|
Profound Writer
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: North Carolina
Gender: Male
Posts: 900
|
WIP- "Altitude" Pages 7-12
Alright...here are pages 7-12....I will post chapter 2 later. Be sure to go back and read the first part.
James kept one eye on the altimeter and one on the horizon. They were descending about 700 feet per minute, not terribly fast for a small plane, but it could have been much worse. Sarah closed her eyes as they started the descent into the unknown.
“Just get us there,” Sarah said in between pants. She was a nervous wreck, but James was doing his best.
He radioed Asheville, which was less than a hundred miles away. They were experiencing high winds, low clouds and thunderstorms. James would have to find an alternate airport, or try landing in zero weather. That meant there was zero visibility and almost impossible to land. “We’re going to try a zero landing,” James announced.
“What’s that?” Sarah’s eyes widened.
“Where we land with no visibility. Basically we’re taking a chance. If we don’t make it, we crash.”
Oh great, just what I wanted to hear. So basically you’re telling me our chances of landing are next to nothing? “I see,” but of course Sarah wanted to say more. She was too scared to open her mouth.
James looked down at the oil temp, which had lowered some by now. He adjusted the throttle and gained a little more speed. The plane was now going almost 220 knots, which was fast enough. The altitude was dropping faster than he wanted, but was still in the safe zone as he liked to call it.
“How much further?” Sarah had clutched her seat.
“About fifty miles or so,” James adjusted the trim and pulled up some. He didn’t want to drop too fast. There were mountains around too, which added to the dangers. “Just try to hold on, we’ll be on the ground soon.”
The rain was growing heavier, which made the plane roll even more. James was trying his best to regain control over the plane, but was having a difficult time. Sarah sat there with her eyes shut tightly. All she could think about was landing the plane and getting off. For the moment though, James was having major difficulties controlling the plane.
“How far are we?” Sarah had to shout above the loud humming of the engines.
“About fifteen miles,” James had just radioed to Asheville and received the weather report. “Looks like they’re socked in and we might not be able to make it,” he didn’t want to say anything negative.
Sarah turned her head back towards the window. It was useless though. There was nothing to see from the dark clouds. She didn’t even know what time it was anymore. Time had come to a standstill now and didn’t seem to be going anywhere.
James checked his altimeter and was still descending. He had tried to compensate for wind speed and fuel quantity as well. “Come on,” he was arguing with the plane. It was instinct supposedly. He had done it thousands of times and maybe he thought it would help. It’s only ten miles James. You can do it. There was a sudden bolt of lightning that flashed not more than fifteen feet away from the plane. Both Sarah and James jumped out of their skin.
“What was that?” Sarah wanted to confirm what it was.
“Lightning,” James picked up his radio and called the tower. “This is Navajo, one-three-six-Zulu, we are experiencing heavy winds, rain, and lightning. Do you copy?”
There was a faint transmission he could barely hear. “Copy that,” a voice on the other end called out. “We have you on radar,” the male voice said. “What is your present altitude?”
James glanced down long enough to remember it. “Seven thousand,” he said as loud as he could. “We’re dropping pretty fast too,” he added.
“Maintain your present altitude, and turn right, heading two-zero-three,” tower control told him.
“Roger that,” James turned his plane in the heading as indicated. He tried holding the plane at a steady but it was no use. “Looks like we’re in for it,” he looked at Sarah.
There was another bolt of lightning, but this time it struck the right engine. A loud clap sounded out, followed by a quick flash of bright light. For a few seconds, everything went black. Neither one knew what had happened, but the right engine had been struck by lightning.
“What was that?” Sarah cried out as if she were complaining about something.
“Great,” James could feel the plane veer off to the right. “We’ve been hit,” he increased power into the left engine, as much as he could and tried holding the plane steady.
A few seconds after the engine had been hit, smoke started coming out the back and it didn’t look good. Fortunately though, it was raining, which prevented a fire in the engine. It could have been much worse. Still though, with one engine, it would prove difficult to land. James had done it once before and didn’t want to relive it ever again.
Sarah didn’t want to look out the window anymore. She had seen entirely too much now and just wanted to land. “How much further?” she seemed to gulp air after asking.
“Not much further,” James was loosing altitude and quickly. The airport wasn’t too far away, maybe five or ten minutes but there was no visibility. “Just hang tight alright,” he tried to keep Sarah calm.
James radioed the tower once again, and asked for clearance to land. He was only five minutes away from the airport. Air traffic control came over the air just as soon as James checked his altimeter again.
“What is your current air speed?”
“About hundred and eighty knots,” James looked at the airspeed indicator.
“Copy that,” the man said. “Descend to four thousand, with your current heading.”
“How’s the weather down there?” he was halfway joking.
“We’re socked in down here, you might want to find another airport.”
“I can’t, engine was struck by lightning, I need to land.”
“We’ll do our best sir,” the man said.
The King Air 350 dropped to four thousand feet in a matter of seconds. James had regained some control over the plane now, and that made him feel better. As for Sarah though, she tried not looking out the window but was like a small kid. She looked out at the billowing smoke and wondered if they would make it.
James but back the throttle to slow the plane down. The airport was only two or three minutes away, but nothing in sight. He adjusted the flaps to slow the plane even more. There was another large clap of thunder and flash of lightning. It narrowly missed the left engine, but gave the two a big scare.
“Are we almost there?” Sarah turned her attention towards James.
“Almost,” he slowed down even more and was now in constant contact with tower control.
From the tower though, the air traffic controller had James’ plane on radar and dropping altitude. He noticed this and tried making contact, but it was no use. After a few tries, he was successful.
“This is Navajo one-three-six, zulu, I copy. Altitude is three thousand, two hundred and falling. I’ve slowed her down as much as I can, flaps are fully extended and auto-feather in engaged.”
“Copy that, we’ve got you on our radar. You should have already intercepted the glide slope.”
“I have,” the ATC could hear James, even though the transmission was garbled. “How much further?”
“About thirty seconds, just keep that nose up.” The young man could feel his heard beating rapidly, waiting for James to touch down on the ground.
From inside the cockpit, Sarah closed her eyes and could feel the sudden jerk of the plane. They had landed, with a hard bump, but the plane was on the ground now. James could barely see the terminal, but made his way over.
“Well, we made it,” James was thankful to finally be on the ground where it was safe.
“Yeah,” Sarah was still breathing heavily from her harrowing experience. “And as far as flying goes, I’m done with it.”
“What do you mean you’re done with it?” James looked at her. He wasn’t quite sure what she meant by it. “I thought you liked flying?”
Sarah didn’t know what else to say, especially after what she had just gone through. “James, we could have crashed and probably died. And after what I just went through, I don’t think I could ever fly again.” Sarah lowered her head and sat silent.
James didn’t want to say anything further to upset her. He looked and noticed her body quivering. She was crying and for good reason too. He had already cut off the engines and could hear the rain beat against the metal shell. “We need to get out of here,” he opened the door and stepped out into the pouring rain.
James had started making his way towards the terminal, while Sarah remained behind. She sat with her head propped against the passenger window. We could have crashed. Why did he do that? Has he lost his mind? Sarah lifted her head from the glass and looked down at the gleaming diamond on her ring finger. They had been engaged only a few hours now and it was becoming clear Sarah didn’t want James flying anymore. The two had met on her first flight several months ago, and there was an instant attraction. Although she loved him, Sarah hated James flying all the time. She wanted to learn, but after her harrowing experience, maybe a marriage wasn’t the best thing.
Sarah looked at the diamond ring, and admired at the beauty, but was it worth it? Was it worth having a husband that always liked to live in the edge? She turned the diamond over, facing the palm of her hand and climbed out of the plane.
---------------------------------End of Chapter one-------------------------------
|
I'm not sure.
.
I am currently working on chapter two....I have an idea of where to take this 
