It had seemed as if the Saturday had never come. But all weekdays eventually draw to a close, even with a hyperactive daughter who was bouncing around the house saying she couldn't wait for the weekend to come. So then, there it was. Saturday. Finally.
Using the instructions she had received via e-mail from her green-furred friend Minty, the pastel yellow vixen named Dusty and her peach-colored daughter Fiabella undertook the trip they had to make that morning. According to the instructions, it would be a drive of a little over an hour, depending on the traffic; Minty had done her homework well, the instructions were step by step and very clear. Dusty had printed out the little list, and while she drove, Fifi sat on the passenger's seat with the paper, cheerfully reading off the instructions.
"Okee kerdokee! Here we go! Leave in northwest direction on Northeast Third Street towards Northeast East Street! Take the first left onto Northeast East Street and drive for point-one mile! Then take the first right onto highway eighteen and drive for two miles! Take a left onto highway twenty-two, the Willamina-Salem Highway, and drive down the twenty-two for fifteen point four miles!"
That gave Dusty a few minutes of relative rest since Fifi didn't have to read instructions for a little while after that. Not that it stopped the little vixen from chattering enthusiastically about meeting Minty and seeing the green mousette's plane for real and getting to fly in it, of course. But who could blame Fifi? This was the biggest occasion in her young life!
Dusty chuckled softly to herself about Fifi's enthusiasm. When they reached the turnpike at the North Pacific Highway 99W near Rickreall, it was Fifi's turn to start reading off instructions again.
"Whereto now, Feef?" her mother asked.
The little vixen checked the list of instructions, running a finger down the lines.
"Uhm... drive down the twenty-two... oh no, we did that. Uh... oh! Take the ramp towards Salem, drive point-seven miles and merge onto the twenty-two highway, then continue down the twenty-two highway for nine point six miles to the Willamette River bridge. Yes."
Dusty nodded and followed the route as described by Minty and read aloud by Fifi. She got even a bit more reprieve from her daughter's enthused babbling, as after passing by stretches of fields, just after the little town of Eola the road ran right alongside the Willamette River. Sitting a bit sideways in the passenger's seat, Fifi pressed her nose against the window and gazed at the views passing them by, so impressed she even forgot to talk. Dusty even had to snap her daughter back to attention when they were driving across the bridge.
"Okay sweetie, what's the rest o' them instructions?"
Fifi sat back in the passenger's seat and turned her attention back to the sheet of paper.
"Uhhh... cross the bridge and continue onto Center Street Northeast through Salem for point-eight miles, past the Salem Center and the Saint Joseph church and school, then take a left turn just past the Oregon Department of Re... Reve..."
Dusty glanced aside for a moment.
"Revenue," she helped. "Okay, seems pretty straightforward."
"Yes. Revenue. Take a left turn there onto Capitol Street Northeast and drive on for one point one miles, then take a soft right onto Fairgrounds Road Northeast by the National Auto Wholesale and drive on for point-three miles. Keep a right heading and follow the road to the right past the Own-A-Car onto Silverton Road Northeast, the Route 213, and follow that for ten miles, under the I-5 overpass and the crossing with Lancaster Drive Northeast, all the way down."
Dusty nodded with a smile, following the route. Leaving Salem behind eventually, the road took them through stretches of farmland again. Despite it being Saturday, the roads were pretty free; only in Salem itself it was rather busy. After about ten miles, Dusty again called upon her daughter to give the rest of the instructions, to which Fifi complied happily.
"Okies! Uhm... oh yes. Take a left turn onto Bush Creek Drive Northeast and follow it for one point two miles, then take a right onto Hazelgreen Road Northeast and go on for point-four miles. It changes into Pine Street by the split with the Wilco Highway Northeast, and you have to continue on down Pine Street for point-six miles. You'll see two left turns, first one onto Airport Road, but you have to take the second left, past the Wooden Nickel Pub and Eatery and onto Airport Road Northeast, then after four hundred and eighty-nine feet, we're there! Yay!"
With a soft giggle, Dusty did just that, driving past a few large buildings and what seemed to be a house. Just ahead of them, another few large buildings were visible, with a few cars parked in front of the frontmost building. As Dusty pulled up to the building, Fifi started bouncing in the passenger's seat and clapped her paws, then pointed through the windshield.
"That's Minty's car! I see Minty's car! Look!"
"I see it," Dusty chuckled. "Ease down now, sweetie, yer gonna make the car bounce off the road if ya keep that up."
Fifi giggled loudly, though she did stop bouncing as Dusty pulled up to the building and parked her car. Getting out, the pastel yellow vixen took the young peach-colored vixen by a paw and slowly stepped across the premises, looking around. To their right were two small buildings across from the field, while in front of them, through the field, ran a long stretch of narrow gravel road with a wider part near the start where two patches of ground were paved alongside both sides of the gravel road. Behind the building where Dusty had parked was a small building with a rounded roof, behind which was another very large rectangular building.
There were a few small airplanes on the premises as well, the sight of which caused Fifi to almost bounce again. They were all small single-engine airplanes; a Piper Husky in white and blue, an orange and yellow Cessna 172, and a silver-colored ERCO Ercoup with red stripes down the sides.
"Oh! Look, mom! Cool!" the little vixen cheered. "Look at that cute little plane! It's so cute!"
Before Dusty could answer, she looked around when she was hailed by a timberwolf man stepping out of the first building.
"Excuse me, ma'am, this is mostly private property, and it's dangerous here. Can you please tell me what you're doing here?"
"We was invited by a friend, hon," Dusty said. "Minty Mouse. She told us to meet'er here. Mebbe ya know'er?"
"Of course he does," a cheery voice rang out before the wolf could answer. "It's okay, Pete, that's my friends I told you about. Hey Dusty, hey Fifi! Glad you found the place alright!"
Stepping up to the three of them was the green mouse, happily hugging Dusty, then leaning down to give Fifi a big hug as well. Fifi crooned happily and threw her arms back around Minty's neck.
"Mintyyy! Hiyeee! So nice to see you again! And it's cool to see your airport too!"
"My airport? Heavens!" Minty laughed. "I'd wish! No sweetie, this little airfield sure doesn't belong to me, hee hee! I just park my plane here and fly from here." She freed herself from Fifi's crushing hug and rose back up with a smile. "Pete, this is Dusty Nevada and her daughter Fiabella. Dusty, Fifi, this is Pete Stansfield, one of the operators and traffic controllers here. You'll probably be hearing him through the radio when we take off or land here in my plane."
"Hi!" Fifi chirped, waving at the man before turning back to Minty, staring at the pair of overalls with spanners and wrenches sticking out the pockets the green mouse was wearing. "Look at you, Minty! You look like a mechanic! Cool!"
"That's because I kind of am, sweetie," Minty giggled softly. "Every now and then I have to do a little maintenance on my Sunny, and that was in fact exactly what I was doing now."
"Coooooool!" Fifi cheered in a long-drawn manner, bouncing on her feet and clapping her paws.
Dusty shook her head with a cheerful chuckle over her daughter's enthusiasm as she shook paws with the timberwolf.
"Pleased to meetcha, Pete."
"Likewise," the timberwolf said, with a smile now. "Sorry about just now, but we have to be strict, you know. There's often sightseers or just plain curious people coming onto the premises here. Not that that is a problem in itself, but someone could get seriously hurt here, and if that happens, it's our liability."
"Understood," Dusty nodded, letting out another soft chuckle. "And we'll be careful, promise."
"And not only that, but I'll give them a full safety briefing before I even let them step close to my plane," Minty added with a giggle.
"That's reassuring enough," Pete said with a chuckle. "I'll leave you to it, then. Have a good day, you all. Will you be using the airstrip, Minty? You didn't file a flight plan."
"I will," Minty nodded. "I'll let you know when I'm gonna take off. You're right, I didn't file a flight plan, because there won't really be a specific route we'll be flying; we'll just be toodling around a bit at a low altitude."
"Yeah! We're gonna fly over my school so I can wave at my friends and make them all jealous!" Fifi announced cheerfully.
"Sounds like fun," Pete chuckled. "Well, I'd better get to work if you're planning on taking off any time soon, Minty."
"Between now and half an hour, give or take," Minty smiled. "I'll be showing Dusty and Fifi the place and my plane first and explain them some things. Starting with the safety briefing," she winked with a soft giggle.
Pete chuckled again and waved while he stepped back into the building he had come out of. Dusty also softly chuckled as she turned to Minty, who was still hugged around the waist by Fifi.
"As Feef said, good to see ya 'gain, luv." She winked. "So, safety, then. Big deal on any airport I reckon, huh?"
"Definitely, and even moreso on a small semi-private airfield with mostly propeller planes like this," Minty nodded with another soft giggle. She took Fifi by a paw and started walking towards the other two buildings and the few airplanes parked between them. "Safety rule number one; whenever you see someone getting into a plane, make sure you're well out of the way of it, preferably be someplace behind the wings, but not too close to the body." She pointed at the white and blue Piper Husky. "Draw a line from the wingtip to the tail fin; the triangle between that line, the back edge of the wing and the side of the fuselage is pretty much a pilot's blind corner, so stay out of that area. Though do stay behind the wings when you're near an airplane that's being started up."
"Makes sense," Dusty nodded. "Ya wouldn't wanna be near that propeller when it starts spinnin', I reckon."
"Unless you'd want to be transformed into a package of pre-sliced baloney, then no, you wouldn't want to be near the prop, alright," Minty giggled. "Mind you; when you see someone getting into a plane, that doesn't mean you right away have to bolt to a safe spot. In fact, it's not a good idea to run at all. Just calmly walk over to a place where you will be out of the way. These planes are small, so a pilot can see you from in there, and they won't go starting up when there's anyone near who shouldn't be. Besides, they first have a checklist to run off before starting up, so you have some time to walk away from the plane, and the engine start checklist starts off with checking if the propeller area is clear of persons."
"That makes sense too," Dusty chuckled softly.
Fifi was dangling off of Minty's arm, tugging on the mousette's paw.
"Can we go see your plane now, Minty? Pleeeeeze? I wanna see it! What were you doing to it anyway?"
"Sure sweetie, we'll go see Sunny now," Minty giggled at the little vixen. "She's in the hangar over there. I was just cleaning her valves a bit and changing the oil; lately she's been burning some oil at cold start again."
"That a bad thing?" Dusty asked.
"Not at all," Minty said with a reassuring smile. "It's just... sloppy, is all. But don't forget, my Sunny is a 1978 plane, and that's the original engine she has in her nose. Sure, the engine's gotten a complete overhaul in 2002, but it's still a thirty-three year old engine, so you can expect little things like that. I just want to keep her in prime condition." She chittered a soft giggle. "I prefer my Sunny not getting a reputation as a smoker."
Dusty let out a short laugh while she followed Minty to the large rectangular building along with a cheerfully skipping Fifi who was still hanging onto Minty's arm. Stepping through a pair of large double doors that were standing open, they entered the building. Fifi almost immediately stopped short and gazed around her with wide eyes and her muzzle sinking open.
"Wooooooowww!"
Inside the building, which was used as both a hangar and a service/construction area, were several more small planes. Most of them were single-engine ones; several Cessna's, three Pipers and a couple of Beechcrafts. There were also two Tigers, one an older Grumman American AA-5B Tiger, the other one was a newer American General AG-5B Tiger, though both of them sported the characteristic 'galloping tiger' decal. All the way in the far corner was a Vans RV-10, partly disassembled. To the side was a twin-engine Beechcraft 76 Duchess, and in the back even a classic Luscombe Model 8E was standing. And of course, Minty's Beechcraft C23 Sundowner was among them as well, parked next to the AA-5B Tiger with one of the covers over the engine opened.
Fifi didn't know where to look first, her head whipping from left to right and back again with her mouth hanging open and her eyes wide and round while she let out impressed gasps and squeaks. Dusty was looking around her with a look of impression on her face as well, and Minty giggled softly behind her free paw as she looked at the reaction of the young peach-colored vixen. Bending through her knees, she let go of Fifi's paw to lay her paw on the little vixen's shoulder instead, sending Fifi a cheerful wink.
"Quite a collection, sweetie, isn't it?"
"Yeah!!" Fifi suddenly cried out, so loud that several of the people who were in the hangar looked up with surprise. "This is so cool! Look at all those awesome planes! Wow! Supercool!"
"I agree, this is certainly a nice collection o' planes," Dusty nodded. "All privately owned, I reckon?"
"Almost all of them are," Minty confirmed. She pointed at the AG-5B Tiger. "That Tiger is owned by the airfield, it's a trainer, and those two Cessna's are as well. The twin-engine Duchess there belongs to the airfield too, they sometimes use it for charter flights for small groups of people, to like conventions and stuff; call it an air taxi. The rest are all private planes, owned by people like me; hobbyist flyers." She giggled softly. "The Luscombe is even for sale. I'm carefully thinking of buying it, but..."
Dusty grinned a bit.
"Mighty expensive, I guess?"
"Rather," Minty chittered. "They're asking eighty-five thousand for it. That's more than twice as much as what my Sunny cost, and that Luscombe is even almost twice as old, too. So I would have to save up a whole lot, or win a lottery or something."
"Or sell yer own plane," Dusty suggested with a teasing grin.
"Are you kidding?" Minty squeaked. "Sell my Sunny? Never!"
"Jus' yankin' yer tail, sugar," Dusty chuckled with a wink.
"Well, stoppit!" Minty giggled, sticking out her tongue. "I love my Sunny! I'm not letting her go, nuh-uh!"
Fifi giggled and batted her paws at Dusty's tail.
"Yeah, mom! That was not nice to tease Minty like that! Bad mom!"
"Thank you, sweetie," Minty giggled, softly ruffling Fifi's hair with a paw. "You wanna come and have a look at Sunny from close by? I was still working on her, after all, I only stopped to see if you were here already."
"Yeah!!" Fifi exclaimed happily.
And zoom! She was already off, letting go of Minty's paw to dart over to the green Beechcraft. Giggling softly, Minty and Dusty followed at a calmer pace.
"I'm impressed ya can do maintenance on the engine o' yer own plane, luv," Dusty remarked as they stepped over to the small craft.
"Oh, but it's not all that hard," Minty smiled. "That engine isn't anything more difficult than a car's engine. In fact, in some respects it's even simpler, because there's no transmission, for one."
"I see," Dusty said. "But still, such a big, powerful engine..."
"Don't be fooled by the fact it's in an airplane, Dusty," Minty chittered softly. "The engine of my Sunny is a Lycoming O-360-A4K piston engine giving a hundred and eighty horsepowers; a regular Chevrolet already has that kind of power in their V6 or V8 engines. In fact, most cars of these days have way more powerful engines than what's in my plane. So there's really not all that much to it. It just seems more, because it's in a craft with wings designed to take to the sky instead of driving down a road." She giggled. "You'd actually be surprised at how light some airplane engines are. Take that Luscombe for instance; ten to one the engine in your old station wagon is more powerful than the engine in that plane."
"I'll take yer word for that, luv," Dusty chuckled.
They crossed the last distance between them and Minty's green plane, smiling over how Fifi was stepping around and around the plane, touching it, running her paws along it, and interestingly peeking at every single detail she came across. With a wink at the little vixen, Minty stepped over to where one hinged side of the engine cowling was lifted up to give access to the engine, climbing onto a small crate that was laying there so the smallish mouse could actually reach into the engine bay to continue with whatever it was she had been doing earlier before stepping outside to meet Dusty and Fifi. Of course, that was even more interesting to Fifi, who kept hovering around the crate where Minty was standing on, standing on tippy-toes and craning her neck to try and look at what Minty was doing, happily handing tools to the green mouse each time Minty asked for one. From the side, with her paws crossed over her chest, Dusty looked at it with a smile.
When she was done, Minty closed the engine cowling and wiped her paws on a cloth, after which she also carefully wiped off the oily fingerprints she had left on the cowling when closing it. She stepped off the crate again, collecting all the tools and two empty bottles of oil onto a rolling cabinet, which she carefully closed up and rolled over to a side of the building where several more of the same cabinets were standing in a row.
"There we go, all done," she announced cheerfully. "Give me a moment to get out of these overalls and freshen up a bit, and I'll be right with you."
"Okee kerdokee!" Fifi nodded.
"Sure luv, take yer time," Dusty chuckled.
Minty winked with a soft giggle before stepping over to a row of lockers and washing basins all the way near the back of the building. The pair of overalls was easily removed and stowed in one of the lockers, and some special solvent soap took quick care of the greasy and oily stains that decorated the green mousette's paws. Within a few minutes, she stepped back to where Dusty and Fifi were waiting near her little plane, winking at them again.
"Alrighty, there we are again," she chittered.
"Are we gonna fly now?" Fifi asked eagerly.
"We are, sweetie," Minty smiled. "But first things first; gotta do the walk-around first. Come along and follow me."
Of course Fifi needed no encouragement, the little vixen happily trotting after Minty as the green mouse began slowly stepping around her plane to do the outside checklist, meanwhile cheerily answering all of Fifi's questions. The young vixen for instance was very curious why Minty was wiggling some parts of the wings and the tailfins back and forth with her paws, and even Dusty tilted her head in wonder about those little actions.
"Checking if they're still attached, luv?" she inquired.
Minty giggled softly.
"Also, yes. But it's mainly for something else. You always have to check to see if the ailerons, elevators, rudder and flaps are still moving without obstruction. See, they're very important, they influence lift and descent and steering when you're in the air, and especially when you take off and land on airfields with unpaved airstrips, sand and other stuff can get between them and jam them. When you wiggle them, they should move freely; if they don't, you better make damn sure to check why not and fix whatever is obstructing them before you take to the air. That's why these walk-arounds are so important, especially, like I said, on airfields with unpaved runways like this one."
"Ah yea, makes sense," Dusty nodded.
"How do they steer your plane, Minty?" Fifi asked.
"Wind flow," Minty smiled. She stepped over to the tail fin of her plane. "See, basically, it's like this; when you're going straight ahead, this vertical tail flap, the rudder, is straight, and the wind flows along it on both sides, see? Now if you move the wheel to the left or the right, you move this flap this way or that, let's say to the left, like this. Now the wind flows straight past the right side, but it hits against the side of the flap on the left side, see? So the wind flow kind of pushes the tail of the plane to the right side, which makes the nose go to the left. Same with these flaps on the wings; when they're straight like this, you go level, but when you push or pull on the wheel, you move the flap up or down, let's say down, like this. Now the wind flows unobstructed over the top of the wing, but hits against the flap on the bottom and moves down rather fast and hard; the plane kind of pushes the wind downwards, making the nose lift, and you climb, and when the flap is moved upwards like this, the wind is forced upwards, causing the nose of the plane to dip, and you descend. These ones on the wings, the ailerons, move independently from one another as well, like when you steer to the left or the right; then only one flap goes up and the other goes down, so the wind flow makes the plane roll a bit and you make a smoother curve," the green mouse explained, illustrating her words with motions of her paws. "It's a bit more intricate than that, but this is the best I can do to make it an as simple as possible explanation."
"Ohhh!" Fifi nodded. "Yeah! I see! So you like don't move the wheels when you steer?"
"Nope," Minty smiled. "That wouldn't be of any use at all, because when you're flying, there's nothing under your wheels, after all. However, in the case of planes like these, when you roll across the ground, you don't move the wheels when you steer either; you steer by the rudder and by braking. When we're inside in a moment, you can see there's two pedals on the floor; they're the rudder and brake pedals, they pretty much do the same for the tail flaps as what the steering wheel does when you push down on them, but in this plane, and in a lot of other small planes like this, you can also lightly push at the top of the pedals with your toes to give little brake jolts to either both of the wheels, or only one of the wheels at the time." She leaned over and pointed at the tricycle undercarriage. "See, the front wheel doesn’t steer, but it swivels. You steer with these two wheels when you ride the plane across the ground. When you want to turn right, you brake very lightly on the right wheel so the left wheel goes faster and pushes the plane right around, see? Same way for going left, you brake the left wheel so the right wheel goes faster and pushes the plane left around, and that swiveling front wheel simply follows the direction the plane is rolling into."
"And when you brake both wheels?" Fifi asked.
"Then you stop," Minty giggled, rising back up.
"Logical," Dusty chuckled. "Any drive on them wheels?"
"No," Minty shook her head. "All the engine drives is the propeller, and the force of that pulls you forwards. That's also why you can never reverse in a plane, you can only go forwards. When you need a plane backed into a spot, like for instance here in the hangar, or when putting planes in line at a show, you have to have a tow or a couple of people pushing it. After you switched off the engine, of course," she added with a giggle.
"That makes all kinda sense," Dusty grinned.
Fifi started tugging on Minty's arm, bouncing on her feet a bit.
"Can we go fly now, Minty? Pleeeeeze? I wanna flyyy!"
"Of course, that's what I invited you here for after all," Minty giggled. Catching the eye of a lanky cheetah man in a pair of overalls who was on his way to the door where Minty, Dusty and Fifi had stepped inside through, she waved at him. "Frank! Can you open the large doors for me, please?"
The cheetah gave a thumbs-up and walked over to the large double doors of the building to swing them wide open, while Minty turned to Dusty and Fifi, making an inviting gesture towards the opened door of her airplane.
"Well, if you'd like to get in?"
"Yeah!!" Fifi cheered.
After Minty had shown the little vixen how to climb up through the door via the wing strut, Fifi climbed into the plane happily. Helping Dusty aboard as well, Minty followed them and closed the door securely. She actually had to usher Fifi aside so she could slide into one of the front seats because the little vixen almost had her nose pressed up against the instrument panel to gaze at all the knobs and levers and gauges with wide eyes. Giggling softly, Minty slipped into the pilot's seat and fastened her seatbelts, sending a wink at the two vixens.
"Do you want to sit up front, Dusty, or in the back? If you sit next to me here, you could help me with the checklists."
"Me?!" Dusty said with almost a startle. "Heavens luv, thanks but no thanks, I dunno the first thing 'bout what I would hafta do!"
"Oh, there's nothing difficult about it, it's just reading off a list," Minty giggled. "But sure, you can take one of the seats in the back too." She winked even more cheerfully at Fifi. "Do you want to sit up front with me, be my co-pilot and help me, Fifi?"
"Oh yeah! Totally! Awesome!" Fifi cheered, almost bouncing up and down and clapping her paws. "Can I? That's so cool! Thanks Minty! You're like the best! Yeah!"
"Any time," Minty giggled, leaning over to the side so she could help Fifi settle in the second front seat, behind the second yoke, and help the little vixen fasten the seatbelt. "You said you wanted to learn how to fly, after all, so now's as good a time as any to start, right?"
"Yeah!!" Fifi cheered again.
Dusty giggled softly, though shaking her head a bit.
"Ya don't think she might be a tad too young to actually learn how to fly a plane, luv?"
"Not at all," Minty smiled, though seriously. "I've seen kids as young as six, seven years old learning how to operate a small plane like this. It's actually safer, since at that young an age, they're more open to it, and their brains take up and store all the information quicker and better, which greatly benefits them by the time they're allowed to get their pilot's license." She smiled again. "Did you know that while you have to be sixteen to get your trainer's driver's license, you can already get a trainer's pilot's license at age twelve to fourteen?"
"No kiddin'?"
"No kidding," Minty nodded. "Which reminds me, I have a bunch of stuff for you, Fifi, it's in my car. I'll give it to you when we're home, because now, it's time to fly."
"Yeah! Thanks Minty! You're the greatest! Yay!" Fifi cheered happily. "So what do we do now?"
"Well, firstly, another safety measure," Minty smiled. "This goes for you too, Dusty; lean over here, if you will." Dusty did so, leaning forwards between the two front seats to look at what Minty was doing. The green mouse smiled again and pointed at a rectangular device with several knobs and buttons located in the middle of the instrument panel. "This is the radio. It doesn't play music; it's what I communicate with the air traffic control towers through. You know, to get permission and instructions to take off or land and such. This is also not the original radio, which was a quite simple one, but a more modern one the previous owner had installed. Now..." She flipped a switch to switch on the auxiliary power, livening up the instruments. "...it's set by default for auto-detect, which means it automatically finds and switches to the different frequencies on which different airports operate, so you don't have to worry about that. But sometimes, an air traffic controller can ask you to switch to a different frequency. Say, oh-seven-niner point three. You do that by means of these knobs, see?" She turned the knobs on the top, showing how the digits in the little screen changed. "You set it back to default with this little button." A push, and the digits jumped back to the original ones. "Now, you notice that at all of the seats, there's a headset. You need those, because once the engine is started and running and we're up the air, it's the only way we can hear each other and talk to each other. This is not a car; the engine is right in front of you and there's hardly any sound isolation since a plane needs to be kept as light as possible, so that means the noise of the engine is so loud you can't talk with each other normally. That's what the headsets are for. Mine is two-way; I can talk to both you, and through the radio to the airports at the same time. The other headsets are one-way; you can talk to me and each other, but not through the radio. However, with this switch, you change that so you can also talk through the radio and hear what is said through the radio over the passenger headsets. You got that?"
Fifi nodded eagerly, and Dusty nodded calmly.
"Gotcha, luv. Why're ya tellin' us that, though?"
"In case of an emergency," Minty said. "Should something happen, should a situation arise in which I get incapacitated in whatever kind of manner, one of you will need to ask for help over the radio."
"Ya think somethin' like that's liable to happen?"
"No. The chances are very slim. You could call it a redundant safety measure, if it's not for the fact no safety measure is redundant, ever. But in all the years I've been flying, nothing ever happened, and I don't expect it to happen while I'm flying with you. I just find it very important, and it just makes me feel better, to know that my passengers are at least able to use the radio."
"Gotcha, luv," Dusty said again with a nod of her head. "Anythin' else we need to know 'bout that?"
"Yes, my call sign," Minty nodded with a smile. "You probably saw the lettering on the side of my plane, right? It says NM8868; that's the registration number. Kind of like a car's license plate, you know? With that number, you identify yourself when you make contact with an airport. You don't just say en-em eight thousand, eight hundred and sixty-eight, though; you say each number individually, and you have to use the aviation alphabet for the letters. They gave each letter a word, because some letters sound so much the same, like for instance the M and the N, so to prevent mistakes, each letter has a word you say instead. For the N, it's the word November, and for the M, it's the word mike." She giggled softly. "In the case of Sunny here, my call sign would therefore be November Mike eight-eight-six-eight, but I cheated a little bit; I always say November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight. It's kinda become a bit like a trademark, so at all the small airports I often fly to, they right away know it's me."
"That's cute! Hee!" Fifi giggled, clapping her paws. "November Mouse! That fits! Because you're totally a mouse and all! Yeah!"
"Exactly," Minty chittered. "That's why I did it. And so that is how, when you have to make contact with an airport, you identify yourself in this plane. At the first contact, you also mention the kind of plane you're in, so they know it's just a small private plane, and at every next contact with the same airport, you just use the registration letters and numbers. So, as an example; when we take off from here in a little while, you will hear me say something like "Silverton Control, this is Beechcraft Sundowner November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight, request permission to take off". After that, each time I have to say something to the controller of this airport, I only say November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight anymore. But every time you make contact with a different airport, you first have to include the Beechcraft Sundowner again, because after all, they only see a little triangle on a radar screen, they can't see what kind of plane it is."
"Makes sense," Dusty nodded with a smile. "What next?"
"Next, I'll explain all the instruments and dials to Fifi, because I can tell from those big bright eyes that vixen is just dying to know what everything is for," Minty giggled, winking at the young vixen in the seat next to her.
"Yeah!!" Fifi nodded enthusiastically. "I wanna know, Minty! There's so many! So many more than in mom's car!"
"Of course, there's much more needed in an airplane," Minty giggled. "Alright, we'll start on over at your side of the cockpit. Look down; see those pedals? That's the rudder/brake pedals I was talking about. Push them down backwards with the balls of your feet and they control the rudder, push them forwards with your toes and they control the brakes. Left pedal controls the braking on the left wheel and makes the rudder move left, right pedal controls braking on the right wheel and moves the rudder to the right. In your case, not something you need to worry about," she added with a louder giggle, nodding at Fifi's little feet dangling several inches above the floor.
Fifi giggled and waggled her feet a little, though she kept her attention on the instrument panel as Minty pointed out several more things. It was relatively simple on that side; there was a plaque showing VHF frequencies for radio contact in several different circumstances and for several specific things, in the middle was an alphabet listing which gave the aviation names and the Morse code for each letter, a flight plan sequence and the light gun signals. Next to the plaque were two holes and a light for plugging in the headset. Above it were a few lines of text printed on the surface of the instrument panel; in white, it said "RAISE FLAPS to increase brake efficiency", and above that, right under a little plaque showing the Beechcraft company name and the airplane type of Sundowner, there were a few lines of text in red saying "In case of fire in engine compartment close defrost & cabin air valve". Above the name plate was another small plate showing the word Sundowner and the registration number, with next to that a little digital indicator reading Outside Air Temp, which obviously was some sort of thermometer.
More important was the part of the control panel where the wide U-shaped steering yoke was sticking out of. To the right of it were a couple of rows of what looked like small black rubber knobs with numbers on them; 1, 3, 5, 10 or 20, and short or abbreviated words above or under them.
"Those are lights and at the same time circuit breakers, a sort of fuses," Minty explained. "You don't need to worry at all when one of them lights up; they're not warning lights but indicator lights, so if one lights up, that just means something is working."
"An' if one dun light up?" Dusty chuckled.
"Then you need to check the fuse, firstly, to see if it's busted. If not, then you need to check the mechanical part the indicator light is for to see if that works or not," Minty smiled. "That's what the checklist is for; you test all those lights to see if everything is working." She pointed at the part in the middle, between the two steering yokes, where there was a small block with three levers and a few buttons; a yellow and a red one above one another on the right side and a red on one the left side. "That lever with the red handle is to set the angle of the flaps. The little one in the middle is to adjust the fuel mixture to either a richer or more lean mixture, and that one with the black handle is the throttle. Push it upwards to increase the throttle, and pull down to decrease. It's like the gas pedal in a car, see? That yellow knob is the switch for the cabin heater; pull to switch on, push to switch off. The red knob under it is for the defroster, also pull to switch on and push to switch off. On this side, this red knob is for the cabin air valve; the ventilator you could say. This one, you push to switch on and pull to switch off. Those two switches at the bottom are for the instrument lights. You get all that, Fifi?"
Fifi nodded happily.
"Yeah! I get all that, Minty! Yay! This is so cool! And it's so easy, too!"
"Good," Minty giggled. "Because now we get to the hard part. But I'll keep it simple as yet for you. This here part with the little buttons controls the electric trim. This thing above it is the GPS. That's not an original instrument either, the previous owner had it put in later because it's simply a mighty handy thing to have. Now; the gauges. That rightmost one is the RPM meter. Can't miss, since it says so in rather big letters," she giggled. "And see that little counter in it? You could call that an odometer, but as you see, it counts in hours, not miles. Airplane odometers do that, they don't count in miles but in hours, since the hours a plane is in the air is a more secure manner of measuring wear, see? Now, this gauge next to it, as you can see, measures fuel pressure. Quite important, because with too much pressure the engine will flood or can even catch on fire, and with too little pressure, it won't get enough fuel and stall. That's pretty much the same in a car, but only in a plane you have a gauge for it since the altitude at which you fly can influence the pressure, see? And it's also more or less right away the fuel tank indicator; low pressure when you're on the ground means the fuel tank is getting empty."
Fifi nodded again, and even though she had much more interest in everything Minty pointed out than her mother, Dusty followed the explanation with interest as well. Minty smiled and continued with her explanation.
"This gauge next to it is your altimeter. It shows you at what altitude you're flying, so that means, how high up in the air you are. It counts in increments of one hundred; that very big hand goes around like on a clock; clockwise when you're climbing, counter-clockwise when you're descending." She pointed a finger along the gauge. "One hundred feet, two hundred, three hundred, and so on. When it reaches the zero at the top again, that means you're at one thousand feet, and the bigger of the two small hands shifts to point that out while the big hand shows the one hundred increments again; eleven hundred, twelve hundred, and so on. When you reach nine thousand, nine hundred feet and still climb, the smallest of the two small hands shifts to show you've reached ten thousand. You won't see that happening much; I prefer to fly at somewhat lower altitudes, and this plane can't even go above twelve thousand, six hundred feet high. Importantly, it also shows altitude in feet above sea level, not ground level. So when you are on an airport that is for instance in the mountains, at say fourteen hundred feet above sea level, you first have to set your altimeter to show fourteen hundred feet while you are still on the ground. Also, when a controller at an airport tells you to go to a specific altitude, they will not say twenty-five hundred or two thousand, five hundred; they'll say the first digit of the number of thousands, and then the number of hundreds, so like this; two-fivehundred, That means two thousand and five hundred feet. In the same way, they will say something like one-zero thousand for ten thousand, and ten-one hundred or eleven-five hundred, or one-one thousand or one-two thousand, and so on, for the even thousands."
Fifi nodded in understanding, while Dusty tilted her head a bit.
"Say luv? That thing 'bout the altimeter, right? Why would ya hafta set it for fourteen hundred when yer at an airport that's at that height? I mean, it wouldn't make much difference while yer in the air, right?"
"Oh, but it does," Minty smiled. "Say you are at an airport that's at fourteen hundred feet up in the mountains, and you don't calibrate your altimeter to that. Then when you take off, you are much higher up into the air than you think you are; your altimeter reads one thousand feet, so you'll think you're at one thousand feet high, while in reality you're at two thousand four hundred feet. Now say you fly towards an airfield that is only one hundred and fifty feet above sea level. The tower instructs you to descend to a certain altitude, say fifteen hundred. You descend, read fifteen hundred on your altimeter, and think you're at the proper height, but in reality you are then still at two thousand, nine hundred feet high. Now imagine you're trying to land on that lower airfield with your altimeter uncalibrated..."
"I get it! I get it!" Fifi piped up, clapping her paws. "By the time you'd reach the ground, your altimeter would show a negative number, so you can't tell at all how high above the runway you are, and that makes landing impossible!"
"Exactly," Minty nodded with a smile. "So at every airport you aim to take off from with your plane, you need to inquire about how high above sea level it is, and calibrate your altimeter accordingly. Okay, now, this gauge next to the altimeter, with the ball in it, is your horizon and glide path indicator, see? It shows you if you are flying level or not. These two stripes are fixed; they indicate the wings of your airplane. The blue part of the ball is the sky, and the brown part is the ground. For a comfy, level flight you want to keep the stripe between the brown and the blue exactly level with the stripes that show the wings of your plane, see? Of course, it won't always be that way; when you make a turn, your plane tilts to the side, or it banks as they call that, and you can see that on the horizon as well. When the blue is under and the brown is on top, then you're flying upside down. That's not really a problem, this plane can easily do that, it's just very uncomfortable because your head is pointing downwards," Minty giggled. "When the border between the blue and brown and the white stripes form a cross, then you're flying sideways, with one wing pointing up at the sky and the other wing pointing to the ground. That's dangerous. Your plane will warn you with a light signal and an audible warning saying 'bank angle', and if you fly like that, neither of your wings will generate lift so you'll lose altitude really quickly and that plane will stall and fall out of the sky." She turned a bit in her seat to look at both Dusty and Fifi. "Aside from the most obvious difference that you are up in the air instead of down on a road, do either of you know what is the largest difference between flying a plane and driving a car?"
Dusty chuckled and shook her head with a light shrug of her shoulders. Fifi on the other hand adopted a quite pensive expression, humming to herself.
"Uhm... ummm... it is... there... there's no road under you! Yeah! So you could fall!" She looked up happily. "Is that right, Minty?"
"Almost," Minty nodded, smiling. "See, when you are going down the highway in a car, you're always at the same height because your car is riding on something solid; the highway. So to keep your car going straight, you can keep the steering wheel more or less completely still. In a plane, however, you can't do that. There are many more factors to consider when you are flying a plane. If you keep the wheel constantly still in the same position, your plane will not go straight ahead nor level; it will go in all kinds of directions. That's because, like you said, Fifi, there is nothing solid under you, for one, and for another, up in the air the wind is very different and it's constantly flowing past and blowing against your plane, so you constantly have to move the wheel to compensate for that, not only to the left or right, but also up and down, to keep your plane on the correct heading and the correct altitude." She smiled deeper and turned back to the instrument panel. "To continue the explanation; this colorful gauge all the way at the left is your airspeed indicator. That's pretty much the same as the speedometer in a car; it shows you how fast you are flying, but not in miles per hour but in knots, see? That's the speed indication used for flying. Now, turning back to the right; this gauge is another sort of speedometer; it's the vertical speed indicator. That means; how fast you are climbing or descending. It runs from zero to twenty along both the upside and the underside of the plate, as you can see. If the needle is pointing to the topside of the number twenty, you pretty much have your plane with its nose straight in the air, zooming towards the sun like a rocket, and when the needle is pointing to the underside of the twenty, you're more or less in a nose-down dive straight towards the ground, because it means you're either climbing or descending with two thousand feet per minute. So don't try to get that needle to point to the twenty if you can. That's not a good idea, especially not in a little plane like this," Minty giggled again. "Now, this gauge next to it with the little plane seen from above in it is your heading indicator, and the gauge directly below it is more or less a compass. Both show you in which direction you're flying, see? North, East, South or West, and anything in between, measured in degrees. That gauge below the vertical speed indicator shows what kind of frequency ranges you are in, which is important for your radio and GPS. The gauge here next to the heading indicator is your bank and turn indicator, it shows you to which side and how much your plane is banking, so, rolling over its longitudinal axis, or to say it in a simpler way; which wingtip is dipping towards the ground. That gauge below it is a flying time indicator, so also a kind of odometer, but that one measure the hours on the plane itself, not the engine; that's done by the counter in the RPM gauge."
"What's the difference?" Dusty asked.
"There's not so much difference, really," Minty smiled. "There's only a difference between how the plane and the engine wear. See, when you have the engine running while you stand still on the ground, there's no stress and therefore no wear on the plane itself, only on the engine. That's why the RPM gauge has its own counter, that one directly measures the time the engine is in use, and this counter here only measures the time the plane is actually in the air."
"Ah, I see," Dusty nodded.
"And those two meters, Minty?" Fifi pointed to the two smaller gauges on the leftmost side."
"Ah, this one measures instrument air," Minty smiled, pointing at the bottom gauge. "That's also influenced by how high you're flying, see. The higher you go, the colder it gets, and the air is more lean, meaning there's less oxygen in it, and it can influence the instruments and the engine. That's also why you have this fuel mixture handle; when you go higher, you have to make the mixture a bit more lean to ensure your engine will still get enough oxygen and keeps running at the same speed."
"And that one above it?" Fifi asked. "The one with the red and white needles and the black knob in the middle? What's that, and what is it for?"
Minty giggled softly behind a paw.
"That's the clock. It tells you what time it is."
Dusty held a paw over her muzzle, stifling a quick chuckle. Fifi for a moment blinked, but then she started giggling softly.
"Hee! That's funny! I thought it was like something completely different, because of all those other meters and stuff! Hee!"
"Yes, it does quite look like a gauge, what with it being an old-fashioned analogue clock," Minty nodded with a chitter. "But it is indeed nothing more nor less than just a clock. The reason is has all those different hands is because there's one for the seconds, and one is for indicating the alarm time."
"Oh yeah! I remember my alarmclock has that too!" Fifi nodded. "I just kinda didn't make the connection because you have so many interesting meters in the dashboard here, hee! And the clock in the dash of mom's car is digital!"
Minty chittered softly again.
"Yeah, digital is something they didn't really do yet in the seventies, when this plane was built," she smiled. "Now then, the last bit of explanation." She pointed at the rows of tumble switches on the part of the instrument panel the pilot's steering yoke was sticking out of. "This keyhole is the ignition, for starting the engine, just as in a car. However, you can see the indications are different; it says Off, R, L, Both, and Start, see? That's because the engine does not have an electrical ignition, it has two magneto's to start it with. That way you can still start and run an airplane engine even when there is a complete electrical failure, and the engine can then generate the power for the instruments. By turning the key, you activate and test first the right magneto, then the left magneto, then you activate both of them, and then you can start the engine. These switches here are pretty self-explanatory, as they all say what they are for, see? Electric trim, pilot heat - oh yes, I have my own heater here - and these four are for the lights; strobe on or off, wing lights on or off, nav lights on or off, and this last button controls either landing lights in this position, or taxi lights in this position; that's kind of like the headlights. This little silver-colored handle above my steering wheel, with the teeth, is to secure the steering wheel; a sort of manual auto-pilot." She pointed to the switches on the left side of the steering yoke, three white ones and a red one, and under those a black one and a blank space with a black cover where a second black switch could fit in. "These are the master power switches. As you see, they're all switched to On already so when I turn the key, all the instruments already get power. When you hangar or store a plane, you best switch them all off to both spare the battery and to eliminate any chances for short-circuits. This button here..." She pointed to the black switch right next to the steering yoke, "...is, as you can see, a very important one, especially in case of an emergency; with this switch you engage or disengage the auto-pilot. In this space... I don't know what kind of switch goes there. Probably one for a factory accessory this plane doesn't have or something like that."
"Ya have an auto-pilot, though?" Dusty said. "In a plane as small as this? I thought only them big jumbo jets an' such had those?"
"Oh no, these small planes have them as well," Minty nodded. "They're not just a safety device for when a pilot gets incapacitated or something, you know. Mostly they're kind of like a cruise control in a car. It's very handy on long, straight legs of flying where you don't have anything else to do but hold the wheel still; in such cases you can switch on the auto-pilot and sit back a bit. Or for instance when you have to check your navigation charts, you need to have your paws free to take and hold your charts, so you use the auto-pilot to take care of flying the plane for you at those moments."
"Oh, yea, that makes sense I guess," Dusty nodded.
Minty also nodded and smiled at Fifi.
"Okay, Fifi, reach out if you will; can you grab that steering wheel?" Fifi tried, but she couldn't reach. With a smile, Minty unbuckled herself and slid out of her chair, kneeling down next to the seat Fifi was sitting in. "Okay, le-e-et's just adjust this seat a little, slide it forwards a notch or two..."
Setting the seat a bit forwards with the help of a small lever, Minty blinked for a moment as she glanced upwards. Fifi was still cheerily swinging her legs back and forth over the edge of the seat, alternating the rhythm a bit as if to deliberately give the green mouse a view up under her skirt to show there was a significant lack of underwear. Almost as if the little vixen was showing off. Concentrating on the seat instead, Minty shook her head a bit and slid the seat forwards another tick.
"Okay, there we go, try now?"
"Yeah! Now I can reach it, Minty!" Fifi said happily as she grabbed the wide U-shaped yoke with both paws.
"Good," Minty smiled, rising back up and sitting down in her own seat again. After buckling back up, she reached aside to a flap in the door panel, taking out a plastified chart which she handed to Fifi. "This here is the checklist, sweetie, see? This part, I already did just now when we were walking around the plane. Now I need you to read out this part, the pre engine start list, and then this part, the pre-flight list, okay?"
"Okee kerdokee! I can do that!" Fifi nodded happily.
She took the list and proceeded to happily and very quickly rattle off all the items on the list Minty had pointed out. Laughing cheerfully, Minty held up a paw and shook her head.
"Whoa whoa, slow down there, tiger! Not so fast! Hee hee! You have to give me a little bit of time to actually check each item before you read off the next one, silly! So you read all those items off one by one, and you must wait until I say 'check' before you read off the next one, okay?"
"Hee! Okay! Sorry, Minty!" Fifi giggled.
She tried again, reading much slower and looking aside at Minty every time to watch what the green mouse was doing, and to see Minty nodding at her at each time of saying 'check'. When she was through the short list, Fifi looked up happily.
"Yay! This is fun! Should I read the other list now, Minty?"
"Yep, but not yet," Minty smiled. "First, we gotta put on the headsets so we can hear each other over the noise of the engine." She giggled softly. "It's probably too big for you, but you can adjust it at the top. Here, I'll help you a bit." She leaned over to the side again, meanwhile sending a smile at Dusty, who was still standing in the middle of the plane, leaned over a bit. "You can take either of those back seats, Dusty, though you might want to consider taking the right one, behind Fifi, so you can more easily see what I am doing as well. And it distributes the passenger weight a bit more equally, making it easier for me to hold the plane level. Headsets are plugged in already, all you have to do is put it on and bend down the mike."
"Gotcha, luv," Dusty nodded with a chuckle.
She sat down in the right rear seat, buckling up and taking the headset to put it on, while Minty turned back to Fifi who also had taken the headset, looking at it.
"Alrighty, let's adjust this thing a bit so it'll fit you," she smiled, shortening the top bridge of the headphones several notches. "Here, try it?"
Fifi did so, though the headphones still sank down over her head a bit, causing the little vixen to giggle. With a soft chitter, Minty adjusted them a bit more, until they fit onto Fifi's head as good as perfectly. She bent the stem of the microphone downwards as well, then she sat back again and put on her own headset.
"Alright, there we go. Can you hear me alright?"
"Yep! I hear you, Minty!" Fifi giggled, nodding.
"I hear ya loud an' clear too, luv," Dusty chuckled from the rear seat.
"Good," Minty chittered. "I hear you two loud and clear as well. Right, so here we go!" She started flipping a couple of the switches. "Strobe lights; on. Taxi lights; on. See how that already sends a warning to everyone in the vicinity that this plane is about to start up?" she smiled, pointing through the windscreen at a few of the people in the large building who had looked up when the red and white lights on the top and belly of the little plane started flashing and who were now stepping out of the way. "Check prop area; clear. Magneto's; check. Engine; start." She flipped another switch and turned the key. The engine sputtered to life, the propeller jerking, slowly turning, then spinning as the engine caught. "Regulate RPMs to one-sevenhundred; check. Brakes; loose. Here we go!"
Much to Fifi's delight, the small plane started slowly rolling forwards. Holding the wheel loosely with one paw, her other paw resting on the throttle lever, Minty steered it out of the large building through the large open doors, alongside the gravel-paved strip where she turned around at the end, holding both the brakes. With a smile, she flipped a small switch on the radio while she winked at Fifi.
"There, now you can hear what the airport says to me as well. Now, read me the pre-flight checklist, if you will?"
Of course Fifi was more than willing to do so, happily going through the list and looking aside at Minty's every action. Having gone through the entire list, Minty smiled and patted Fifi's leg, taking back the plastified sheet and sticking it in the holder in the door again while she made contact with the control centre.
"Silverton Control, this is Beechcraft Sundowner November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight, request permission to take off and information on wind speed."
"Silverton Control to Beech Sundowner November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight. You're cleared for take-off," a voice crackled through the radio. "Wind is southwest, eight knots gusting to ten. No wind shear reported, visibility unlimited."
"November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight, roger. Commencing take-off."
"Silverton Control, roger. Enjoy your flight, Minty."
"Thank you."
A smile decorated the green mousette's muzzle as she released the brakes and increased the throttle. That's what she liked about Silverton Airfield; that little extra personal touch of the people knowing each other well, of calling each other by their name even over the radio. They didn't have to do that, but that slight deviance from the official norm gave just that little bit of personality to it that made Minty appreciate the little airfield so much.
Looking aside at Fifi, Minty couldn't help letting out a soft chitter of a giggle at how the little vixen was alternately looking out the side window, and gazing at the instrument panel to see how all the gauges reacted to Minty increasing the throttle.
"Look at the speed, Fifi," Minty smiled. "When you reach forty knots, you pull back just a little on the wheel to lift the nose of the plane so the nose wheel comes off the ground. It can't really handle speeds of over forty knots, so when you reach that speed, you lift the nose wheel off the ground. Only a very little bit though, until you reach your take-off speed, then you pull back a bit more to make the plane lift off, see?"
"Yeah! Wheee! This is so cool!" Fifi cheered joyfully.
Minty giggled softly and drew in a deep breath, smiling deeply as she looked ahead through the canopy again while she rolled the plane down the narrow gravel strip. A bit more throttle, a slight pull on the yoke... a very cheery almost-squeal from the little vixen in the co-pilot seat as they took to the air.
"Yeeeee! We're flying! Look mom, we're really flying!"
"I notice that," Dusty chuckled cheerfully.
Minty also let out a cheery chitter of a giggle at Fifi's exclamation, shaking her head lightly.
"November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight to Silverton Control, is there any traffic in the vicinity?"
"Silverton Control to November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight, no traffic, repeat no traffic, around you."
"November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight, roger. Climbing to two thousand."
Increasing the throttle a bit more, Minty kept pulling on the yoke to keep the small plane in a climb, until the altimeter showed two thousand feet. Levelling out, the green mouse regulated the RPMs of the engine and looked aside, chittering softly to herself over the way Fifi was alternately gazing out the window at the landscape passing by under them, and staring at the instrument panel to look at how the needles on the different gauges shifted. With a slightly louder giggle, Minty sat back a bit and winked.
"Ladies and... well, just ladies, welcome aboard Green Mouse Airlines flight eight-eight-six-eight. I am your captain, Minty Mouse. We are currently cruising at an altitude of two thousand feet, with a speed of ninety-eight knots. Please keep your seatbelts fastened and refrain from smoking, walking around or stepping outside. To your right, you can see the Willamette River, and in a couple of minutes we will be passing over the city of Salem, from where we will set course to the town of Willamina. The crew of Green Mouse Airlines would like to thank you for choosing to travel with our airline, and we hope you will enjoy your flight and have a pleasant day."
Dusty shook her head with a cheerful chuckle, and Fifi giggled loudly.
"Hee hee hee! You're so silly, Minty!"
"Yea ya are," Dusty grinned. "But it's a good kinda silly, luv. Yer handling this plane amazingly smooth, too, I hafta say."
"Of course, I should," Minty chittered. "I've been flying her for years now, so I should know exactly how to handle her. And there's really not all that much to it, actually; in a way it's easier than driving a car."
"How come, Minty?" Fifi asked.
"Well, for one, look around you," Minty smiled. "There's no roads up here you have to keep your car on, there's no other traffic ahead or behind you or to the sides of you that you have to watch out for, there's no traffic lights or anything you have to stop for. For another, in a car you control the speed with the gas pedal, and you constantly have to press your foot down on that pedal and make sure to keep the pressure even to make your car go a certain speed; in this plane, you set that throttle lever to a specific position and that's it, you don't have to worry about it anymore while you're flying. It's really true what they say, you know; flying is the safest way to travel."
"Even despite them jumbo jet crashes ya see on the TV now an' then?" Dusty said.
"Even despite that," Minty nodded. "Sure, when a jumbo jet crashes, it's big news, because it's such a huge plane with up to two hundred or three hundred passengers. So if all those passengers would die in the crash, that's a whole lot of dead people in one accident. But now compare it to car traffic. In one year, two, maybe three jumbo jets crash with massive loss of life, at the most, and that is worldwide. But in that same year, there will have been, on average, twelve to fifteen hundred car accidents where one or more people died, here in Oregon alone. So the chance you crash your car and die in the accident in Oregon is about four to five hundred percent higher than the chance you might die in a plane crash anywhere in the world. Besides, when you have an accident where two cars are involved, and someone gets injured or dies in the accident, there will be an investigation to see what exactly happened and who is responsible so the police can make a conviction. When a jumbo jet crashes, there will be an investigation to see what exactly happened and who or what was responsible so every measure can be taken to ensure it will never happen again."
"And we totally won't crash at all! Nope! Because Minty is like the best pilot ever!" Fifi cheered.
Minty chittered and shook her head.
"Well, I wouldn't say that, sweetie. I mean, okay, I'm pretty good, but for one, I can only fly single-engine planes and a few kinds of twin-engine planes, I can't even fly a jumbo jet, hee!"
"Aww! But you're still great! Yeah! You have your own plane and all!" Fifi nodded cheerily. She clapped her paws. "Ooo, what is like the biggest plane you ever flew yourself, Minty?"
Minty giggled softly again.
"That would be a DC-2, I flew one of those once on a classic aircraft show. They were using it as a tour plane, for attendees of the show to get the chance to be a passenger on a classic passenger plane and get a little tour of the premises. The pilot who would be flying the plane got called away to a family emergency, so I stepped up as a replacement pilot. I do have my license for twin-engine planes, so that wasn't a problem." She smiled. "I would love to fly a Lockheed 10E Electra once, or a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar someday."
"Ain't that the same kinda plane that crashed in the Everglades an' had ghost stories going on 'round it for a while?" Dusty said.
"And the Electra! That's like the plane Amelia Earhart vanished in!" Fifi piped up again.
Looking aside at the little vixen, Minty giggled softly and shook her head with a wink.
"I'm so totally not surprised you know about that. And indeed, you are right, the Lockheed 10E Electra was the kind of plane Amelia Earhart used for her equatorial flight around the world in 1937, the flight she disappeared from the face of the earth with. And Dusty, you're right as well, the L-1011 was the type of plane used on flight 401 that crashed into the Everglades in 1972 and caused all those ghost stories lateron." She giggled softly. "That's not the reason I would love to fly one someday, though. I would love to fly one sometime because it was a mighty advanced plane for its time, it was well ahead of its time in avionics and such, and it was one of the most silent and comfortable planes around, both to fly it as to ride it as a passenger."
"So what's keepin' ya to try an' fly one?" Dusty chuckled.
Minty chittered another giggle.
"Well, for one, the fact that it's a tri-engine jet plane, which I am not licensed to pilot, and for another, the fact that there are almost no Tristars in service anymore, and the few that are, are used by commercial airlines who have their own pilots on their payroll. Same counts for the Electra, actually, that's an as good as ancient plane so there's definitely none of them in service anywhere anymore. Though the chances of flying one of those are slightly higher, since you can sometimes come across one at an air show and the owner might just be inclined to allow you to fly it. The chances of finding an L-1011 Tristar on an air show are pretty much non-existent, though, because it's such a huge commercial jet liner, or used to be, anyway." She looked aside at Fifi with a smile. "So, Fifi, what kind of plane would you want to fly the most?"
"A jumbo jet! Yeah! One of the big ones, like a Boeing triple-7! They're awesome!" Fifi cheered.
Minty laughed softly and cheerily.
"Sounds good! And I'm sure that with your drive and enthusiasm, you might actually get that far someday. But if you were to have a little hobby plane of your own, like I have my Sunny here, what kind of plane would you want it to be?"
Now the little vixen fell silent for a while as she thought.
"Uhm... well, I would like totally love to have a Lockheed Vega. Yeah! Amelia Earhart had one of those before she got the Electra! Cool! But well, like, they're so old and rare and stuff, so I wouldn't be able to find one, I dun think. I would like a Piper J3 Cub though! Because I'm like a cub too, hee! But those are really old and rare too, yeah. So, I would like... uhm... a Cessna! Yeah! A Cessna 150L! They're cute!"
"That's also a rather classic model, they've been around since the 1950's," Minty giggled softly. "A Cessna 150L would be much easier to come by than a Piper Cub or a Lockheed Vega, though, that's definitely true. In fact, the 150 is like the fifth or fourth most-produced civilian airplane ever, and of the model L the most ones were produced, so your chances of finding one are actually pretty high." She smiled. "You do like the classic planes, don't you?"
"Yeah!" Fifi nodded. "They're so cute and cool, the older ones are! I like them!"
"Well, can't say I blame you," Minty chittered. "The older planes do definitely have a certain appeal about them. And like I said, the chances of finding a Cessna 150L are pretty high. In fact, I can think of at least three off the top of my head that are for sale." She smiled and winked at the little vixen. "And who knows, maybe I might be able to give you a chance to at least fly along in a Lockheed Vega sometimes, I know someone from the Portland Aviation Club who has one of those."
"Really?!" Fifi squealed, wide-eyed. "Wow! Oh wow! That would be so totally awesome! Yeah! You're totally the best, Minty! Yay! Thanks!"
"My pleasure, sweetie," Minty chittered. "I'll... oh, hang on a second," she interrupted herself when a beep sounded from her radio. "Yes, Roscoes Control? This is Beechcraft Sundowner November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight, do you copy?"
"Roscoes Control, November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight," a voice crackled from the radio. "We copy and have you on radar. Say altitude?"
"November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight, roger. Current altitude is two thousand, heading one-five-eight," Minty replied. She checked her instruments for a moment, then looked out the canopy window. "Roscoes Control, be advised, I may disappear from radar for a few moments in a little while. I'm doing more or less a sightseeing tour with my close friend and her daughter, and we'll be dipping to about a hundred-fifty to one hundred feet when passing over her school."
"That's a roger, November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight. Appreciate the heads-up, thank you. Do you have an estimate on when you will be at such low altitude?"
"In ten, fifteen minutes, give or take, Roscoes Control. I'm not sure yet. Will advice when changing altitude, however."
"Roscoes Control, roger. Thank you."
Fifi cheerily clapped her paws.
"Roscoes! That's our airport! I ride my bike there all the time to look at the planes! It's so cool!"
"Again I am not surprised," Minty chittered softly. "Well, in a couple of moments, you'll be able to see it from above for a change, sweetie, I'll circle over it for a bit when we reach it." She looked aside and winked at the little vixen. "But first, let's go find your school!"
"Yeah! Wheee! It'll be so cool! My friends'll be totally jealous when I wave at them from in the sky!"
"Let's go make them jealous, then," Minty chittered, pulling her little plane into a slight bank to change their heading. After leveling out, she chittered again and pointed through the canopy. "Oh, and look! I can see your house from here!"
Almost right away, Fifi turned in her seat and smooshed her nose against the side window to gaze outside, giggling and clapping her paws again when she also spotted first the street, and then the house in which she and her mother lived. Dusty let out a soft chuckle, also looking out of one of the side windows.
"Hafta admit, never seen it from up here."
"That's the beauty of flying, you get to see so much more and from such a different perspective," Minty smiled, switching the radio again. "Roscoes Control, this is November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight. Leaving altitude two thousand now, descending to seven hundred."
"Roscoes Control, roger."
Minty lightly pushed on her yoke, every now and then adjusting it left and right as well while she kept one eye on her instruments and her other eye out the canopy window. A bit above seven hundred feet, she pulled back again, smoothly and gradually pulling her little plane out of the descent and leveling it back out. Flying closer above the small town of Willamina now, it was much easier to see the landmarks and follow the roads. With cheerful directions from Fifi, Minty steered her little plane over the town, following a few of the roads until they reached a fairly large building with a paved open space in front of it.
"That's it!" Fifi cheered. "That's my school! Wheee!"
Minty chittered a soft giggle.
"We'd better go down a bit more then, so your friends can see us." She addressed her radio again. "Roscoes Control, this is November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight, descending from flight level seven hundred to flight level one-fifty."
"Roscoes Control, roger. Will advice when we lose you from radar." As Minty brought her plane further and further down, eventually the voice returned again. "November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight, we lost your signal now. Keep us advised."
"November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight, roger, will do."
Flying at a little over a hundred and fifty feet now, it was actually possible to distinguish the people who were out and about on the sidewalks and in the gardens. As they neared the school, there were indeed a number of kids visible on the school yard, looking up and pointing at the small green plane. Fifi let out a cheery squeal and clapped her paws.
"There they are! I see Sylvia and Luna and Aster!" She started waving madly. "Yoohoo! Hey y'all! I see you! Look! I'm up here!"
Of course the kids down on the ground couldn't hear Fifi's cheery shouts, but as Minty pulled her plane around in a circle above the school, in the process banking the Beechcraft to the right so the window Fifi was looking through faced the ground, the kids were able to see the little vixen waving wildly at them. They started waving back, with either one or both paws, some even hopping up and down as Minty made another circle over the school yard. It seemed as if they were shouting as well, but just as they could not hear Fifi's shouts, of course the two vixens and the mouse in the plane could not hear them either.
Finishing a third circle over the school yard, Minty chittered softly as she leveled her plane out again and put it back into a gradual climb.
"Alright sweetie, I'm sorry, but we have to get on again now," she smiled. "One more circle and we'd be so close above the ground I'd probably do some unauthorized pruning of the trees around your school."
"Hee hee! Okies Minty!" Fifi giggled cheerily. She gazed out the window and waved again. "Biyeeeee! We gotta go now! I'll see ya Monday, yeah!"
Both Minty and Dusty giggled softly, the green mouse again making contact with the control of the small airfield just outside Willamina as she made her plane climb.
"Roscoes Control, this is November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight, now passing flight level three hundred on our way back to two thousand."
"Roscoes Control, roger, we have you back on radar. Will you be staying in the vicinity?"
"Negative. We will be taking a heading two niner seven, making a wide turn over Sheridan, Bellevue and Amity to return to Silverton."
"Roscoes Control, roger. Be advised, crop dusting is in progress near Sheridan. Contact Sheridan Control on frequency one seven three decimal niner for further information."
"November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight, one seven three point niner, roger. Thank you."
As Minty cut the contact and kept her small plane climbing until they had reached two thousand feet, Fifi started clapping her paws again.
"Sheridan! I know that airport too! I've heard of it!"
"Of course you have," Minty giggled softly, pulling her plane level at an altitude of two thousand feet. "And of course you also know that there are a whole lot more small airfields around here, don't you?"
"Yeah!" Fifi nodded enthusiastically. "They have funny names, too! I have heard of Vineyard and Plum Valley! That's so funny, hee!"
"Yes, some of the airfields have rather amusing names, indeed," Minty nodded with a giggle. "How many more do you know?"
"Well, there's one in Salem! Yeah!" Fifi nodded. "And of course I now know your airport at Silverton, yeah!"
"Very good," Minty chittered. "But there's a lot more. Actually, there's already five of them around Salem. Here, hang on a second..." She flipped the auto-pilot switch and reached to the flap in the door next to her, pulling out an aviation chart which she folded open. "Look, this is the area we are in. Willamina is here, this is Amity where I live, here is Salem, and that's Silverton over there. We are..." She pricked a finger into the map. "...about here. Now look, from where we are all the way to Silverton, see all these little symbols with the code under them? Those are all airfields. This here is Roscoes. That one is Sheridan. Further up, here; that's Poverty Hollow and that one is Mach-o Acres. Then up here, by McMinnville, that's McMinnville Municipal. These two here below Amity are the ones you mentioned; Plum Valley and Vineyard. Now, look at Salem here; we have, on this side of Salem, Independence State near the town of Monmouth, and down here Fitts and Davidson Field, and a little further down, that's Wooldridge Airstrip. On the other side of Salem, here we have Flying E between Salem and Aumsville, then there's McNary Field, and further upwards where Salem runs over into Keizer, there's Fly 'n' W and up here is Smith Private, and near that, Hollins here. Over there is Woodburn, up there Lenhardt Airpark, and finally, here below Silverton, there's Iron Crown. That makes... one, two, three, four... five... six, seven... four on this side of Salem, that makes eleven... plus two on this side of Salem, makes thirteen, plus... three around Keizer, makes sixteen, and... Woodburn, Lenhardt and Iron Crown, makes nineteen, and of course Silverton Airfield itself, makes twenty. So that's twenty small airfields only between where you live and Silverton alone already, see? And then I'm not even counting Basl Hill Farms, Hatch and Lone Oaks Ranch around Stayton here and Gillette Field and The Green Trees Ranch a little further down here, and those three above Lenhardt there, Compton, Workman Airpark and Portland Mulino, see?"
"Wow, holy moly!" Fifi squeaked. "I knew there was like a bunch of little airports around, but I didn't know it were that many! Wow! That's so awesome!"
"Yes, there are quite a lot small airfields in the area here," Minty nodded with a giggle, folding up the map and putting it back in the holder in the door. "Some of them are only very small, though, like Silverton and Roscoes, and some are only private airstrips, but you can still land there in a pinch if needed."
"Yeah! That's so cool! Do you go to a lot of those airports, Minty?" Fifi asked, suddenly looking up with big bright eyes. "Ooo, do you like go to some of those big airports where jumbo jets land too?"
Minty giggled while she disengaged the auto-pilot and took control of her small plane herself again.
"Very sometimes, depending on where I have to go to, yes, I need to make an intermediate stop on a larger public airport for refueling." She winked aside at Fifi. "Not anything like LAX or JFK airport, though! Those huge airports are already so busy with all the commercial jetliners coming and going that it's hardly even allowed anymore to land a small private plane like this one there, unless you're in real trouble. Those big commercial airports even have big areas of restricted airspace where you have to stay out of when you're flying a small plane like this near a big airport like that."
"I can see that," Dusty chuckled from the seat in the back. "I mean, in comparison, a plane like this to a Boeing 747 would be like a kid's tricycle to an eighteen-wheeler rig, they would be unable to see ya until it's too late."
"Exactly," Minty nodded. "Those big airports work with air corridors for incoming and outgoing jetliners; you could call it two-lane highways in the air. Now, look at what we're doing for instance; flying around calmly at a steady altitude of two thousand feet. Compared to the speed of a Boeing or something, we're crawling along at a snail's pace, and a huge plane like that, going close to two hundred knots or even more at landing or taking off, really can't make any evasive maneuvers when they pass through two thousand feet and you happen to be right there with your small plane."
"No, they'd pretty much fly right through ya, I reckon," Dusty chuckled.
"And possibly get so damaged they'd crash themselves as well in the process," Minty nodded again. "So you better either stay away from the big airports altogether, or make damn sure you do exactly what the ATC tells you when you do have to make a landing on an airport like that." She pulled her plane level again and switched her radio to a different frequency. "Sheridan Control, this is Beechcraft Sundowner November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight, do you copy?"
"Sheridan Control, November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight, we copy and have you on radar. Say altitude?"
"Current altitude is two thousand, heading two eight seven going to two niner seven. Roscoes Control informed me of crop dusting in progress outside Sheridan, do you have specifics for me?"
"That is correct, November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight. We have three crop dusting planes in the air, two north-east of Sheridan, one north-west of Sheridan, all at an altitude of no more than five hundred. If you maintain your current altitude, there won't be any problems. Will you be coming into Sheridan for a landing?"
"Negative, Sheridan Control. I'll be on a heading two niner seven, passing over Bellevue and Amity towards Silverton and landing at Silverton Airfield."
"Sheridan Control, roger. Maintain altitude of two thousand, you'll be fine. No other traffic reported nor on radar at that altitude or heading."
"November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight, roger, thank you."
Cutting the contact, Minty sat back a bit and smiled as she put her plane on the proper course before leveling out again. For quite a while, they flew on calmly, Minty every now and then checking her instruments or looking around her through the side windows of the plane. After about ten minutes, she checked her instruments again, and a map she had resting on her lap. With a very wide smile, she looked aside at Fifi after that.
"Well Fifi, would you want to feel what it's like to keep a plane like this under control?"
"Well, yeah!" Fifi said enthusiastically. "How. Minty?"
Minty giggled softly and winked.
"How'd you think? I didn't put that seat forwards so you can reach the wheel for nothing, after all."
It took a few moments before the green mousette's words sank in with Fifi, but then the peach-colored little vixen let out a joyous squeal.
"Wow, really?! You mean I can like steer your plane?! Wow! Oh wow! That's totally awesome, Minty! You're the superbest!"
"You're welcome, sweetie," Minty chittered with another wink. "Now, take that wheel and hold it very loosely. Don't do anything, just hold your paws on it and feel what I do first, okay? I don't know if you have played flight simulators on a computer or something, but this is definitely very different."
"Yeah! I get that, Minty! Hee!" Fifi nodded, giggling. She reached out and took a hold of the upright parts of the steering yoke in front of her. "So what do I do?"
"For now, nothing, just hold the wheel very loosely and feel all the little adjustments I make," Minty smiled. "You'll feel what I meant when I told you a little while back that you constantly have to adjust the wheel both left and right as well as up and down to keep your plane level and at the right altitude and heading."
Fifi nodded happily and did exactly that, almost bouncing in her seat but actually managing to sit rather still, despite her overly happy enthusiasm. She also kept looking aside at Minty the whole time, causing the green mouse to chitter a soft giggle and wink again.
"Don't look at me, sweetie, look through the windshield. See how I'm keeping the nose of the plane a bit below the horizon line? That's how I know I'm flying at the right attitude, and when the horizon is straight, I also know I'm level. Of course you have your instruments here before you to tell you the same thing, but the best way is always to just look out the window. After all, when you're driving a car, you don't look at the dashboard all the time either; you look at the road in front of you and adjust your steering wheel accordingly. The same counts for when you're flying a plane, whether it's a small single-engine plane like this, or a big jumbo jet."
"Oh! Yeah, that makes sense, Minty," Fifi nodded, letting out another soft giggle. "Only, like... I can't really see over the dashboard, hee! It's so high!"
"Ah... right, I kind of forgot about that," Minty said with a soft giggle. "Mmm, let's see... okay, this is not really very proper regulation, but take off your seatbelt and come sit in my lap, okay? My seat is already a bit higher because I'm rather short myself, and if you sit in my lap, you should be able to see over the instrument panel."
"Can I?! Awesome! That's so cool, Minty!" Fifi said happily.
She took her paws off the steering yoke again and undid her seatbelt, carefully slipping out of the seat. Minty smiled.
"Hold yourself by the seat, and try not to press down on my legs when you climb into my lap, okay? I have my feet on the rudder pedals after all, and we wouldn't want an accidental input to the rudder that sends the plane in a sudden swing to one side."
"Hee! No! That would be bad!" Fifi giggled. "I'll be careful, Minty, promise!"
"Good," Minty smiled. "Oh, and here, wait just a second..." She reached down to flip the auto-pilot switch again. "There, that'll keep us an extra bit safe. Now, like I said, hold yourself steady by the seats and step over here, okay?"
"Okee kerdokee!" Fifi nodded cheerily.
Holding her paws on the seats, the young vixen took a careful step or two aside towards the pilot's seat. With a smile, Minty took her right paw off her steering yoke and lifted her arm, wrapping it around Fifi's shoulders to both give a free access to her lap and to help the little vixen up into her lap. When Fifi was properly seated, Minty switched the auto-pilot back off and put both paws on the yoke again, rather high up.
"Alrighty, there we go," she smiled. "Can you see over the instrument panel now?"
"Yeah!" Fifi nodded. "I see a part of the... uhm, the hood and all!"
"Good," Minty smiled. "Now, like I said, hold the wheel very loosely and just feel what I am doing, and keep looking out the window to see how I keep the nose of the plane just a bit below the horizon in the distance."
"Okee kerdokee!" Fifi giggled.
Craning her neck a bit, the little vixen sat up as straight as she could on Minty's lap, gazing over the instrument panel while she took a hold of the sides of the steering yoke just below Minty's paws. Every now and then, as she felt Minty moving the steering yoke a bit, she looked down at it to see what the green mouse was doing, although almost right afterwards she looked out the front window again to see how the plane reacted to the small control inputs Minty gave it, and sometimes at the gauges to see how they reacted as well. After several minutes, Minty leaned down her head with a smile.
"Getting a feel for it, Fifi?"
"Yeah! I can totally feel what you're doing, Minty!" Fifi chirruped cheerfully.
"Good, good," Minty smiled. "Hold the wheel a bit tighter, okay? I'll very slowly release my grip a little, so you'll have to help me now holding the plane level, okay?"
"Okay! Yay! I can do that!"
Minty chittered softly and started to very slowly and very gradually loosening her grip on the yoke. After a moment or two, the plane made a little shudder, ever so slightly banking to the right and dipping a bit.
"A bit tighter, sweetie," Minty smiled, helping to bring the plane level again. "Feel how powerful the wind is with pulling on and pushing against the plane? You really have to constantly compensate for it. Yes, that's it, much better," she added with a deeper smile as she again loosened her grip a bit.
This time, Fifi did indeed manage to hold the plane a bit more level, although still with Minty's help.
"Whoo! It's like much harder than I thought!"
"Yes, it's certainly a feeling you have to get used to, isn't it?" Minty smiled. "But after a while, it'll get more natural to you. Here's a little help; see how I've been holding the line of the horizon at about one-thirds up the windshield. That's to help keeping your plane level. Now look around and find a landmark, like a patch of forest or a big building or something. Keep looking at it, and try to direct your plane towards it, that'll help you even more with steering the plane, because you'll automatically correct when you feel and see the wind pulling or pushing the nose of your plane away from the landmark you're looking at. Like for instance..." She looked through the wind screen and pointed. "...that field over there in the distance, with the corn on it, see?"
"Oh! Yeah, I see it, Minty!" Fifi nodded.
"Good, then try and direct the plane to that field, all the time keeping the line of the horizon about one-thirds up the windshield," Minty smiled.
Fifi nodded again, concentrating on the field Minty had pointed out with her ears perked up and her tongue poking out her mouth. Chittering a soft giggle, Minty shook her head slightly and began ever so gradually loosening her grip on the yoke again, a bit more every time she felt Fifi getting more control over the movements of the small plane. After a couple of minutes, Minty's smile deepened as she turned her head a bit to look at Dusty across her shoulder, making a short motion with her head forwards. Rising up in her seat a bit, Dusty leaned over, also adopting a smile as she saw what Minty was motioning at.
She was holding her paws above and a bit to the sides of Fifi's small paws, without touching the yoke. The young vixen was holding the plane on course and at altitude all by her little self.
Of course, it didn't go by far as smooth as when Minty was doing it. Fifi kept every now and then over-compensating for certain movements the small plane made. But she was still doing it all by herself, without Minty's help. Only when they were as good as above the corn field minty had pointed out, a little over ten minutes later, did the green mouse put her own paws on the yoke again to take over the control, since she had to alter the course a bit. Chittering a giggle, she leaned down her head a bit so her chin rested on top of Fifi's head.
"Well now, little pilot, you were concentrating so hard that I don't think you noticed what happened, did you?"
"Uh... no?" Fifi said, rolling her head a bit to look up. "Did something happen? Did I do something wrong, Minty?"
"On the contrary," Minty smiled. "For the past eleven or twelve minutes, you have been flying the plane all by yourself."
"What... really?!" Fifi squeaked.
"Yep," Minty confirmed with a cheerful giggle. "I was not holding my paws on the wheel at all. You did it entirely without my help, and you did it very well too, sweetie."
"Woooww!" Fifi cheered, almost bouncing in Minty's lap and tickling the green mousette's chest a bit since she was wagging her tail. "That's so awesome! I was really flying the plane myself? Super-duper-cool!! Hee, and I didn't even notice it!"
"Well, you were concentrating very hard, after all," Minty chittered softly. "But you really did very well, sweetie, especially for your first time out." She winked. "I would have let you go on for a little longer, but we have to make a small turn now; we're coming near to Silverton. And see that?" She tapped a finger at the fuel pressure gauge, of which the needle was nearing the green part that extended just over the number five. "Fuel's getting low too, so we can't stay up for too much longer anyway."
"Oh! Yeah! I can understand that!" Fifi nodded. "Wow, but it's so super-awesome! I flew the plane! Yeah!"
"Yeah you did," Minty chittered, winking again. She made the small turn, smoothly leveling out the plane afterwards again. "Now, go on and get back into your seat, okay? I'll get us back to Silverton."
"Yeah! Wheee! Thanks so much, Minty! You're totally the bestest ever!" Fifi cheered.
She carefully slipped off of Minty's lap and holding herself by the seats, she got back into the co-pilot's seat again, buckling back up. Minty smiled, and from the seat in the back, Dusty leaned over forwards to softly squeeze her daughter's shoulder.
"Ya certainly did well, sweetie. Very good."
"Yeee! Thanks, mom!" Fifi giggled happily. "This is so awesome! I'm so happy we met Minty! Yeah!"
"Me too, sweetie," Dusty chuckled, giving Fifi's shoulder another little squeeze before sitting back again.
"Thanks," Minty said with a cheery chitter, winking at both vixens. She pulled the small plane through another slight turn and activated her radio. "Silverton Control, this is November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight. Heading two eight three, altitude two thousand. Can I get a clearance for landing?"
"Negative, November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight, airstrip is used for take-off right now. Turn east, heading three zero five, maintain altitude."
"November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight, east turn, three zero five, roger."
She pulled her plane into another shallow turn, describing a wide circle around the small airfield that started looming in the distance. Indeed, as they got closer, they could see how a small black and white Cessna was rolling down the gravel airstrip. Moments later, it was in the air, climbing slowly in the opposite direction of Minty's plane. Another moment later, the radio crackled to life again.
"Silverton Control to November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight, you're clear for landing. Turn east, heading zero six one, descend to one-five hundred."
"November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight, east zero six one to one-five hundred, roger."
Making another turn, Minty dipped the nose of the plane a bit, meanwhile pulling back on the throttle just lightly to keep her speed at the same level.
"Reaching flight level one-five hundred now. Silverton Control, what's the wind doing down there?"
"Silverton Control, roger. Wind is southwest, ten knots, steady. Turn west, heading one zero five. You're clear to land, descend at your discretion."
"November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight, west one zero five, roger. Thank you. Leaving level one-five hundred now."
"Silverton Control, roger. Bring her in, Minty."
Unable to help herself, Minty let out a soft chitter of a giggle. She was used to the controller at Silverton saying something like that, but it amused her every time again. Adjusting both the yoke, the throttle and the trim now, she lowered her plane further and further, until she was lined up right in front of the narrow airstrip. With a wink, she looked aside at Fifi, who was following everything with enthused interest.
"Feef, flaps to ten, please."
"Roger!" Fifi giggled happily, reaching out to move the lever that controlled the flaps.
Lower and lower they went, until they were coasting just above the airstrip. Then, with a soft crunch of gravel and a little shock going through the plane, Minty touched down, pulling back on the throttle and raising the flaps even further until the plane's speed had dropped below forty knots so she could lower the nose wheel onto the ground. Regulating the RPMs and giving gentle brake pressure, the green mouse slowed the plane even further, calmly rolling towards the end of the airstrip.
"Silverton Control, this is November Mouse eight-eight-six-eight. We're on the ground. Taxiing to the hangar now."
"Silverton Control, roger. Welcome back, Minty. Had a good flight?"
Minty smiled.
"It was wonderful, thank you."
Smiling happily and contently, the green mouse rolled her plane off the airstrip and across the premises, back to the large hangar of which the big doors were still standing wide open. Always keeping an eye out for any people walking around, Minty very carefully rode the plane into the hangar, back to the spot where she had it usually parked and turning it around until it was standing tailfirst in front of the spot.
"Now then," she chittered softly, looking at Fifi. "A last lesson for today, Fifi; any idea how to turn off the engine?"
"Uhmmm... well, by turning that key to Off, of course!" Fifi giggled.
Minty shook her head with a wink.
"Actually, no. Yes, the engine would go off if you turn that key to off, but that is not the way to stop a plane's engine. See, what you do is this; you push the throttle all the way down - or pull it out, depending on the kind of plane you're in - to idle. Like this." She did so, making the sound and the propeller of her plane slow down significantly. "Then you take the air mixture handle, and you pull it out all the way, making the mixture leaner and leaner until you eventually kind of choke the engine with oxygen, see?" She did that too, causing the engine sound to die down even further until the engine eventually sputtered out and the propeller stopped turning around, after which she turned the key to the Off position. "Only then, you turn the key to off, see. You know why?"
"Uhm, no?" Fifi said, shaking her head.
"It's rather simple," Minty smiled. "To increase power and reliability of the engine at low altitudes or on the ground, you make the fuel mixture very rich, meaning you make the engine getting fed a lot of fuel and a little air. If you would keep it that way when you switch the key to off to make the engine stop, it means a lot of fuel residues stay behind inside the engine, which can wear and eventually damage it. So instead, you stop the engine by decreasing the richness of the fuel mixture more and more until there is no fuel at all being fed to the engine anymore, only air. That way, the last residues of the fuel are kind of burned up and blown out of the engine, leaving it a lot cleaner. You only turn that key to Off to make sure the magneto's are deactivated so the engine won't accidentally start back up. See, if you would for instance keep the fuel mixture richer and you switch the magneto's off, and shortly after back on, the engine can start running again because the propeller is still turning, and, like I said, due to the rich mixture, residues can stay behind in the engine."
"Ohhh!" Fifi nodded. "Yeah, okay, I understand that, Minty!" She clapped her paws. "Yay! I'm learning so much! This is so cool!"
"I'm glad you've enjoyed the day so much, Fifi," Minty smiled.
"Of course!" Fifi cheered. "It's been so awesome! We got to fly with you in your plane, and we flew over my school so I could wave at my friends, and I got to fly your plane for a bit! This is like the best day ever! Yeah!"
"And it's still not over," Minty chittered while she flipped several switches to kill the lights and all the power to the plane, after which she took a small notebook from the holder in the door, writing a few things in it. "You wanna write something in the log book too?"
"Totally!" Fifi nodded happily.
She took the notebook Minty offered her, first reading a couple of the entries before writing down a few lines under the last entry herself. Minty giggled softly at the enthused words of how 'cool and super-awesome' it was that the little vixen got to fly the plane for a little bit that Fifi wrote, winking at Fifi as she took the book again and put it back in the holder. With the help of a few of the people present in the hangar, the green mouse got her plane rolled backwards into its spot again, applying the parking brakes and once more making sure everything that should be switched off was in fact switched off before she helped Dusty and Fifi get out of the plane.
Getting out herself as well, she carefully locked the plane and hopped to the ground.
"Well! I think we deserved a nice ice cream by now!" she smiled. "What say we walk over to the Wooden Nickel for a nice ice cream, and then we go to my place so I can give you all the documentation and information I have collected for you, Fifi?"
"Yeah!" Fifi cheered, hugging Minty tightly around the waist. "You're totally the bestest ever, Minty!"
"Sure, an ice cream sounds nice," Dusty smiled.
"Alrighty, then let's take off, flying vixens!" Minty chittered cheerily.
With one arm around Fifi and one arm around Dusty, Minty led the way off the small air field and down the narrow road towards the pub/diner at the beginning of the road to have a delicious ice cream, after which they returned to their cars. Minty already gave Fifi a bunch of papers to read through on the way from Silverton to Amity, which the young vixen happily did while her mother followed Minty as the green mouse led the way from the small air field to her small house in Amity.
In Fifi's words; it had indeed been a super-duper awesome cool day! Yeah!
