took a deep breath and rubbed his palms on his pant legs. He and Emily were sitting on comfortably padded couches in the pilot’s lounge, near the door, trying to act as nonchalant as possible. Somehow, they had to get these guys out to the car without rousing any suspicions.
Alex put on his friendliest voice. “Hey, where you guys comin’ from?”
One of the pilots turned and looked at him. “Chicago,” he said.
“We’re supposed to head out to Denver in about six hours,” said Alex. “How’s the weather out west? Anything we should look out for? Any interesting pilot reports?”
“Not between here and Chicago. It’s a nice day the whole way and supposed to stay that way until tomorrow. Couldn’t say west of that, though.”
“Where you goin’ from here?” asked Alex. He hoped he sounded like he was trying to make small talk. He stood and offered his hand out to the other pilot. “Bill Matthews,” he said.
“Daniel Mancowski,” said the pilot. “And this is Rob Fallon.” He nodded toward his companion. “We’re taking a guy down to Dulles in about four hours.”
Emily smiled and stood, offering her hand. “Alice Townsend. I fly with Bill.”
Alex, then Emily, sat back down. “So, how much time you got in the Hawker?” asked Alex as he lifted his chin toward the plane out on the ramp.
“About fifteen hundred hours,” said Daniel. He looked over at Rob. “Rob has, what, nine hundred?”
“About that.”
“So, how does she handle?”
“Pretty docile. You ever been in one?”
“Nope. Most of my time is in smaller planes.”
“Well, there is a difference between the Hawker and the small stuff. You don’t steer the nose wheel with the rudder pedals.”
Alex’s interest was suddenly very aroused. “No? Then how do you maneuver on the ground?”
“It’s got this little wheel over by your left elbow you use like a steering wheel on a car.”
“You’re kidding. Why in the world did they design it that way?” Being lucky is a lot better than being good, Alex thought. I had no idea. He thought about trying to steer the plane, moving the rudder pedals back and forth, and getting no response. It would have been disastrous.
“Don’t know. Maybe it’s a British thing. They built the Hawkers, you know. What do you guys fly?”
“We’re taking out a Beechjet,” said Emily. “We just found out we’re delayed for a few hours.” She paused as if in thought. “We were talking about going to go grab a bite to eat when you came in. There’s nowhere to eat at Hanscom. You guys must be hungry, coming all the way from Chicago. Unless you want to eat from vending machines, you should come with us. Do you have time? We’ve got a car outside.”
Alex held his breath and mentally crossed his fingers. If this didn’t work…
The pilot named Daniel looked over at Rob. Rob shrugged. “Why not?” he said, as he glanced briefly at Emily. “We have a couple of hours.” He looked up at the woman behind the desk who was well out of earshot. “We all set for fuel?” he called out to her.
“All set.”
“Alright,” said Daniel. “I am hungry. Let’s go.”
“I know just the place,” said Alex as he stood and led the way toward the door to the parking lot. “We’ll go to the Burlington Mall. They have a great breakfast place there, ‘The Halfway Cafe.’ Ever been there?”
“No, but it sounds good to me,” said Daniel.
Alex felt a surge of relief as the others followed him out the door. Stage one complete! he thought. They went into the parking lot to a little blue Hyundai Doug got for them somehow. His resources seemed to be bottomless.
Daniel and Rob got in the back seat and Alex drove. “So you guys based in Chicago?” asked Alex as they left the parking lot.
“Yeah. You guys based here?”
“Boston,” said Emily, “but we fly out of Hanscom.”
“So, Alice, how do you like the Beechjet?” Rob asked. “How many hours you got in her?”
Emily gave Alex a worried glance, as if pleading Help me out here! “I have about a thousand hours in her. She’s cute.” She looked over at Alex and raised her eyebrows.
Smart girl, Alex thought. Her response was indefinite and disguised in feminine viewpoint. It gave away no idea of the depth of her ignorance and yet would undoubtedly be accepted by the guys in the back seat as consistent with a female value system. Obviously, there were large gaps in what Alex had been able to coach Emily. They just didn't have enough time to prepare for everything that might happen. He decided he’d better take the conversation in a safer direction. “Hey, either of you guys ever fly aerobatics?”
“Nope,” said Daniel. “God never meant airplanes to fly upside down.”
“Aerobatic airplanes, he did. It’s like dancing in the sky. You ever heard of Alan Cassiday?”
“No.”
“He’s a British aerobatic pilot that defines two kinds of flight.” One thing is true of all pilots, Alex knew. They never tire of talking about anything having to do with aviation. Emily might get bored with hearing this again, but the other guys wouldn't - even if they heard it before. He could keep this going for hours.
After about fifteen minutes, Alex pulled into a secluded narrow lane in Concord. At the end of the lane was parked Oscar’s van. They pulled up just behind the van and stopped.
“Hey, what’re we doing here?” asked Daniel.
“I have to make a quick stop. It’ll take just a minute,” said Alex as he stepped out and moved toward the back of the car.
“Where’s he going?” asked Daniel. He turned his head to watch Alex.
Doug appeared from behind them on the passenger side and Alex and Doug opened the back doors of the car simultaneously. Before the pilots in the back seat could react, Doug and Alex placed cloths over their mouths and noses and held them there snugly. The cloths were soaked in a chloroform-like chemical.
“What the…” gasped Rob as he reached up for Doug’s hand. Daniel was flailing about, trying to connect with Alex’s face. He made contact once, but sitting in the back seat was too awkward to offer a good blow and Alex was able to keep the rag in place. Within thirty seconds, the two were sitting limply in the back seat, breathing slowly and deeply. Doug and Alex dragged them into the van where Doug bound their hands and feet and gagged them.
Emily took their security badges and scanned them into the computer in the van. “Nobody’s around. I don’t think we were seen,” she said. Within a few minutes, a machine specially made for the purpose produced two badges, one for Emily and one for Alex, identical to the originals, but with their pictures and assumed names.
“Okay, you two,” said Doug. “Get going. I’ll take it from here. See you in Worcester.”
Phase two, thought Alex.
. . .
Getting back to the plane turned out to be a non-event. Now that they had security badges, they were able to move about without anyone taking notice. The ground crew at Signature were expecting them, so they proved no obstacle. They walked out through the security door and up to the plane.
“Is anyone going to be suspicious because we’re out here so early?” asked Emily.
“Hell no,” said Alex. “Pilots love hanging around airplanes. No one would look twice if I pulled out a rag and started polishing the windows, or kicking the tires.” Alex reached up on the left side of the nose and pulled down on a lever. The cabin door dropped open and they entered the plane. He wanted to get a good look at the cockpit and go over the check lists before he did anything else. “Besides, there’s always a lot to do to prepare for a flight, no matter how familiar you are with the plane.”
In the cockpit, Alex sat in the left seat and took stock of what was in front of him. Behind the gull-winged control wheel were the usual instruments; altimeter, airspeed indicator, artificial horizon, turn and bank indicator, vertical speed indicator and so on. But there were also scores of buttons, gauges and lights that he wasn’t familiar with. They were in the panel in front of him, in the overhead and console between the pilots and even on the bulkhead behind their heads. Most of them, he wouldn’t have to worry about unless there was a problem. He was counting on it being unlikely a problem would arise on a short flight. But, damn! There were a lot of gizmos in this plane!
“Okay, Emily, on your right side should be a pocket containing some paper lists, possibly embedded in plastic. See if you can find them. There should also be a book with a title like ‘Pilot’s Operating Handbook.’ See if you can find that too.” Alex went over the panel gauge by gauge, button by button, light by light until he had a good idea of where things were. He found, too, the little wheel on his left Daniel mentioned.
“Is this what you’re looking for?” asked Emily as she held out plasticized pieces of paper.
Alex glanced at them and recognized them immediately. “Yeah, that’s them. Find the page that starts with ‘Before Start’ or something similar.”
Emily shuffled the pages and stopped on one. “Okay. I’ve got it.”
“Start at the top and read the list so I can find everything. Go item by item, I’ll tell you when to go to the next item.”
“Parking brake, set.”
Alex looked around until he found it on the right side of the console. “Check.”
“Preflight inspection complete.”
Later. “Go on.”
“Covers, pins and plugs.”
What? “We’ll come back to that. Go on.”
“Manuals and documents.”
“Check.”
“Circuit breakers.”
Where had he seen those? Oh yeah, behind the right seat. “Check.”
And so it went, through what seemed to be an unending list. Some switches and gauges, he had to look for a while to find. Who’d have thought of looking on the overhead for navigation and landing light switches? In his small plane, everything was right in front of him in the control panel. Of course, there was a lot less “everything” to his plane. A couple of things puzzled him for a bit until he figured them out. At first, “APU” threw him for a loop until he figured out by context it must stand for “Auxiliary Power Unit.” But what the hell are N1 and N2? He gave up trying to figure that out and just hoped the thing was going to work the way it was supposed to.
After less than half an hour, they had been through the checklists once. Alex took a deep breath and reviewed what was necessary on the walk around. “Wait here,” he told Emily. “I’m going to do the external preflight. Back in a couple of minutes.”
This was somewhat reassuring to him. The plane was a little bigger than what he was used to, but it had all the same parts; two wings, a tail, ailerons, elevators, a rudder, three wheels. There was the matter of those two tubes in the tail that had many small propellers instead of the usual two or three blades he was used to having in the nose. But they worked on the same basic principle - thrust produces motion. What was the big deal?
And what was it about these wonderful machines that appealed so much? They were a thing of beauty, a work of art, for sure. But they also had functional appeal. They looked like an airplane should look. To look at one, truly look at it, forced you to imagine yourself at the controls, wheeling and soaring, climbing and diving, enjoying, the act of flying.
As he walked around the plane, inspecting its condition, Alex removed several small fabric covers left behind by the other pilots. These are placed at vulnerable places on all planes when they are left for any significant period of time and bear red banners, hard to ignore, having the message, “REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT.” Once removed, they would be stowed on the plane until they would be needed again at its next place of rest. By removing them, Alex made sure nothing with a hole - pitot tubes, air intakes, fuel breather tubes, and so on, was plugged. All was well and she looked not only ready, but eager to go.
On returning to the cockpit, he sat again in the left seat and went through the ‘Recurrent Training Manual’ to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything. He then took the ‘Pilot’s Operating Manual’ and thumbed through it to make sure there was nothing there he had somehow missed. Finally, he looked up at Emily. “What time you got?”
“Eleven ten.”
“Todd should be here in less than an hour. Let’s go back inside. I need to file an IFR flight plan.” He looked around and found where they kept the approach plates and charts. He grabbed the ones he would need and led Emily back into the FBO.
“Is everything okay? Are you ready for this?” she asked. “You seemed a little… lost in the plane.”
She must have sensed he was tense. “Everything’s fine. I just had to make sure I knew where everything was. You know, get familiar with her. Other than that, I’m always a little on edge before flying in a new plane.” I usually do it with a qualified instructor, though! He didn’t like doing it this way. It went against everything he had been taught since his first flight lesson. When it came to flying, he always believed in being cautious. But he had little choice here. Despite the fact sweat was running down his collar in seventy degree weather, he did feel he would be able to fly the thing without difficulty. What bothered him was he knew he was not adequately prepared if the unexpected happened. If the shit hits the fan, God forbid, I’ll just have to rely on Air Traffic Control. That thought made him feel a little better. He always had a backup plan, as undesirable as it may be. It would save their bacon if they got in trouble.