INVASION USA (Book 2) - The Battle For New York Read Online Free PDF

their ten-hour non-stop flight to Salt Lake City. This time, the transponder switch was left in the off position, and Lady Dandy’s tanks and extra drop tanks were absolutely full. Her only freight was the lawn mower generator for Carlos when he got there, fuel for the generator, and 100 gallons of aviation fuel in five-gallon red containers, also for Carlos.
    Maggie and the kids were hoping to get a ride to Edwards AFB from Hill AFB in Salt Lake to see Will. Carlos, much faster in the Mustang, was going to leave two hours after them and catch up with them over Denver. His maximum range was about 1,900 miles, and Preston’s airfield to Hill AFB was 1,820 miles. If the headwind was too strong, he would have to land in Denver and refuel from the 20 canisters Lady Dandy was carrying. If Denver was snowbound, they would have to find a suitable place to meet and refuel. Lady Dandy with her drop tanks had a larger 2,000-mile range.
    Sally woke up when she heard Lady Dandy’s engines, and she and Carlos got up, showered and were in the house for breakfast by 6:00. Sally left at 7:00 am to be at Andrews by 8:00, her aircraft carrying the second of the two fully-operational truck generators. Her transponder was also off.
    The sun rose at 7:40 am as Carlos, fueled to the top of his tanks, looked around at the weather, climbed in, and took off as soon as the engine was warm enough. He rose quickly through the cold morning air for optimal altitude to use as little fuel as he could. A couple of soldiers had even taken out Carlos’ gun ammo to give him less weight and more range. From this point forward, whoever was watching them would not see transponders from this farm.
    He climbed high in the morning sunlight, the sun behind him as he climbed up to 15,000 feet, put on his oxygen mask, and then rose up to 38,000 feet for optimum cruising. Carlos’s biggest worry, flying without modern electronic direction and communicational aids, was the lack of ground-speed information, wind flow, and forward weather conditions. He had never pushed his aircraft to its full range, even when he could use all the modern help, but now he needed experience and luck to gauge the distance and speed needed to get to Salt Lake City.
    “Hello, Buck, this is Carlos. Can you hear me?” he tried over his radio. A very scratchy voice came back that he did, and that the weather was clear so far. Buck was halfway there and he figured that their refueling meet-up was about three hours away.
    “Hallo, darling!” scratched a familiar and very faint voice over Carlos’s radio.
    “Hallo darling, yourself,” Carlos replied, happy to hear Sally’s voice. “Where has your radio protocol gone, Sally?”
    “Where the rest of the world’s protocol has gone to—gone to pot,” she smiled back over her radio. “I’m in descent for my next port of call and I spoke to our old friend Jennifer a few seconds ago on our private frequency and heard she is on her way back to base. I will be losing contact with you in a few seconds and hopefully I will see you tonight. Know of any good hotels…?” and her voice faded.
    “The airwaves are as bad as before with all these amateur radio operators,” added Jennifer’s voice to the conversation. “Hi guys, I’m pretty heavy and on my way home. Weather when I left the snowy mountains two hours ago was clear, temperature 25 degrees. The runway you guys are heading to in Mormon country is clear and I honestly think I have a headwind. I think I’m feeling the jet stream and it’s pushing me in a southwest direction. I’m at Flight Level 24 (24,000 feet) and it looks like there are little thin stratus further up, over.”
    “I’m feeling the same vibes,” added Buck, “and I think I’m making up a bit of time. I reckon, Carlos, that you should head slightly north and turn in over our meeting airfield at ceiling, and if you can make it, glide in to our destination from there. I’m at Flight Level 23.”
    “Roger