The following morning, after a good breakfast, they traveled back to the Rockland airport and took off for Teterboro. As soon as they had the gear up, Jim reached for the throttles and pulled them to the off position. “You’ve just lost an engine,” he said. “Handle it.”
Stone was ahead of him: he applied the opposite rudder, retrimmed the airplane, and got it settled down.
“Now, return to the airport and land,” Jim said. “Hand-fly the approach; I’ll handle the radios.”
Stone contacted the tower and advised them of his return, then made left traffic while he loaded the instrument approach into the flight computer. He flew the airplane down to five hundred feet, on course and flight path, then Jim pushed the throttle forward. “You just got your engine back,” he said. “Now climb to three thousand feet and reduce your speed to two hundred knots.” He produced a clipboard and began taking notes. Then, when the aircraft had settled down, he switched off the autopilot and put Stone through the standard series of stalls. That done, he directed Stone to fly to Teterboro. Forty minutes later, as air traffic control gave them a descent, Jim listened to the automatic weather frequency. “The wind is 080 at twenty knots, gusting thirty,” he said. “Hand-fly the ILS for runway six and put it on the center line.” He switched off the autopilot again.
Stone flew the approach, crabbing into the strong wind to keep the airplane on the runway center line, set down softly on the right gear, then used the sidestick and ailerons to set down on the left. He turned off the runway and headed for Jet Aviation.
Stone taxied to the ramp, then ran through the checklist and shut everything down.
“I’m impressed with your skills,” Jim said. “So I have a little gift for you.” He handed Stone his clipboard. “I’m a certified FAA flight examiner, and you have just passed your check ride for your type rating in the G-500. Sign here.” He pointed to an X. “And let me have your old license.”
Stone signed. “What about my last five hours of training?”
“I’ll sign you off for that,” Jim said. “I’m still a part-time instructor for Gulfstream, and you’ve now completed all the requirements.” He handed Stone the paper he had just signed. “This is your temporary license. Your old one goes back to the FAA; they will add your new type rating and send you a new license.”
“Jim,” Stone said, “is there anything wrong with this airplane that you know about?”
“No, sir. She just had a major inspection at Gulfstream, and everything is up to snuff.”
“Are you happy with your copilot?”
“The kid is a good pilot, but he’s young and single and comes to work too often with a hangover.”
“I have a pilot on staff who’s excellent. I’ll ship her down to Gulfstream and let her get type-rated, then you can let the kid go.”
“That sounds like a good plan.”
“My pilot’s name is Faith Barnacle. She’s been in charge of my flight department, as well as flying. You two can work together on that.”
“Sounds good,” Jim said.
“Then I’d better go buy this airplane.” Stone exited the cockpit and left the crew to do their work while he and Callie walked into the fixed-base operator and took a table in the pilots’ lounge. “All right,” he said, “what do you want for the airplane?”
She named a figure. “That’s an attractive number,” Stone replied, “but not quite low enough.” He named a number.
She shrugged, then gave him another number. “That includes the trade-in on your Citation Latitude,” she said. “I’ve already sold it.” She wrote down the numbers and pushed a sales contract and a pen across the table.
Stone laughed, then he read the contract and signed it and a half dozen additional documents that covered maintenance and other minutiae, plus another sales contract for his airplane.
“Now all I need is a cashier’s check,” she said.
Stone picked up his phone and called Charley Fox, his partner, along with Mike Freeman, in Triangle Investments, which handled all his money.
“I hear you bought a new airplane,” Charley said.
“Apparently, everybody in the northeastern United States knows that, but I just found out myself. Write down this number.” He read it from the sales contract. “Bust into my investment account and generate a cashier’s check in that amount, then have it hand delivered to . . .” He looked at Callie.
“Your office,” she said. “I’ll give you a ride in.”
“My office,” Stone said, “soonest.”
“You’ll have it inside an hour,” Charley said, and they hung up.
“Now,” Callie said, “I understand you already have a pilot on staff?”
“That’s correct. I’ve told Jim about it. She’ll have to go through the training, but I can fly with Jim until she’s done.”
“I suggest you hire the crew, Jim Stafford and his wife, Julie. They’ve been with the airplane since it was new.”
“I have already done so. Jim isn’t happy with his first officer, so he’ll let him go as soon as Faith is back from Savannah.”
“Right.” She handed him some other documents. “These are Jim’s and Julie’s contracts, which include a ten percent raise over what the last owner was paying. Jim and Julie have a house near Teterboro, one kid in college. Jerry is single and lives in the city.”
Stone signed the papers. “Anything else?”
“I assume you’ll want to keep your tail number?”
“That is correct.”
“I’ll handle it with the FAA, and the change will be made tomorrow in the Strategic Services hangar.”
“Good. Anything else?”
“Not a thing. Congratulations,” Callie said, offering her hand.
Stone took it. “That was the slickest performance I’ve ever seen,” he said.
“I’ve been working on it for a week,” she replied. “You never had a chance of avoiding it.”
They walked to her car and headed for Manhattan. Stone called Joan.
“Congratulations on the new airplane,” she said.
“It’s a conspiracy,” Stone replied. “Please call Arthur Steele and get the new airplane on my policy and remove the old one. Make the hull value thirty million dollars, and the liability remains the same.” He read her the aircraft and engine serial numbers off the sales contract, then hung up. He turned to Callie. “Lunch on me?”
“Can we make it dinner? I need to work with my other client on completing the sale of your Latitude.”
“My house at seven?”
“Done.”
“You’re a wonder,” he said.
“You have no idea,” she replied.
Back at home, Stone handed Joan the paperwork for the airplane to be filed. Then he went to his desk.
Joan buzzed him immediately. “Dino on one.”
Stone pressed the button. “Yeah?”
“Congratulations,” Dino said.
“Jesus.”
“I understand we can now fly nonstop to your house in England.”
“That is correct.”
“Have you flown it yet?”
“I flew it up to Islesboro yesterday and back this morning.”
“When do we leave?”
“You’re just dying to fly it somewhere, aren’t you?”
“I am, and so is Viv.”
“I’ll call you tomorrow and let you know where.”
“Gotcha.” Dino hung up.
Joan buzzed. “Faith called, and I told her about the new airplane.”
“She’ll need to take the Gulfstream course and get a new type rating.”
“We’ve already scheduled it, starting Monday,” Joan said.
Stone hung up. “Jesus,” he muttered to himself.