Dangerous Dreams

December 2019

From an early age James loved flying, and there was a good reason for this. His father was an airline pilot and James grew amongst airplanes. He could fly his dad’s little Cessna even before he could reach the rudder paddles. There was no doubt where his future lay: he would be a pilot.

At school James was a good student with a special interest in science and engineering. When he was sixteen, his dad paid for the flying lessons for his Private Pilot licence, and then James continued with the commercial, instrument and multiengine ratings, and by his high school graduation he was a fully qualified commercial pilot. Both of his parents expected that he would register in some aviation related college to become an airline pilot, but James was not so sure. He saw his dad to be always away from home, spending long hours on the flight deck doing nothing and suffering jet lag. Also, airline flying seems to be boring, something like driving a flying bus, and James was looking for an adventure. For example, to become a test pilot, but there was no hope for that. The golden age of aviation was over, and the few reminding test pilots were all ex-military with a lot of jet experience. Therefore, James decided that the next best thing and registered for the aeronautical engineering program at the local university. His aviation experience helped him with his studies, and he kept flying to maintain his qualifications. After graduation with a BSc in aeronautical engineering, he found a good job in a company which was supplying aircraft parts to a large manufacturer of airliners. He liked his job; it gave him the opportunity to solve interesting engineering problems, but his main hobby, flying, started to lose its appeal. To rent an airplane, fly to the close by small airports, have a coffee at the club house and then fly back is OK for a while, but then it becomes repetitive. Doing long cross-country flights in multiengine aircraft is expensive and just as boring. James had a feeling that his dream of a flying adventure was disappearing.

All that changed one day, when James saw an airshow. There were the usual military displays, but also some civilian performers were showing vintage airplanes and demonstrating spectacular aerobatics. In one of those sequences the pilot flew inverted, 10 meters off the deck, and then climb vertically until he appeared just a spec in the sky, followed by a set of incredible tumbles, as if he were a ballet dancer or a gymnast. James knew right away that this was it, this was the adventure he was looking for. At the airport there was an instructor who gave aerobatic lessons, so James contacted him and asked for aerobatic training. They flew 10 lessons together and James was not disappointed, it was exactly what he was hoping for. He joined the group of enthusiasts who called themselves an Aerobatic Club and started to shop for a suitable aircraft. As it happened, there were shares for sale, so he bought one and started to practice. Also, the club members told him about aerobatic competitions and James was very interested. To his pleasant surprise, at his first competition he ended up in the first half of the competitors. Even more important, he found a friend, his name was Dave. He was also a beginner and was based at the same airport as James, even though they never met there. During the after-competition dinner they talked about flying and decided to practice together. In the aerobatic competition the judges on the ground evaluate every manoeuvre the pilot is flying and the one with the highest score wins. The problem is that during practice the pilot does not know really how his flying looks from the ground. For that he needs somebody to watch and point out the errors, therefore James and Dave decided to critique each other flying.

All was going nicely for James. He had a good job, exciting flying, a friend, and even more, a female admirer. He was the company’s eligible bachelor, and nobody knew it better than Milena, the secretary of the head of the department. James was a nice-looking, single man with a good job, and a dashing pilot on top of that. Milena was impressed. She was more than impressed and wanted James to know that. James knew it and when Milena became pregnant, it was a good reason for a wedding. Now James had a pregnant wife, and then nine months later a child, and the flying became a bit more complicated. The wife wanted weekends together, the kid needed some attention and the time for flying was shrinking. He was still practicing with Dave, they were still going to the competitions, but Dave started to have better results. James did not know if it was because Dave had more time for practice or because he had more talent. He started to be little frustrated with the competitions and then he had an idea. Why not to fly airshows? The public is not looking for minor errors of performance, they want to see something thrilling. Even better, the participation does not cost anything, and the pilot can even make some money. With this in mind, James started to investigate the possibility.

Airshows have strict rules, rigorously enforced by the aviation authorities. The pilot has to design his sequence, get it verified by the designated inspector, and then he has to demonstrate it, to verify that his flying is safe. After that, the pilot gets the airshow qualification certificate and can look for a job as an airshow performer. James did all that and got himself included in some of the small airshows close by. It went well, and he was invited to other airshows. His wife was proud that he was becoming famous, but the excitement soon evaporated.

"I feel like a single mother. During the week you are at work and on weekends you are away flying. This is not how I imagined our marriage." complained Milena one evening.
"You knew before we got married that I was flying, you were even impressed by it, and now you would want me to stop it?"
"I do not want you to stop it, just to do less of it."
"Airshow flying is not like fishing; I cannot do it only occasionally. If I do not fly enough shows, I would lose my certificate, and I definitely do not want that."
"OK, I understand, I just want you to know that I am not very happy about it."

However, there was another aspect of airshow flying that worried Milena a lot. It was the danger.
"What would I do if you get killed? I would be left by myself, with the kid, without any means of supporting ourselves."
"My sequence is safe; I never fly too low. I always have enough altitude to recover from a mistake."
"Other pilots said that too and died."

That was true, James could not deny it. In the meantime, Dave was continuing with his competition flying and was doing well, but he was bit envious of James airshow glory and wanted some of it too. He got himself the airshow qualification certificate and occasionally they both performed in the same show.

"You know, this airshow flying is not really my cup of tea, I prefer competitions, but to win something significant I would need a better airplane," commented Dave one evening while relaxing with James in a hotel. "Wouldn’t we all," was James’s reply. Both knew that this was just an impossible dream; those kinds of airplanes cost more than $200,000. This price would indeed make it an impossible dream, but one day, after James’s show, a man came to him and said:
"I liked your show, but you need a better airplane"
"Yes, I know, but I do not have a spare $200,000 for a better toy"
"You are mistaken, and I am here to help"
"Really? And how?"
"My name is Mike, and I am an owner of an aero taxi company. I can employ you as my pilot"
"For $20 per hour, I presume"
"Yes, plus $200,000 bonus for one flight"
"$200,000 bonus and four years in jail. No thanks, I am not interested."
"Just listen! All you would have to do is to fly one passenger to U.S. and bring one suitcase back. You will leave the suitcase at a small landing strip along the way and finish the flight normally. There is no danger."
"If there is no danger, why don’t you do it?"
"I would, but I am busy with other things. I have several flights to finish, and this opportunity came just now. Think about it! If you change your mind, call me, but it has to be tomorrow, otherwise the opportunity will be gone."

Mike gave James his business card and left, and James thought about it. It indeed did not look too dangerous and $200,000 for one day of work was very tempting, so he called Mike.
"So, you changed your mind," was the first thing Mike said.
"Yes, I did."
"OK, come tonight to my hangar and bring you pilot licence and all the endorsements."
James did come to the hangar and Mike carefully studied his documentation, then they did a short check ride, and Mike explained the details of the flight:

"The flight from here to the U. S. is perfectly legal, the passenger is not involved in anything. You will drop him at the main building and there will be a person who gives you a suitcase. On the way back, in the foothills, there is a hidden airstrip where two men are going to wait for you. As you approach for landing, they will give you a sign to confirm that all is well. You land, and when the plane slows down sufficiently, you throw out the suitcase, add full power and get out. If the two men are not there or if they give you a wrong signal, you will just continue and you will throw out the suitcase at a precisely specified GPS location, and I will have somebody there to retrieve it. You finish the flight and taxi to my hangar, where I will be waiting for you. But the whole thing has to happen tomorrow, otherwise we lose the opportunity. Therefore, tomorrow morning at nine you come here, and we will go over the flight plan. The passenger will come at about 9:30 and the whole thing can start."
"And where is the guarantee that you will pay me the bonus?" asked James.
"There isn’t any, you have to trust me. Take it or leave it. However, I suggest that you create your own company, you give me the company’s account number and I will transfer $200,000 there. When you get your airplane, print the logo of my company on the wings, so that if anybody asks why I gave you the money, I could say that it is sponsorship for the promotion of my company"

James took it. Next day he told his wife that he has a meeting with a client, which in a way was true, and that he might be late. He also called to work telling them that he could not come and went to the airport to meet Mike. They reviewed the flight plan, the passenger came on time and everything went as expected. The two men were waiting at the hidden airstrip, James dropped the suitcase, finished the flight and taxied the airplane to Mike’s hangar.

For the next few days James was busy setting up his company; he called it Airshows Unlimited, then phoned Mike the account number, and the next day $200,000 appeared there. Now James, in all secrecy, started to look for his dream airplane, and also to sell his share of the old one. He went through the "for sale" section of various aviation magazines and after some time he found what he was looking for. One old, rich man had just the right aircraft, but did not feel comfortable flying it and offered it for sale. James made a deal with him and flew his new acquisition to his base airport, then got somebody to paint Mike’s logo on the wings and when it was finished, he happily taxied his new baby to the hangar.

By the time all that was done, the airshow season was over, and James had most of the weekends free. So, one day, after his plane was safely in the hangar, he called Dave to come and see him there. Then he drove Milena to the airport and proudly showed them his new beauty. Both Dave and Milena were speechless, and she only managed to ask: "How on earth did you manage to get that?" James explained that it was the sponsorship he got from Mike’s company, but it sounded very strange. After all, James was not that famous, but neither Dave nor Milena asked any questions, they did not want to know.

James loved to fly his new airplane, it felt like an extension of his own body. But he also knew that he has to change his old airshow sequence, make it more aggressive and fly it lower, to demonstrate his aircraft capabilities. It seemed that this inverted pass 10 meters above the deck could not be avoided. He started to practice the new sequence, and it was both scary and exiting. James hoped that the scare would disappear, and the excitement would stay, but the opposite was happening. Anyway, the winter was coming, and the flying season was over.

Next spring James registered for as many airshows as he could, and Dave did the same. He wanted to see James’s new and spectacular routine. They both followed the usual shows circuit and when it came to James’s home airport, he invited his wife to come and see him. Dave was also performing; his flight was just before James’s. Milena was not keen to go. All that thrilling of the crowd by flying dangerously looked to her to be crazy, but James wanted her to come, so she went. All looked good until Dave’s flight. He misjudged one maneuver, got too low, the prop hit the ground, the landing gear broke off and the plane came to the rest in the field behind the runway. The ambulance immediately drove there, and they were relieved to see Dave standing beside the wreckage, unhurt.

In the meantime, James was sitting in his plane, waiting for the takeoff clearance, and he was terrified. He saw the crash and did not know what happened to Dave, but he knew that the show must go on, that the public paid their entrance fee and wanted to see the action. Stiff with fear, James took off and flew his sequence, but his 10-meter inverted pass became a 50-meter inverted pass and all his figures were erratic and shaky. Milena could not watch it; she just closed her eyes and wished that those dreaded ten minutes would be over. When James landed and parked the plane, he run to his wife and was ecstatic to see Dave sitting beside her. The mixture of tension, fear, stress and happiness to see Dave alive was overwhelming him. When he was able to speak, his first words were:

"Dave, do you want to buy my plane?" "Sure, and the $200,000 will fall from the sky."
"Do not worry about $200,000, you give me a $10,000 deposit and the rest you pay in monthly affordable instalments. I do not really need the money."
"Well, if you put it that way, sure, I would love to buy it"
"OK, we have a deal."

Later on that day, when James and his wife were back home, Milena asked:
"James, are you disappointed?"
"Yes. I am disappointed in myself; I have failed, but others will carry on with my dream."