Sojourners of the Sky Read Online Free PDF

what it needed to fly.
    The apprehension in the cockpit dissipated with each knot of airspeed and each additional foot of altitude the airplane achieved. When the airplane’s altimeter indicated one hundred feet, Charles said,
    “Double check the frequency for the Islip beacon, John. I’m going direct.”
    They made it.

Three

    Earlier in the summer of 2002
    “J ack, make sure you’re holding that socket wrench tight. We can’t allow any slack in these aileron cables,” shouted Bill Pratt from inside the small cockpit of his Cessna 150.
    “OK, Grandpa,” replied Jack.
    “Lucy, tell me again. How many degrees does the book say the ailerons should deflect up?” asked Bill.
    “Oh, I lost the page,” said Lucy, sitting on a small ladder outside the airplane. “Hang on.”
    “My hands are so big and this space is so tight, I keep banging my knuckles,” said Bill.
    Getting their grandfather’s old Cessna back into the air was proving to be a difficult task. Much like its owner, N63626 had been in retirement for a long time. The dusty old two-seater had sat alone and in pieces in the back of the barn for years. The trio ended up spending much of the summer on the ground turning wrenches and polishing, but no one ever complained. The work became a catalyst that would eventually bind them together as airmen for the rest of their lives.
    “Grandpa,” said Lucy as she scanned the pages of the aircraft maintenance manual. “I still don’t understand why you and your neighbor hate each other. Didn’t you say you guys used to be best friends?”
    “We were indeed,” replied Bill, taking a moment to look his granddaughter in the eye. “But I don’t hate him, dear; I just think he’s a jerk. He definitely hates me though. I guess sometimes people allow life’s challenges to cloud their view. Mr. Tacker had a choice and he chose to be bitter.”
    Lucy’s first few weeks at the farm were difficult and boring beyond belief. Just the thought of leaving New York for the rolling farmland of northeast Pennsylvania seemed, at first anyway, to be a death sentence. Lucy was fourteen, on the verge of womanhood, and had no desire whatsoever to leave all she knew behind simply to make her parents’ life a little less complicated. But in reality, Lucy had grown tired of the arguing and secretly welcomed the peace and quiet she found while living away from home. She never actually asked, but knew that her brother Jack, two years her junior, felt much the same.
    There was much trepidation inside the two city dwellers when they first arrived. After all, as far as they were concerned their grandparents were ancient, probably born shortly after the last of the dinosaurs roamed the earth. Besides that, the tiny old people with white hair were practically strangers. But all that was in the past. The two siblings were happy now. They were at peace.
    A small commotion sprang up outside the cockpit. Both Lucy and her grandfather could hear Jack giggling, and Bill could feel the aileron cables moving in his hand. “What’s going on out there?” he yelled.
    Through the laughter, Jack replied, “It’s Emily; she’s biting my ankles.”
    “Well, kick that stupid cat away. We have work to do.”
    “OK, Grandpa, but Emily isn’t stupid. I think she’s smarter than me,” claimed Jack.
    Both Lucy and her grandfather looked at each other and laughed. “You may be right,” said Bill with a smile.
    When the laughter died down, Lucy asked, “What happened between you and Mr. Tacker?”
    After a moment to gather his thoughts, Bill looked at his granddaughter and continued, “Well…”

Four

    New York to London
    “N ew York radar this is Idlewild tower. Clipper forty-two is at the airport boundary,” stated the Idlewild tower controller into the telephone line that was linked directly to the departure controller’s speaker, located twenty miles away.
    “Clipper forty-two is radar contact. Frequency one two-two point four,”