Friday, June 28, 2013

71. Flight Beyond All Hope. Part 3. Dude's Originals.


“So the captain grits his teeth and wrestles the bird to a grinding halt, with brakes screeching and tires burning, with the flaps fully deployed.  Then he says to his co-pilot, “This must be the shortest ****ing runway we’ve ever landed in!” The co-pilot looks over his shoulder out of the side window and says, “And the ****ing widest!” 

IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE PART I AND 2, PLEASE CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINKS.

 FLIGHT BEYOND ALL HOPE PART 1
 FLIGHT BEYOND ALL HOPE PART 2


Captain Kevin Landers let out a loud guffaw and in fact, a too loud one,  that made the first Officer,  25 year old Alvin Rogers look at him suspiciously.

“I just wondered if you’ve heard that one before,” he said timidly.

“ 'Course I have, but I didn’t wanna  disappoint you.”

“Damn!”

Forty three year old Captain Kevin Landers was known in the circles to be an amiable person with easy going attitude and larger than life sense of humor.

“Heard this one?” Landers asked putting his meal tray on the cockpit floor. “A plane has taken off JFK and climbing. Then the captain comes on the intercom, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Welcome aboard the non-stop flight from JFK to L. A. International. The weather report says it is going to be fine ahead.  So, we can look forward to a smooth flight all the way. Just sit back and enjoy the ride… OH MY GOD!

And silence. Pin drop silence. After several minutes, the passengers hear captain's voice again.

“Ladies and gentlemen.  I apologize if I scared you witless. What happened was,  while I was talking, the flight attendant accidently spilled some hot coffee on my lap. You should see the front of my pants!” Then a dude in the business class yells, “That is nothing. You should see the back of mine!””

Alvin rocked with laughter and spilled his coffee on the front of his pants.



෴ * * ෴  ~ ෴ * * ෴  ~ ෴ * * ෴


The Boeing 777 cruised on auto pilot through the night skies at 37,000ft.  The flight so far has been uneventful as it should be for a fine night like this, with fine weather for flying.

෴ * * ෴  ~ ෴ * * ෴  ~ ෴ * * ෴


The Boeing 777 was homing in on Miami International Airport, Florida.


Flight attendant Annie Davis was teasing the new crew member Michelle Cooper about her crush on the handsome First Officer Alvin Rogers.  Michelle, a 23 year old voluptuous blond, who was eating a burger standing by the galley sink, blushed.

෴ * * ෴  ~ ෴ * * ෴  ~ ෴ * * ෴


Two hours later,  the PA system crackled and on came the announcement, that they would be landing in Miami International Airport, in a while. The Boeing 777 started losing altitude, as it was closing in on its destination.
Some passengers were filling out the embarkation forms flight attendants had distributed, a while ago. Those without ballpoint pens were waiting to borrow from the neighbors who had enough sense to have one on them.

A young mom changed a diaper of her infant, while her husband watched in awe.

The aircraft banked left in a wide curve, to enter the landing pattern. 


෴ * * ෴  ~ ෴ * * ෴  ~ ෴ * * ෴



Photo from Wikimedia
The Boeing 777 was on the final approach on the glide slope with the onboard computers tuned and locked on the ILS frequency of the runway 12/30.  The aircraft was now 5 miles out from the runway and 2000ft up in the air. The captain Kevin Landers lowered the first notch of the flaps. It was time to deploy the landing gears. The skilled hands of the pilots went through the motions.

First officer Alvin Rogers watched the indicators on the bank of instruments turn white crosshatched as the wheel bay flaps opened and landing gear bogies were in transit. There was a hum and a thud that felt inside the aircraft as the wheels were down and locked and the indicators turned into green.


With the airspeed now reduced to just above the stall speed. The engine note audibly changed due to the deployed flaps and the armed speed brakes.



The big jet came in screaming out of the skies, toward the lit up runway 12/30. The engines slightly accelerating to compensate the drag caused by the lowered landing gears and flaps. The runway threshold whizzed past, as the Captain Kevin Landers pulled back the control column to execute the flair, causing the nose to lift off increasing the angle of attack. The Boeing 777 swooped down   like a giant eagle, with its wings spread and claws outstretched to grab the prey.

The main landing gear sets just skimmed the runway and then sparks flew as the rubber met the tarmac at the touchdown, emitting  a cloud of smoke and the  wheels at once started to
Photo from Wikimedia.
spin like crazy, accelerating from 0 to 250kmph in a fraction of a second . The thud was felt in the fuselage as the main landing gear suspension hissed and took over the total weight of the aircraft. 

In a few seconds, the nose wheels touched down adding more rubber to the runway. Captain Landers slid the elevator control neutral and used the rudder pedals to steer the aircraft down the middle of the runway. The fully deployed flaps and spoilers, the reverse thrust of the engine and speed brakes, combined made a howl and roar and scream at the same time which reached a crescendo.

As the ground handling crew watched, the Boeing 777 thundered down the runway making the windows rattle in the surrounding buildings. The giant bird slowed up at the end of the runway and made a ninety degree turn into the taxiway.  The passengers went through their usual routine of getting ready to deplane with usual chatter. 

෴ * * ෴  ~ ෴ * * ෴  ~ ෴ * * ෴


Several hours later, Nick Ortega stood in the floodlights on the concrete ramp and ticked off the check list on the clipboard inspecting each item of the aircraft.  He walked under the wing and inspected the wheel bogie and ticked a few boxes.  He grimaced at the noise when one after another jets landed with a tremendous roar and whizzed past.  He licked the tip of the pencil and casually glanced up the wheel strut when he heard a soft clang of metal hitting metal.

His eyes narrowed and a puzzled expression creased his face when he saw the car seat belt dangling from the tubular steel leg, swinging in the wind, its steel buckle clanging on the steel strut.

“What the …!”

He swung the beam of the powerful flashlight upwards on the wheel bay.  Nothing!  For good measure, he stepped onto the axle of the landing gear and shone the flashlight into the wheel bay. It was empty. He licked the tip of the pencil once more while he tried to form the sentence he had to scribble in the Comments box. ‘Car seatbelt hanging from the strut’ sounded just stupid.

He brought his walkie-talkie to mouth, pushed the talk button and started talking into it rapidly.

෴ * * ෴  ~ ෴ * * ෴  ~ ෴ * * ෴


Two weeks later, henryblogwalker
sat with a cup of coffee and opened
the inbox of Yahoo Mail.


23 unread messages! Well when you are a blogger you are never short of incoming mail, he thought.

But the Third mail jumped at him.



Carlos!                        Hey Dude                            8.55 AM


"Don’t know what the hell dude has done about that mad scheme of his," he muttered to himself.


He clicked on the name and waited impatiently for the email to load, with his fingers drumming an impatient tune on the edge of the laptop keyboard.


THE END

WARNING: THIS IS FICTION. PLEASE DON'T TRY THIS. THIS IS DEADLY. THE STATISTICS ARE TRUE.





References:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-32111/Cuban-stowaways-died-jet-soared.html#ixzz2J5vFW3af

http://en.wikipedia.org

http://www.boeing.com/boeing/commercial/777family/pf/pf_200product.page

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19562101

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2003/12/do_jet_stowaways_ever_survive.html

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2003/12/do_jet_stowaways_ever_survive.html

28 comments:

  1. Read it with the hope what's happening to Carlos in the Wheel Bay, you surprised us with pilot's stuff. Nice Story machan. Appreciate your effort.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much machan. Nice to know that you enjoyed the story.

      Delete
  2. Excellent !!! nothing else to say Dude. thank you very much for this nice piece if work.

    Congratulation Carlos !!

    I have a big question. Why Carlos took such a huge risk to fly from one place to another in the same country. He could have easily traveled by land transport. Since there is no visa issue, if he tried he could have easily bought an air ticket as well ! Normally stowaways do these type of things due to none availability of visas etc.. This is the only point i could not understand.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm so glad to hear one of my biggest fans say "Excellent"! I was just trying my best not to disappoint you. :)

      Yeah, congratulations Carlos!

      Senna, Carlos is not from the United States. He is from one of the many countries in the South American continent, which I didn't want to specify. He could be from Cuba or Venezuela or or anywhere.

      He is arriving in Miami International, instead of JFK because it is one of the southernmost airports to minimize the number of hours he has to stay in the wheel bay.

      Delete
    2. sorry dude, i have miss understood... Kindly ignore the last part of my first comment..

      Delete
    3. Oh, no problem Senna, Take it easy.

      Delete
  3. You proved that you can satisfy me. And don't think that you are safe. I am still doing paper works on you. hik hik.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the feedback dheishakaya. I wonder what you are going to do!
      By the way, My comments are spammed in your blog. Please check.

      Delete
  4. WOW Dude...out of all the three parts of your story, this is the one that I enjoyed reading the most. You kept us in suspense for quite a long time. I was expecting to read something about Carlos at the very beginning of the story, but you seem to have had other plans right? ;)

    You have deviated from the normal story telling format and that has made this story exceptionally interesting. So I guess that all the time and effort you have put in to this story has paid off well. You proved again that you are a very creative person who can do wonders when you allow your thoughts to flow freely. I am not saying this merely to praise you dude, but because I really believe that you are one of the most creative writers in the blogging world.

    Way to go dude..way to go g-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for this detailed comment, Chams. I wanted to make that difference. I mean, the main character is not seen in the final episode though he plays the major part. Even when the pilots are joking and when they open the landing gear bay Carlos is always on our mind, nagging us.

      Still I didn't want to end this in a tragedy. So I left so many openings for the reader to guess where Carlos really got off the plane. So you can let your imagination run wild too.

      Thanks for all the encouragement.

      Delete
  5. Dude!!!! This is my favorite of all episodes! y-)

    Guess what, I read the first paragraph and was wondering what happened? then I went back to part two to see if I have missed anything. :D

    This is an awesome writing Dude, and the descriptions of how the flight landed and the inside jokes of the flight crew and the sense of humor of the captain, how the ground man found the seat belt is the best. For a while I thought he found Carlos!!! :-O

    And the best part is the way you have told how Carlos survived! Nothing to say other than pure awesomness! I would be reading this again from the beginning when I am free g-)

    Well done dude! You conquered the blog world! :-h :-f

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much for this awesome comment.
      I enjoyed writing this as much as you did reading it.

      >>Guess what, I read the first paragraph and was wondering what happened?<<

      Exactly what I had in mind. I wanted this last episode to have something special. I wanted you to wonder what happened to Carlos all the time. And give you options, too, to know what exactly, while making it a happy ending.

      Thank you again, for encouraging me so much and for inquiring from time to time. :-F

      Delete
  6. It was nice to know that Carlos was survived. Thank you very much Dude for entertaining us; I was eagerly looking forward to read the end.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're welcome Manavika. Yeah, I had no intention of letting Carlos die, right from the beginning. :)

      Delete
  7. Brilliant piece of work dude. I'm pretty sure that you have done a substantial amount of background research for this. And it has paid off well.

    By the way, If I'm ever going to pull off a daredevil stunt like this, I'm definitely gonna consult you. :)


    p.s.
    Just kidding... I read and understood the "WARNING! don't-try-this-at-home" part :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you very much පරිකල්පන. I just let my පරිකල්පන (imagination) run wild. Yes. of course I did a lot of research work, specially on the statistics, medical conditions mentioned here and wheel bay stowaways. The stuff about aircraft is mainly from fascination about them.

    Yeah, DON'T TRY THIS AT AIRPORT. :))

    ReplyDelete
  9. I have already read the sinhala version so the curiosity is gone. But your writing is excellent and congratulations for your innovative thinking. w-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks again. I have given a long answer to your long comment there.

      Delete
  10. Congrats!!! :-h
    Thanks for the dedication and enthusiasm. :-f
    It's interesting the way u have ended the story allowing the readers to build their own version about the 'Survival of Carlos' :-?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're welcome.

      Thanks for inquiring from time to time and encouraging me.

      Well, I thought this end would be better. And reading the comments I realize I made the right decision.

      Thanks again. :-h
      :-f

      Delete
  11. Dear HB
    What a story it was. Nice one. I like your style. Keep it up.
    Of course this is a deadly game and not even to think.

    Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much, Ishara. Coming from a guy like you, who knows the real stuff, this is like an official endorsement.

      Yeah, it is fatal.

      Delete
  12. I like the way of ending... We are allowed to come to the conclusion regarding what happened to Carlos. But there's noway he's gonna be dead right? Otherwise you (oh sorry, Blog Walker) won't get that mail nah?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, Thotiya, I gave you the full option to imagine what you want. Still, the point, that he is alive is made. What you have to imagine is at which point he came to, and at which point he left the plane and how.

      Thank you very much for the interest you showed. Now are you going to hibernate again? :D

      Delete
  13. i rechecked the post i was not sure at first,with the pilots description i lost among the words so i had to read it well again.i must say what a nice trick that flavors the story more than anything.curiosity was struggle to know the ending and finally you provide it in a well balanced way... even heart beat increased when i read the line that belt hanging.i thought he may dead and that's why that man scared but then it's changed again and wow what a fantastic ending...

    i need to think differently...

    *what if the mail that dude received was a scheduled mail??
    *then he might be dead,
    *what if he need to say " Hey Dude i might be dead please check the details..."

    anything could be happen... what if he felt to a lake or a forest while the landing gears are operating"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I thought some would even imagine that mail could be sent by one of his family members who knew his password inquiring henryblogwalker if he knew what happened to Carlos, because he is missing.

      But, look at the bright side. It was Carlos and he sent from a cybercafe. As Kenji suggested he is doing the night shift at a gas station.

      Gamiyaa, Thank you very much for all the comments.

      Delete

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