High air
One: the two-headed coin
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“Father and son” – Yusuf / Cat Stevens
1970 Vietnam
The wind blowing through his canopy brought Finn back from his temporary dream state, on his descent into the boat off the coast of North Vietnam. He couldn’t maintain consciousness and wondered if he was bleeding. Had Mathe’s calls brought him back?
Captain Matthew (MÄ? The) “Rock” Stone watched the descent of his friend LT Jonathan “Finn” Finley, as he mounted his wing from a distance, and watched helplessly at the rapid deterioration of Finn’s aircraft control. “Hang on, buddy. We’re almost home now,” Mathe said, as he watched the fuel flow out of Finn’s plane, too close to the exhaust of his jet.
Finn tried to keep his head up. Clinging to hope, she glanced at the gauges to reconfirm her troubles. He felt energy coming out of his machine and himself and he pressed the button on the microphone. Clinging to hope, her fingers found the appropriate buttons and knobs inside the cockpit to combat her emergencies, but she knew she was quickly succumbing.
“Mathe, I’m not sure I can stretch this slide to the boat,” he said, trying to sound confident.
Finn slowly rolled the “scooter” toward shore, thinking his chances of survival were better on land. He was well into North Vietnam and would find a way out to the safety of the South. Blood in the water in an ejection was the last thing he wanted after hearing stories of aggressive shark populations off the coast. Finn’s mind raced.
He continued to gaze across the cabin at the empty sky in front of him and felt as if he were not there. Time seemed to compress as he held the stick a little tighter and alternated between accepting his fate and fighting for his life.
A vice-like fear crept in and out of his thoughts for his chances of survival as his G-suit torso seemed to tense on its own. Little by little he was releasing the pressure of speed, time, altitude, distance, fuel, and system calculations; the usual worries about flights seemed to disappear. The inner battle to give in to her emotions, yell and leave the job to someone else, just drive the machine, was getting stronger.
Deep in the airspace of North Vietnam, in a badly damaged fighter, Lieutenant Johnathan “Finn” Finley thought to himself: Don’t take the easy way-work to survive his injuries. You have support, the boat is waiting for you, and Taco and Mathe are on your wing, you will make it. Then there was the other voice, but then …
The engine fire warning light suddenly blinked intermittently and then glared from the instrument panel of Finn’s A-4 Skyhawk, telling it all.
“My God! Fire! God no! Not today, not now, please!” Finn screamed.
He thought he heard the crackle of hot metal coming from the rear of the plane and felt the heat rise. A small wisp of smoke rose from the cabin floor and the plane jumped. Suddenly, he saw the dirt and everything else on the cabin floor rise to eye level and suddenly fall. It only took a second.
Mathe Finn’s jet descended, on its wing, looking at him in surprise and horror, and the frustration of not being able to help his friend. He was eating him alive. Suddenly, the words of Finn’s father, spoken to both children long ago, appeared in this mind:
“Guys, don’t ever allow yourselves to become a two-headed coin, you will never win! You’ve probably never seen one, but they were common in my day, and they can be a big deal if the stakes are high. You guys are very alike, more than they are different in many ways. A two-headed coin can be a powerful tool in the wrong hands, so be careful with your abilities and the direction you take in life. Decision paths are easy to take. ”
Finn was frozen, caught between covering every inch of land to the safety of the sea and the aircraft carrier Raleigh (CVA-23) in its rapidly decomposing machine, and the reality he didn’t want to admit: his airplane firecracker could explode. anytime. Returning to his trained senses, he slammed the PCL (throttle, power control lever) off, pushed the fuel cut lever to the emergency off position, and pulled the emergency generator handle to extend it.
Clinging to his life, he yelled at his jet: “I need fuel now, but fire, no, no, no.”
Finn fought for control, squeezed the stick tighter, squeezed tighter, trying to get the attention she wasn’t paying him, to control her, to fight her if necessary. Even so, it winked in a twist and turn that rapidly decayed. The fog bank below was about to swallow them both, as he continued to strain and yell for control of the machine.
Finn’s survival vice — holding on to life but fighting the chance to leave — was reaching critical mass. Drive out before it’s too late, he told himself. The voices of Mathe and Taco screamed at him to strike, but he held a little farther away, closer and closer to his aircraft carrier, or was it the shore? Confused and in and out of consciousness, he was no longer sure.
Losing consciousness for a moment, the plane suddenly left flight again and began to spin with fire engulfing the cockpit. Finn’s jet was now flying backwards, a real jerk.
“Please God get the nose moving, out of the flame so I can go,” Finn yelled.
The hot rod slowly begins to turn its nose toward the fog bank.
He’s beyond worrying about the error-free, near-perfect pilot, in his mind, the most consistent OK three-wire grappler in the squad.
“I need to live,” he yelled, and suddenly, “God, I have no control!”
“I can’t save the plane and I’m not sure about myself,” he muttered.
Calm washed over Finn, nothing mattered much to him now. Not the pain in the groin and cheek, the heat and the fire; not the green-colored safety of your jet’s cockpit, the locker room / cockpit smell of oil, jet fuel, sweat, or the dry, gummy on-demand O2 you breathed. His concern for the wind whistling through the holes in his plane, below and right next to him, didn’t seem so important now.
There was Captain Matthew (MÄ? The) Stone, fellow “Talon” and friend, frantically giving him hand signals as he flew alongside him and Taco, on the trail, yelling at him to kick off.
Mathe joined in, “Finn, get out! Get off the plane now!”
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Recent reader review
“This adventure is a wild ride through a difficult time in our nation’s history. Tea Author apply his own flight experience and feelings to each of the characters you meet in this story.
You really don’t need to be an aviation lover or military hobbyist to enjoy the adrenaline rush that comes off every page. “Tall Air” It not only places you in the cockpit of dynamic combat flight, it also places you in the hearts and minds of its heroes.
I hope you enjoy it as much as me! “