The Aviators

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The Aviators Page 44

by W. E. B Griffin


  "Checked and centered

  " Rand replied.

  "'AC circuit breakers?" .

  "In. "

  "Radios?'

  "Off and set."

  "Governor switch?"

  "Automatic."

  "Main and starter fuel switches? "

  "Off. "

  Rand was aware that Oliver was checking for himself after every question. Oliver was not, in other words, giving him the benefit of any doubt.

  "Altimeter?"

  "Set. "

  "Starter, generator switch?"

  "Start."

  "Main generator switch?"

  "On. "

  "Inverter switch?"

  "Off. "

  "DC circuit breakers?"

  "In."

  "Battery switch?"

  "On."

  "Inverter switch?"

  "Spare."

  "Fire-detection light?"

  "Checked. "

  "RPM warning light?"

  "On. "

  "Master caution panel warning light?"

  "Tested and reset."

  "Main fuel switch?"

  "On."

  "Starting fuel switch?"

  "On."

  "Governor RPM increase/decrease switch?"

  Rand pushed on the switch for ten seconds and then reported

  "Decreased."

  "Throttle?'

  "Set. "

  "Fireguard?" Oliver asked, and then, after looking out the window, answered that one himself: "He's there."

  "Rotor blades?" Oliver asked. He looked up and behind him, and around, to see if, for sure, the blades were unrestrained, and Rand waited for him to again answer his own question. He didn't. He looked at General Rand.

  "Clear," Rand said.

  "Intercom and radios?"

  "On."

  "Ignition system?"

  "In,"

  "Starter circuit breaker?"

  "In."

  "Inverter switch?" Oliver asked.

  "Main," Rand replied.

  "Starter generator?"

  "Set. "

  "Main generator?"

  "On."

  "Fuel warning light?" Oliver asked, and Rand reached forward and pushed the push-to-test light.' It came on.

  "Check," Rand replied.

  "Fuel gauge?"

  "Check. "

  "Caution panel warning light?"

  "Check. "

  "Throttle?'

  "Fully closed." Rand looked at Oliver, expecting him to say something.

  Oliver didn't.

  "May I start it?" General Rand asked.

  "You're the pilot," Oliver said, not appending the usual -.Sir." General Rand caught the eye of the fireguard, who was standing beside an enormous fire extinguisher mounted on what looked like giant bicycle wheels. He took his hand off me cyclic, raised it to the level of his head, and, index finger extended, made a whirling motion. The fireguard nodded his understanding.

  "Battery?" Oliver read.

  "On

  " Rand replied.

  "Fuel main switch?"

  "On."

  "Oil valve?"

  "On."

  "Fuel start switch?"

  "On. "

  "Governor?"

  "On. "

  "Throttle?'

  "Ground idle. "

  "Rpm control?"

  "Minimum. "

  "Starter ignition switch?" Oliver asked.

  Rand did not reply. He pulled on the starter switch. There was a whine and a just barely perceptible vibration.

  "Ergo sum," General Rand said, and was pleased with himself.

  The engine rpm began to wind up. The rotor blades began, very slowly, to turn. Rand examined the control panel. No warning lights came on.

  A new voice came over the intercom.

  "Crew chief aboard, Sir."

  "You go catch a cup of coffee or something, Sergeant," Oliver said.

  "You don't want me along, Sir?" the crew chief asked.

  "Not on this ride," Oliver said.

  "Yes, Sir," the crew chief said. Even over the frequency clipped intercom system, his disappointment, or annoyance, was evident.

  Rand looked at him curiously, but Oliver offered no explanation. What is this arrogant young sonofabitch doing? Is he trying to spare me the humiliation of having the sergeant hear him telling the General off? Or, with infinite courtesy and kindness, telling him "Sorry, you don't cut the mustard?" What the hell else could it be? Rand ran his eyes over the instrument panel. Just to the left of the center were six round dials, in two columns of three. The two indicators on top reported fuel pressure and fuel quantity. Pressure was all right, and the tanks were full.

  The needles of the two gauges below, engine-oil pressure and temperature, were in the green. So were the needles of two gauges on the bottom, which indicated transmission-oil pressure and temperature.

  Directly in front of him were four instruments mounted horizontally: the tachometer, which had two needles, one reporting engine rpm and the other rotor rpm. Beside that was the airspeed indicator, then the attitude indicator, and finally the altimeter. Immediately below the altimeter was the vertical-speed indicator, which reported how fast the aircraft was gaining or losing altitude.

  There were more indicators and gauges and switches, and the first time General Rand sat where he was sitting they had baffled and intimidated him. He'd thought then that it was a hell of a lot to ask of a man his age to learn not only what they were for, but their relationship to each other.

  But he knew now. He could have sat down at a table and drawn the instrument panel (actually panels, plural) from memory.

  Rand pressed the intercom switch, one of several on what he thought of as the "handle" of the cyclic control.

  "Everything's in the green, Captain," he said. "Permission to take off?" Oliver balled his fist, thumb extended, and made an upward movement.

  Rand pressed the radio-transmit switch on the cyclic.

  "Hanchey, Huey Niner Seven Seven."

  "Go ahead, Niner Seven Seven," the tower replied.

  Before Rand could continue, Oliver's voice came over the airwaves.

  "Niner Seven Seven to the active for takeoff. Local IFR.

  We have a Code Seven aboard. This is Captain Oliver."

  "Hanchey clears Niner Seven Seven to the threshold of the active. Army Four Six One, hold your position. You will be number one to take off after a VIP Huey about to move to :he threshold.

  "Four Six One, Roger."

  "Why did you do that?" Rand demanded.

  "Take us to the threshold of the active-two seven east " Oliver replied.

  "Niner Seven Seven, Hanchey."

  "Go," Oliver said.

  That was not correct radio procedure, either, General Rand decided.

  "Niner Seven Seven, Four Six One is holding on the threshold. You are number one for takeoff on two seven.

  The time is one five past the hour, the winds are negligible, the altimeter is two niner niner eight.

  "Got you, thank you," Oliver's voice came metallically over the earphones.

  He turned to General Rand and made a lifting gesture with his right hand

  "pick it up." Rand slowly pulled upward on the collective control, by his left side. The Huey trembled and then lifted an inch or so off the ground, and then six inches. Then he moved the cyclic just perceptibly, which caused the nose of the Huey to dip just perceptibly and just perceptibly start to move.

  He moved the cyclic again, and touched the rudder pedals, and the nose slowly swung until it was pointing at the threshold of runway two seven.

  "I've got it," Oliver's voice came over the earphones. Rand looked at him in surprise as he let go of the controls. With Oliver's hands on the controls, the Huey rose six feet off the ground, sharply dropped the nose, and moved, accelerating all the time, toward the threshold. He was still a hundred yards away when he pulled up on the collective, pulling the Huey upward sharply, and then into a ste
ep climbing turn to the right.

  "Hanchey, Niner Seven Seven gone at one seven past the hour," Oliver said, and then, immediately

  "OK, General, take it." Rand put his hands and feet back on the controls.

  "Maintain this heading, and this rate of climb, .and take us to thirty-five hundred," Oliver said.

  Rand leveled the Huey and set up the rate of climb.

  "May I ask, Captain, what that was all about?" Oliver looked over at him.

  "Any time you declare a Code Seven, the tower will more often than not, whether or not you want them to, put you at the head of the line. That means you are holding other people up. So you can either tell the tower you will take your place in the line or the landing stack or you can get out of the way as quick as possible."

  "That's never happened before," General Rand protested.

  "This is the school, General. Things are different in the field," Oliver said. "When you get to thirty-five hundred, take us to Troy."

  "I don't know that heading," General Rand said.

  "Then you'd better fly over the post to Ozark and see if you can find it by flying up the highway," Oliver said, adding

  "you'd have a hell of a time getting the chart out of your Jeppesen case right now." Rand's face colored. That was error one, and a major one.

  His Chart, Aerial, Local, Low-Level, Fort Rucker, Ala, Vicinity" was neatly folded and stacked with the other charts in the leather Jeppesen case in the back of the Huey.

  Every time before, when there was an indication that he would be flying out of sight of the Rucker complex, he had' found his chart, neatly refolded to show the route to the destination, sitting on the sunshade over the instrument panel.

  The instructor pilots had done that for him, as a courtesy to a brigadier general. Oliver had not felt obliged to be similarly courteous, and hadn't mentioned charts on the ground either.

  General Rand looked over at Captain Oliver, who added to his discomfiture by smiling tolerantly at him.

  For the first time in a very long while, Brigadier General George F. Rand considered how nice it would be to have the opportunity to take a brother officer out behind a supply room somewhere and punch the living shit out of him.

  (Four) Sear Eufaula, Alabama

  1905 Hours 10 July 1964

  With the exception of a very few special-purpose aircraft that use the thrust ,of their engines to overcome gravitational force, and of course, rockets, all aircraft rise and remain in :he air using the flow of air over their airfoils-more commonly known as wings-as a lifting force. If the upper surface of the wing is longer (larger) than the undersurface, the aircraft (under suitable propulsion) can rise into the air-fly.

  Infixed-wing aircraft, the power of the engine is used to propel the craft through the air, thus causing air to flow over an airfoil. In aircraft equipped with a piston engine, that engine turns an airscrew (propeller) in a vertical plane that pulls (or pushes) the craft forward. Jet aircraft use the force of the jet to push the aircraft forward through the air, accomplishing the same thing.

  When the engine of a fixed-wing aircraft fails, or is shut off, the aircraft cannot maintain altitude. But it can glide for varying distances-depending on a factor called wing load.

  That is to say, if the pilot is able to maintain an adequate airspeed, by lowering the nose and permitting the aircraft to enter a shallow dive, enough air will continue to pass over the wings to provide some lift and keep the machine from dropping like a stone. With a little luck there will be enough "glide" for the pilot to find some farmer's field to land in. Things are a little different with helicopters, because it is the wings of rotary-wing aircraft that rotate. The engines of helicopters use their power to turn the rotary wings in a horizontal plane around a hub.

  When a helicopter engine fails and power is - no longer available to turn the rotary wings, it is possible for the pilot to use the same physical principles that the pilot of a fixed wing aircraft can use in similar circumstances: he can exchange altitude for velocity and thus maintain some lift. In other words, the helicopter is permitted to lose altitude, which builds up airspeed, which builds up the speed at which the unladen rotary wings are turning. Then, just before the helicopter strikes the ground, the pilot uses up the stored energy in the turning rotor blades and changes the pitch of the rotor blades again, giving him enough lift to halt his descent and to lower the machine gently onto the ground.

  A miscalculation of the moment when he chooses to haul up on the collective and stop the descent, of course, can lead to disaster. Too early, and the machine stops high above the ground, momentarily, and then with no lift remaining, falls the rest of the way like a stone. Too late, and the same thing happens-except that there's no momentary stop.

  This had all been explained in some detail to Brigadier General George F. Rand in pre-flight training, and there had been both written and oral quizzes to ensure that he understood it.

  The technique of rotary-wing-aircraft flight known as autorotation had also been explained to him.

  Instruction and practice of the autorotation technique is ordinarily accomplished at some distance above the ground, so that if the neophyte hauls up on the collective at the wrong time, no real harm is done. The ground is still some distance below him, and he can correct from either a too early or a too late application of upward collective movement.

  When, in the opinion of the IP, the student has mastered the basic technique, he permits the student to make a real autorotation from a position close to the ground, almost invariably giving him plenty of time to prepare himself for the maneuver.

  Brigadier General George F. Rand fully expected that Captain John S. Oliver would test his ability to perform the auto rotation maneuver. He was not at all surprised when, at thirty-five hundred feet, some eight or ten miles from Troy, Alabama, when he momentarily took his hand off his collective control, Captain Oliver put his hand on his collective and cranked the throttle back to ground idle.

 

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