The Apprentice
by Sahypo
Chapter 7
Isaac closed the door behind Detective Walsh slowly and thought about how maturely Timmy had handled this…he knew the boy was strong beyond his years, but it seemed that Timmy never ceased to amaze Isaac in so many ways. He stepped over to Timmy and gave him a big hug.
“What was that for?” Timmy asked, confused.
“I just needed to do that, that’s what for” Isaac replied.
“Just like Jennifer did, huh?” Timmy teased.
“Yeah, something like that”
“That never gets old, you know” Timmy said. “I thought a lot about what you said to me the night Jack threw me out…” Isaac noticed that Timmy had not called Tate “dad”. He supposed that Timmy didn’t feel that Jack deserved that title any more. He let Timmy continue without saying anything.
“It hurt so bad, and I want to hate him so much, but I’m finally happy and I don’t want that stuff to screw this up for me…I did listen to you and I want to forgive him, but its just too soon. I’m gonna need time, Isaac. Don’t be mad at me if it takes a while.” Timmy said, looking up at Isaac.
“Aw, little buddy, this isn’t about me at all. This has got to be something you do for you, and on your own timetable…I’m sure forgiving Jack is going to be the hardest thing you have ever done…but in the end it’s gonna set you free. I only want to see you happy in this life, but again, it’s not what I want that’s important.”
‘Okay, Isaac” Timmy said, feeling better.
“Hey, lets get out of here and go do something!” Isaac suggested.
“Cool!” Timmy chirped.
Isaac grabbed his keys and Timmy put his shoes on, and they took off for the Cineplex and caught the 4:30 showing of a Delta Force action movie that looked good in the trailers. After it let out, they went to the little café where Isaac had gone with his parents the day he took his oral-practical exam with the FAA.
After finding a booth, they were greeted by a waitress who had been there for years, who knew Isaac since he was a boy. She came over to get their drink choices, and asked about his parents. Isaac introduced her to Timmy, and chatted with her for a minute or two more, then she had to catch up her other tables.
“This just feels weird to me sometimes” Timmy said. “I mean just doing all these things with you, like eating out here…Jack never took me out for stuff like this. I’m still getting used to this.”
“We can stop if you don’t like it” Isaac teased.
“Nooo, No, it’s good, I’m not complaining!” Timmy said, laughing. “It’s really kinda cool when you won’t tell me where we’re going, and it’s a surprise.”
“I do get a big kick out of watching your reactions, little buddy. It’s good entertainment”. Isaac stated. He got a lot of enjoyment out of planning these outings for Timmy, and making them extra special. He was happy that Timmy was having a good time on these trips.
The waitress returned with their beverages, and took the boys orders. Soon after, the food came, and they ate with little said. The lady left the check, and Isaac covered it with several ones, a five and ten dollar bill, and they left the booth. She had gotten a good tip.
Soon, they were back at the house, and Isaac told Timmy he had to make a call, and went to the bedroom, leaving Timmy in the living room. His mother answered the phone, and they chatted briefly before Isaac came to the point of the call. “Mom, there has been a development here in the last couple days. Do you remember the boy I was telling you about, the one who needed help?”
“Yes, I remember, Isaac”
“His father threw him out the night before last, put his clothes on the porch and wrote him a note..” Isaac said.
“Oh, Good God!” his mother exclaimed. “Do you know why the boys dad did that? Is this a kid going bad or messing with drugs or something like that?”
“No, nothing like that at all… Timmy’s father is totally disabled and drinks. I believe he knew he wasn’t able to take care of Timmy, so he decided to leave him with me, mom.”
“He’s there with you now?” she asked.
“Yes, he has been here since it happened” Isaac replied.
“Isaac, you can’t just take this boy with you. What if his dad changes his mind? Was he drunk when he did this?” his mother asked. Isaac knew she was just covering the bases.
“No, he was sober. We went back the next day and I had him sign a grant of guardianship with a friend who is a notary, so I have him legally now.“ Isaac said. “ I wanted you to know this before you came down next time and saw him here.”
“I guess you thought this one out a bit…I should have known. This is you after all” she chuckled. “You said he’s been abused? What sort of stuff was going on? She asked.
“Abuse and neglect…he didn’t eat regularly, and he has old scars on his body, that look like cigarette burns and belt marks…he told me his dad would beat him for really stupid minor things. There was also emotional abuse as well…He has some birth defects that his dad would criticize him about.” Isaac knew he would have to tell his parents about the ultrasound Doctor Selden needed to set up, but he wasn’t ready to go into that just yet.
“Has he been sexually abused?” his mother asked
“I don’t think so…he has told me pretty much everything, and from what I gather, nothing like that has been happening, at least physically, Mom. He does have some physical issues of a male nature, a missing testicle and a mild deformity of his penis.”
“How did you find that out?” she asked.
“He told me, and also told me his father used to call him nasty things and make fun of him over this.”
“I see, what a complete pig…What is…uh, Timmy? like?” his mother inquired, momentarily forgetting the boy‘s name.
“He was very guarded at first and is letting down his walls slowly. He is honest, mature and very trustworthy. He is humble and polite, and emotionally very strong to survive what he withstood for so long. He can be tough when he needs to be, but also just a little kid too…he is very affectionate if he trusts you. I know you and dad will love him when you get to know him.”
“Okay, Isaac, but you call us if anything comes up that you can’t handle. I will bring your father up to speed, and we should be out to see you again if a few weeks.”
“Thanks, mom. You know I have to do this…I know this is the right thing to do.”
“Yes, Isaac. I know, and that’s why we trust you. Just be careful.”
“Yes, mother, I love you” Isaac said
“Love you too, son” his mother said, and the call ended.
Isaac rejoined his young friend on the couch and Timmy snuggled up to him. He had shucked most of his clothes and was wearing only a pair of briefs. “You could get more comfortable, you know” he said looking up at Isaac and grinning like something was afoot.
“Is that an observation, or a suggestion?” Isaac laughed as he asked.
“A request” Timmy replied.
Isaac stood up and pulled his shirt and shoes and socks off, and let his shorts drop to the floor, kicked them out of the way, and resumed his position next to Timmy in his briefs.
A show came on that they both liked, and Timmy repositioned himself so his head was on Isaac’s thigh, and his hand rested on Isaac’s knee. After about twenty minutes, Timmy was losing interest in the TV show, as he was occupied by other thoughts.
“Isaac?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m kind of afraid you’ll get mad if I ask you something…“ Timmy, said hesitantly.
“Why would I get mad? What do you want to know?” Isaac inquired.
“It’s what I want to do, actually…” Timmy said, not sure if he was crossing a boundary at the edge of Isaac’s seemingly infinite patience with him, but his curiosity was much stronger than his fear at this point and he was ready to plunge right in.
“Okay, what do you want to do that has you so uptight, little buddy?” Isaac asked, somewhat anxious at what this could be about.
“I want to touch and feel your foreskin…see how it works, Isaac” Timmy blurted out.
“Oh…” Isaac said. “Timmy, you know because of our ages, that is illegal, and I could get into a bunch of trouble if that happened, and the wrong people found out, right?”
“Yeah, I guess so…but you’re not taking advantage of me, Isaac. I want my first time touching someone else’s stuff to be special and I really want that someone to be you. There is no way I’m going to get you in trouble for doing something for me I have been dreaming about. You told me you had to earn my trust…you have, Isaac. Can you trust me?”
“Wow,…Um, damn, you should go to law school…This goes against all my better judgment, Timmy” Isaac said “But will you agree that it’s just this one time, and never again?”
“Agreed” Timmy nodded.
“Timmy, I want to know something first“…Isaac said, not sure how his query would be received, “Have you ever been touched in an unwanted way by anyone?” probing Timmy about any history of sexual abuse.
“Never, and I’ve never touched anyone else like that” Timmy assured him.
“Thanks, little buddy.” With that, Isaac stood and took off his briefs, and sat back down nude. Timmy stood and removed his briefs as well, and sat back beside Isaac. He said,
“Isaac, would you lay down and put your legs across my lap?” Timmy asked as he scooted to the side of the couch to allow Isaac to re-position. Now Isaac’s feet were on the couch next to Timmy’s left thigh, and his butt was at Timmy’s right side, his penis was just at the correct location for Timmy’s right hand. Timmy looked at it for a moment before stroking his index and middle fingertips on the upper side of Isaac’s shaft. Isaac gave a small start, and Timmy looked at him questioningly. Isaac just smiled and said “its been awhile”. Timmy thought, it’s been forever for me…although he had planned this moment in his fantasies since the day he met Isaac.
Timmy manipulated Isaac’s member for several minutes, stroking the shaft slowly and sliding the supple foreskin back and forth over Isaac’s acorn, and noted appreciatively that Isaac’s five inches and a fraction was perfectly straight, and had the most interesting defined veins on the upper surface. He also noted the almost round profile, broken only by the urethral rib on the underside of Isaac’s shaft. He rubbed the rib with a milking motion, feeling the erection throb and bob in his fingers. He was aware that his own penis was lacking the prominent rib, in keeping with what the websites said about lack of development of the urethra in those with hypospadias.
Isaac was completely erect now, and as hard as he could remember being in many moons. He straightened his knees to arch his back, as he responded to Timmy’s touch. God, he thought, this kid has no idea how good he is at this…He could feel Timmy’s curved erection touching the side of his leg as he lay across Timmy’s lap.
“If I keep doing this, how long will it take before you …uh…”
“Cum?” Isaac finished for Timmy. “Another minute or two” Isaac answered.
“Your balls are really pulled up under your dick” Timmy observed.
“I’m super close now…don’t stop whatever you do, and speed up a little” Isaac instructed.
Timmy increased the tempo of his strokes and Isaac reached down to the floor and retrieved his shirt and placed it over his thighs just a second before his slender manhood erupted with three good ropes of cum, and Isaac bucked and made groaning noises as his head tilted back. “Oh man, Timmy, you are so good at that…” Isaac gasped. His penis pumped a few more drops of semen into the shirt before his orgasm died off and subsided.
Timmy waited until Isaac regained his bearings and lifted his legs off Timmy and sat up.
“So that’s what sperm looks like?” Timmy wondered.
“It’s semen, Timmy. You can’t see sperm without a microscope, but they live in semen.“ Isaac explained.
“Oh, right…What did that feel like?” Timmy asked.
“Pretty awesome, quite a rush…I can’t really explain it so it would make sense or relate to anything that you know.” Isaac said.
Timmy was quiet for a few moments, then said in a quiet voice, “Be my first, Isaac…touch me….please?”
Isaac thought about this for a moment and said “Want to get in position on my lap?”
Quickly, Timmy and Isaac assumed the positions each other had occupied moments before, and Isaac began a long, slow exploration of Timmy’s maleness with gentle fingers. He put his index finger in his mouth and made it wet, then rubbed it across the orifice under Timmy’s glans, and Timmy sighed and shift under Isaac’s hand. “Oh….this is awesome….Wow, Isaac…” Timmy’s eyes were firmly closed and he was well into the moment, paying heed to nothing in the world but Isaac’s touch. Isaac’s ministrations included a thorough exploration of Timmy’s foreskin flap, then moved down to cup and fondle Timmy’s lone testicle. Isaac rolled the walnut sized gland in his fingers and marveled at the smooth, hairlessness of Timmy’s sack. He straddled Timmy’s nut between two fingers and stroked the sides of the scrotum very lightly. Timmy gasped and spread his legs to give Isaac more room, his wide little curved manhood hard as a rock at this point. As Isaac continued to caress Timmy’s scrotum, it drew tighter, bringing the one nut up under Timmy’s thick, short cock. Isaac decided to change tactics.
“Timmy, I want to do something a bit more interesting….let me up for a second” Isaac said.
Timmy’s eyes opened and he swung his legs up, freeing Isaac. “Sit with your butt on the edge of the couch, Timmy,” Isaac instructed, as Isaac got on his knees. Timmy sat as Isaac instructed, and Isaac gently parted Timmy’s knees and got in position between his legs.
He began with gentle licks to the shaft and glans of Timmy’s penis, and ran his tongue under Timmy’s flap-like incomplete foreskin. Timmy lay back and moaned, his eyes closed as Isaac took Timmy’s entire four inch length into his mouth and continued the first sexual experience Timmy had ever enjoyed with another person. Isaac noted that Timmy’s scrotum was tightly embracing the testicle, and Isaac knew Timmy would be close. He pulled the scrotum into his mouth, as Timmy put his legs on Isaac’s shoulders and Isaac worked the ball in his mouth, as Timmy moaned and exclaimed
“Isaac, I think I’m going to piss!.” Isaac released the suction on Timmy‘s scrotum and resumed fellating Timmy‘s young cock. “Oh! …Oh! ….Oh ssshitttttt…Ahh Uhh Ack!”
Timmy gasped out as he began to buck and pant and grunt, trying to fuck Isaac’s mouth and push his curved member deeper into the older boy’s throat, although he didn’t have enough length to actually do it. At the moment, his penis seemed to be a foot long as waves and waves of pleasure flooded his body, and pulsed strongly in Isaac’s mouth. Isaac felt a tremendous sense of accomplishment, and was honored that Timmy had chosen him for this moment.
There was no taste, and no expected rush of cum from Timmy. It had been Timmy’s very first, and dry orgasm. Isaac continued to gently work Timmy’s cock until Timmy couldn’t stand the post orgasmic hyper sensitivity, and begged Isaac to stop and release his penis.
Isaac smiled at Timmy, who was still panting a bit, and said simply “ That is what IT feels like, little buddy!”
“God, Isaac! That was so awesome…I’d been trying for a year to make that finally happen…How did you learn to suck like that?” Timmy wondered, looking down at his shrinking penis, seeing it a bit differently now.
“A friend came home with me after school one day, and we started messing around, and it just happened when he told me he had been curious about that too.” Isaac said.
“How old were you guys?” Timmy wondered.
“Twelve, like you. We were in the seventh grade, I think?” Isaac answered.
“Did that happen to you the first time, too?”
“Oh, no, Timmy. I didn’t come for my first time until I was almost 14.” Isaac said. “And semen didn’t happen for me for another year after that.”
Timmy was running a finger through his sparse pubes “When did your hair start growing there?” he asked.
“When I was 13, I guess.” Isaac remembered.
“So I’m a little earlier than you were?” Timmy inquired.
“Yes, I think you are going through things earlier than I did.” Isaac said, looking at Timmy, who was still slouched back on the couch, contemplating his crotch as he quizzed Isaac.
“Did you ever get picked on for being later, like some of the boys in my class do?” Timmy asked.
“Not really. There were a lot of other boys about the same as me, so I didn’t stand out” Isaac replied.
“Oh, OK” Timmy said simply, then went on, “Sometimes I feel really bad when other boys get teased about being little still, and I want to say something to stop it, but I know I’d probably just get my ass kicked and stripped, or something.”
“You’re a wonderful, amazing, kind and compassionate person, and that’s one reason why I love you so much, Timmy” Isaac said, putting his briefs back on, and tossing Timmy‘s briefs over to the boy. “It’s time to get some sleep.” He turned off the TV, and waited until Timmy was at the bedroom door before killing the lights in the living room and hall.
They climbed into Isaac’s bed and snuggled, and Isaac said, “I really enjoyed doing that for you, Timmy, but I want your next time to be with someone your age, that you can love that way. It can’t be me, Timmy. At least not until you’re older. You do understand, don’t you?”
“I understand. It was just for this once, I know. Isaac, I’m so glad you were my first, and gave me my first org..organis…”
“Orgasm” Isaac finished.
“Yeah, what you said!” Timmy exclaimed, cracking them both up. He was still such a little kid at moments.
Isaac pulled Timmy’s back into his chest in a close hug and told him, “I was honored to be your first…you’ll remember this forever.”
“Do you remember yours?” Timmy wondered.
“Sure, it was the boy I had over after school the time I told you about. I will never forget that..” Isaac mused.
Isaac and Timmy had no idea at the present how soon it would turn out to be that Timmy would find his next sexual partner after Isaac.
The next morning, Isaac and Timmy got up and showered together, and planned a trip out to IHOP for breakfast, and then over to the technical college hangar to retrieve some tools from Isaac’s large red rollaway tool box, that Isaac needed for jobs on the old Porsche. It was time to begin working on the cars’ 40 some-odd year old brakes.
They ordered breakfast and enjoyed casual conversation, mainly related to airplanes as they ate. Timmy was extremely excited that he would actually see and touch airplanes this morning. He had never done this before, and like so many things in the last couple of months, Isaac was his guide into so many new worlds. He adored and idolized Isaac absolutely and totally. He loved his older friend and mentor more than he had ever loved anyone in his life, more than his own father. He looked at Isaac and began to fight back tears.
“Timmy…are you all right? What’s up, little buddy?” Isaac said with concern on his face.
“I’m more than all right….I’m the luckiest kid on Earth” Timmy said. “I’m just reminded of that ten times a day” he said as he dried his eyes on a napkin.
“I feel the same way, God must have sent you to me, Timmy” Isaac said. “I really feel that way.”
“I know he really looked out for me” Timmy said in agreement.
After leaving IHOP, they drove to the college and stopped in to see Jennifer for a moment before they went to the hangar. As they came in to the business office, Jennifer was at the copier in the back of the room, intent on her task. As she finished and turned around, a broad smile spread across her face, and she said “Well, look who it is! Hey, Timmy!”
“Hi” Timmy smiled, still a bit shy.
“Hello, Isaac!” Jennifer continued.
“How are you, Jennifer?” Isaac asked
“Great, what’s up?”
“Oh, we just dropped by on our way to the hangar to say thanks once again for helping us out.” said Isaac.
“You’re so welcome, guys.” Jennifer replied.
“We won’t keep you, have a really great day!” Isaac said as they waved and backed out the door.
“Okay, see you when you come back to school” She said as she waved back.
Isaac and Timmy checked in with the lead instructor who was in the hangar office.
“Hi, Mister Connors!” Isaac said to the teacher “I’d like you to meet my little brother, Timmy” Timmy beamed when he heard that.
“Hey, Timmy, good to meet you, son” Mister Connors smiled and offered his hand to Timmy, who shook it and said
“Nice to meet you, too, Sir” Timmy immediately sensed that Isaac liked Mr. Connors very much and that this man must have been in the military for years before he taught aviation mechanics courses here. He had that bearing, but also the softness of a patient teacher as well. He looked around the office at pictures of military planes, just about all of them retired from service.
“Did you work on those in the service?” he asked Mr. Connors.
“Some of them, yes. The other instructors put some pictures of the airplanes they worked on up too.” Connors explained.
“Sir, I just dropped by to get some tools out of my rollaway, and would it be okay if I showed Timmy around? He wants to know what I do here” Isaac requested.
“Oh, that would be fine with me, Isaac. Just make sure he doesn’t get his arms cut off on a propeller or something like that. I would have to fill out reams of forms before they fired me!” he joked.
“Thanks, Mister Connors! We will be careful to make sure that doesn’t happen. I hate forms too..” Isaac replied.
With that, they left Mr. Connors in the office and went out into the hangar. Timmy was instantly surrounded by airplanes, helicopters, wings, engines, landing gears, and small islands of tables, shelving, and open air classrooms with folding chairs and portable chalk boards, scattered about the vast hangar building. All he could do was stare and turn in a slow circle, taking this all in.
“Holy Wow, Isaac!” was all he could muster. “Does any of this stuff still fly?”
“Most of it, no, Timmy. Rather than scrap some of this stuff, it was donated to the college for training purposes. There are two airplanes that belong to the flying club in here.”
They began to walk around the hangar, and Timmy drank in the experience, and asked Isaac questions as they went, which struck Isaac as very well thought out. It was obvious that Timmy was thinking into what he was seeing, and figuring most of it correctly.
“This twisted wire that I see on the bolts and screws, that’s to keep stuff tight?” Timmy asked.
“Safety wire, yes, exactly” Isaac replied.
They continued to walk and stop to look at things that caught Timmy’s eye, and Isaac must have answered hundreds of questions. They had made their way to the other end of the hangar, and stepped through a door out onto the flight ramp apron. A student from Isaac’s class was leaning in through the open door of a very sleek, high wing Cessna Cardinal. Unlike most Cessnas, the Cardinal did not have wing struts, and was a retractable. It was a fairly fast general aviation single engine aircraft. Isaac assumed it was privately owned, as he knew the blue and white aircraft was not part of the flying club fleet of Cessna 172 workhorses.
Timmy and Isaac walked over and the student backed out from under the wing and stood up straight. He was tall and dark haired, and had a small scraggly beard, and glasses. He wore an orange tee shirt and a pair of shorts, and running shoes without socks. He said
“Hiya, Isaac. How’s it going?”
“Hi, Rick. Doing great, you? This is my little bro, Timmy. I brought him to show him around and get some tools for the brakes on the 912”.
“I’m great, thanks. Nice to meet you, Timmy!” Rick said, shaking Timmy’s hand. “You still have that old Porsche, huh?”
“Yeah, I don’t think its ready to let me sell it yet” Isaac joked. “Nice Cardinal, Rick. Where’d you steal it?”
Rick laughed and said, It’s my uncles… he lent it to me so I could do some maintenance items and put new carpet in it for him. He wants the floors pulled up and the belly inspected.”
Isaac knew Rick was a pilot, and that this would fascinate Timmy. “Rick, are you busy right now, can we help you with anything?”
“Actually, yeah. I was just starting a pre-flight…If you guys have time, help me do that and we could go for a ride…how’s that?”
Timmy was wide eyed, and open mouthed. Both older boys looked at him and laughed.
“Must be a newbie!” Rick teased Timmy, who smiled and said, “Yup!” Rick instantly took a liking to Timmy.
“Gee, Rick, are your sure? We don’t want to just barge in and take up your time” Isaac said.
“Nah, I was going to go up and kill some time anyway. Be a lot more fun with you guys”
Rick took Timmy in tow and they began the walk around inspection on the aircraft by turning on the master switch and verifying battery voltage and instruments coming on line. They sampled the fuel drains, checking for signs of water in the gasoline. Rick showed Timmy how to use a little plastic step stool to reach the fuel cap on the wing and visually check the amount of fuel in the tank. They repeated this on the other wing.
Rick showed Timmy how to lower the flaps on the wing, so that they could inspect the area now exposed between the wing and the flaps, as well as the hinges and flap tracks. They continued by moving each control surface on the wings and tail and watching the control wheels move in the cockpit in the proper direction.
“Timmy, go sit in the seat and push the rudder pedals for me” Rick instructed. Timmy complied and watched as the rudder swung back and forth.
When they finished all the checks to the structure and landing gear, they moved to the engine.
“Now Timmy, one thing you never do is move a propeller by hand. Aircraft engines are like lawnmowers in that they do not need batteries to run. If someone forgets to turn the magneto switch off, or there is a problem in the circuit, the engine could fire on you, and kill or seriously injure you with the prop.”
“But Rick, don’t you shut it off by turning the key?” Timmy wondered. He had seen a car shut off many times, and thought an airplane had to be similar…
“Nope, we shut it off by stopping the fuel. It‘s supposed to make the engine perfectly safe even if someone leaves the magneto switch on, but this is an important safety rule. We never assume anything around airplanes, Timmy.“
Rick pointed at a small release on a door on the engine cowling, indicating that Timmy should open this door. Timmy did so, exposing a yellow cap on a short tube connected to the engine inside the cowling. Timmy twisted the cap and it came off followed by a dipstick. Rick reached in his pocket and gave Timmy some wadded up napkins.
“Wipe it off, and put it back in all the way, then pull it again, Timmy” Timmy did as instructed, and studied the stick.
“It looks low, Rick…it’s not up to the mark” Timmy said.
“Ah So, young man. Another old Chinese secret…always run these Continental engines a quart low. If you don’t, it blows out the breather and paints oil all over the belly. You will just waste that quart of oil.” Rick explained.
“Interesting” Timmy replied. Rick and Isaac smiled at the boy.
Once the outside tasks were complete, they boys got in the aircraft, with Isaac in the back seat, Timmy beside Rick in the right front seat. He was going to get the front row show today. Isaac could see that Timmy was very engaged and eager to learn and absorb all that he and Rick could show him, although the kid was still so excited he could almost scream.
Rick began to configure switches and settings, and made sure the radio was still tuned to the field frequency he had used to land earlier.
“Master is on….Mixture idle cutoff…throttle closed….gear down, three green lights. Flaps to take off “ said, flipping a switch, and watching the flaps drop a bit with the whine of an electric motor. “Trim is take off, and neutral” he continued, checking two black plastic hand wheels on the pedestal under the instrument panel. “Altimeter is ….set” he said as he adjusted the instrument to read local field elevation.
“Radios are set, Mixture to full rich, throttle cracked, mags hot, beacon on… ready to start.”
“CLEAR PROP!” Rick yelled out the window, startling Timmy. The propeller began to turn clockwise, and the engine bucked three times, shaking the plane and then roared to life, as the propeller blades blurred, and the aircraft vibrated with a steady throb. The boys put on headsets, and Timmy heard Rick’s voice in his ears. Timmy, if you want to say something, push this button on your yoke” indicating a small button on the control handle. “Push it just halfway to talk to us. If you push it in all the way, you’re talking to the world”.
Timmy nodded that he understood and keyed the button “Okay, Rick” Rick gave him thumbs up before keying his own button.
“Emergency plan…if we lose the engine on takeoff, I am going to fly the airplane, Isaac you handle the radio, and Timmy, you want to brace for a hard one. If the gear is down, we leave it down, if its already up, we leave it up and belly it in…Everybody good to go?”
“Yes” Timmy said.
“Roger that, Rick” Isaac replied.
“Okay Timmy. Put your feet on the pedals.“ Rick reached over and adjusted Timmy’s seat a bit forward. “Rock the tops of the pedals forward” Timmy complied and Rick continued “Those are the brakes. On the ground, the pedals steer the nose wheel. You can also rock one pedal or the other to help it turn with brakes if you have to. You rock them both to stop straight…don’t use brakes unless you have to. Clear as mud?”
Timmy nodded.
“Good…..Okay Timmy, want to try to taxi?” Rick asked
“You bet!” Timmy exclaimed.
“Brakes are off, we’re rolling and you have the airplane Timmy” With that, Rick released the brakes and ran the throttle up a bit, and the aircraft began to move. Once underway, Rick brought the throttle back so the aircraft would not get ahead of Timmy’s ability to judge and correct his pedal inputs.
Predictably, the airplane wandered around the parking apron like a drunk butterfly before Timmy got the feel of the plane’s response, but he picked it up quickly…They had a huge apron, and were the only aircraft on this side of the hangar, which made it a perfect place to teach a newbie.
“Local Unicom…this is November Two Seven Lima Charlie, on take off for local flight in the pattern.” Rick intoned into the microphone. The local airport was uncontrolled, and relied on a “see and be seen” system of cooperation between pilots in the air. Unicom was a base station VHF aircraft radio frequency assigned to the field, and printed in all the official aeronautical charts and approach plates, which had individual airport information in a handy one page format.
Timmy was guiding the airplane down a paint stripe on the taxiway like quite the expert now, and Rick showed him where to stop before they actually entered the runway.
They scanned left and right, looking for other aircraft on approach, and Rick indicated a switch to Timmy, who pressed it. The landing light in the engine cowling behind the propeller came on, an extra measure of visibility while they took off.
Seeing no traffic, Rick motioned Timmy to proceed onto the runway and turn the aircraft onto the centerline.
“Local Unicom. Two Seven Lima Charlie, departing on one six” Rick said, indicating that they were rolling in the southbound runway, which was oriented at 160 degrees, or just east of due south.
He showed Timmy how fast to set the engine and had Timmy shove the throttle forward. The engine accelerated to the speed Rick had indicated, and Rick adjusted the propeller control to maintain the power setting for best rate of climb.
The aircraft accelerated quite smartly, unlike a car which accelerates slower as one goes higher in the gears. The airplane maintained its rate of acceleration as the propeller bit into the air, and adjusted itself to maintain the required engine power.
“V one” Rick said, indicating that the aircraft was at takeoff speed.
“V two” The aircraft now exceeded the speed at which it could still stop in the remaining runway length. They were now committed to the take-off.
“Ease back on your yoke, Timmy, just a tad” Timmy pulled back on the yoke and the aircraft came off the ground and began to climb. Rick reached out and flipped the gear switch up. The little green lights turned red immediately, and then went out, as they felt thumps on the bottom of the aircraft.
“Holy Shit! This is too cool!” Timmy said, having never flown before, let alone actually doing the flying. Rick and Isaac laughed.
“Pull back easy just a tiny bit more until this needle gets to here..” Rick said, pointing to the rate of climb indicator. ‘Hold what you got, but if the needle goes above there, push in forward just a tad. If it falls below, pull a bit back, okay?” The Cessna was climbing at 750 feet per minute.
“Got it, Rick”
“Okay, doing great, Timmy. Keep climbing her ‘til she gets to 3,500 feet”. He said, pointing at the altimeter. “Its like a clock. The hour hand is thousands of feet and the minute hand is hundreds” Timmy nodded. “We want 3,500 feet so put the big hand on 3 and the skinny one on five”.
Rick milked the flaps up slowly and the airplane gained speed as the drag went away. Five minutes went by and Timmy began to push the yoke forward, as the altitude Rick had asked for was approaching. With a little finessing, Timmy leveled off at 3,500 feet and the rate of climb indicator needle hovered over zero.
“Timmy, I have the airplane” Rick said into Timmy’s headset. Timmy took his hands off the yoke and his feet off the pedals. Rick then showed Timmy and Isaac that the airplane was stable and really wanted to continue to fly straight and level, by snapping the yoke back and instantly releasing it. The Cessna merely bobbed its nose up and down once, before settling back to its previous attitude. Rick rolled the airplane right and left, and Timmy could see the rudder pedals move slightly as Rick coordinated rudder with the yoke..he did these maneuvers to allow him to see the sky above the wings, which blocked their upward vision. Once he was satisfied that no other aircraft were in the area, he told Timmy,
“Put your hands and feet back on the controls and just feel what I’m doing, okay. Don’t try to fight the movements..”
“Okay, gotcha” Timmy said as he lightly touched the yoke and pedals again.
“We’re going to do a coordinated turn now, Timmy.” Rick pointed at the directional gyro, which was simply a compass, and the artificial horizon, which was an instrument that showed how steeply the airplane was climbing or diving, and how far it rolled from straight and level. At the bottom of the horizon was a glass tube with a ball in it, and two dark lines on each side of the little ball.
“Here’s how this works…you bank the aircraft with the yoke, step on the rudder pedal a little to keep the ball centered, and watch how far we are in the turn with the compass.”
Timmy nodded, but it still sounded complicated.
“Watch me do it once, then you will” Rick said. He banked the aircraft until the horizon indicated a 15 degree left bank, and stepped lightly on the left rudder pedal. Timmy felt the yoke and pedal move. He saw the ball centered in the glass tube.
“Here’s what happens if you don’t use rudder, or use too much” Rick pushed the pedals and Timmy saw the little ball move back and forth past the lines. “Just step on the pedal on the same side as the ball is in the glass to get it back to normal.”
“Now we started our turn at a heading of 160” Rick stated. “What is our heading now?”
“Umm 120 and still moving?” Timmy said.
“Good, we will roll out on 090, Timmy. I will start to roll back out at 105, to give her time to level out heading 090..lead your roll out by about 15 degrees or you’ll overshoot”.
True to his word, Rick began to ease the yoke back to center as the compass came up on a heading of 105, and by the time the plane was level again, the heading was dead on at 090, or due east. Timmy couldn’t wait to try this and see if he could do it as good as Rick.
“Okay, Timmy, ready to give her a shot?” Rick asked
“You bet!” Rick smiled and said, “Let’s do a right turn to 270...you have the airplane” He took his hands and feet off the controls and let the boy have full control.
Timmy rolled the Cessna to the right, applying rudder as Rick had done, and kept the aircraft at a 15 degree bank, and the ball centered. Rick was very impressed with Timmy so far and looked back at Isaac.
“He would make a great student…he has the touch” Rick said.
“I know, there isn’t a lot he isn’t good at” Isaac replied, making Timmy smile. He was intently looking at the instruments he had to watch to make the turn, and as the compass was spinning slowly past 285 degrees, Timmy began to reel his bank back in. He forgot that he had to coordinate the rudder as well, and caught the little ball slipping.
Rick sensed the slip, and calmly said “Step on the ball, Timmy.”
“Oh, right…I got it” Timmy replied.
“That was excellent, little man. Lets try some steeper turns now…lets bank 30 degrees now”.
Timmy practiced making turns for about 20 minutes, and noticed he felt heavier at the increased bank again than he did at 15 degrees. “Rick, how many G’s is this?” Timmy asked.
“I have the airplane” Rick replied and Timmy gave the controls up. That’s about a gee and a half, Timmy. Watch this”. Rick rocked the wings again to check the area and banked the aircraft to 60 degrees.
Timmy yelped “Whoa!” and felt his body “gain” a lot of weight. Rick laughed and said
“That’s a 2 G turn, Timmy. You are now double your normal weight in the seat”, as Rick rolled back level again.
“That’s cool. Do it some more, please?” Timmy begged. Rick grinned and obliged Timmy with several more esses, rolling the aircraft to each side. Timmy had a grin on his face that would have to be chiseled off.
“Okay, let me show you something else you might like” Rick said. “What do you know about stalls, Timmy?”
“Uh… you go too slow and you fall out of the sky or something?” Timmy guessed.
“Actually, you can stall at any speed, Timmy. A stall is when the air can’t flow over the wing smoothly any more because your angle of attack is too high, like this” He made a motion of air flowing over the wing with his hands, and slowly tilted one hand up. When the wing is too high an angle, that’s it…Want to see what it looks like for real?” Timmy nodded.
“Watch the horizon out your window. Here we go” Rick throttled down a bit and pulled back on the yoke and the aircraft began to climb. As he continued to apply back pressure the climb steepened until Timmy felt like he was going straight up. The airplane slowed dramatically. Suddenly, a buzzer blared out a warning, and the aircraft began to shake from the tail forward. The shaking increased until suddenly, the nose dropped by itself the shaking stopped and Rick shoved the yokes forward all the way. The aircraft began what felt like a straight down freefall. The three of them felt momentary weightlessness as the Cessna went through several seconds of negative g flight. The alarm had stopped the instant the nose dropped, and now the Cessna was picking up speed again, and when Rick took his hands off the controls the aircraft leveled out like nothing had happened.
“Welcome to your first stall and recovery” Rick said. Timmy grinned at Rick and had a gleam in his eye..
“Oh jeez, he likes that! I’ve had people pee themselves and throw up during a stall, and he wants more!” Rick looked back at Isaac in surprise, and Timmy nodded emphatically.
“That was insane!” Timmy said.
“I’m not sure how much my poor tummy can take of those” Isaac warned.
“I guess a spin is out of the question then?” Rick teased.
“God, you’re a sadist, Rick” Isaac joked.
“Yeah, we better head back anyway, it’s been an hour and ten minutes and I got stuff to do on the ground” Rick said.
With that, they covered the distance back to the airport in about 20 minutes, and entered the pattern to land
“Local Unicom…Two Seven Lima Charlie, in the pattern downwind for landing”. They flew parallel to the runway in the opposite direction to which they would land. Rick pulled back power and adjust the propeller control toward fine pitch; if they had to do a go around because of an obstruction on the runway, having the propeller at the wrong setting could mean the difference between life and death.
They were steadily descending, and Rick pointed to the landing gear control and Timmy swicked it to “down”. Instantly the three little lights turned red to indicate that the gear was moving. In seconds, the lights turned green one by one. Rick asked Timmy to bring the flaps down a bit, and as he did, the plane slowed down greatly and felt like it was climbing, a natural reaction the inner ear had to deceleration. They turned 90 degrees to the left, and Rick said “Local Unicom, Two Seven Lima Charlie turning base” and put the flaps down fully.
The runway was now off the left nose, and the aircraft was still descending through several hundred feet now. Rick rolled into another 90 degree turn and rolled the airplane out on the runway centerline and about 150 feet above the ground. The airplane was aimed directly at the white painted bars on the pavement. “Two Seven Lima Charlie‘s on final” Rick said, as the ground got closer and closer, the power cut back to idle now, the plane getting very slow and the nose began to rise as the airplane sank…Rick pulled the yoke back and flared the plane about 3 feet off the pavement and they were down and rolling. Rick slowed the plane down to about 15 miles per hour and said, “Taxi us back to the hangar, Timmy” He felt Timmy’s feet hit the pedals and said “Your airplane”.
Rick fed in a bit of power to keep the roll going, and Timmy had no trouble getting the airplane back to where they had met Rick this morning. He braked to a stop and Rick said
“awesome, good job!’ and set the parking brake. He pointed to the mixture control and told Timmy “Pull it all the way out, Timmy” Timmy pulled on the knob and the engine thumped to a stop. It was suddenly very quiet, save the whir of some of the instruments that they could now hear. Rick went about raising the flaps, switching off lights, radios, instruments, the magneto ignitions, and pulled the key out of the magneto switch.
“Well, what did you think of that, Timmy?” Rick asked, taking his sunglass clip-ons off.
“This was the greatest, Rick. Thanks so much. Did I do good?” Timmy gushed.
“You were awesome.. I think you got a knack for it if you stick with it, Timmy.”
Rick got out of the seat so they could extricate Isaac from the rear of the cabin. Isaac stretched his legs and shook Rick’s hand. “You don’t know what this means to us, Rick. Thanks so much for taking your time to do this for him…”
“Ah, hell, it’ll just cost you a years worth of oil changes, Isaac!” Rick joked.
“I owe you buddy” Isaac said.
Rick turned to Timmy and put his hand out, but Timmy had other ideas. He embraced Rick in a big hug and said “That was the neatest thing I ever got to do… Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, kiddo.. I had a lot of fun, too. You‘re a neat kid and I hope you decide to learn to fly.” they said their goodbyes and left Rick on the ramp and walked back to the hangar.
“Isaac, did you plan this?” Timmy asked.
“I had no clue that Rick would be here this morning, and obviously no idea that he would ask us along for a ride…honest, Timmy.”
“Well, THAT was the best surprise yet!” Timmy said, grinning from ear to ear.
They walked into the hangar and as Isaac got the tools and they went back past the office, Mister Connors saw them and said, “You guys are still here? I thought you were long gone by now.”
“Oh, we ended up being detained by Rick and his Cardinal” Isaac joked.
“My first time in an airplane and I got to fly!” Timmy exclaimed.
“Oh, no…this isn’t good, Isaac” Mister Connors said with a look of concern on his face.
“I’m pretty sure this boy has been infected…” giving Isaac a wink.
“Oh, no, you may be right!” Isaac said, feigning concern. “He may have the airplane bug now” and both men cracked up, leaving Timmy rolling his eyes and groaning at their really dopey joke.
“Hey, you guys might be interested in this for next weekend” Connors said, handing Isaac a flyer for an old time thresher and farm engine show and tractor pulling contests at the fairgrounds of a town about 25 miles away.
“Oh, this does look interesting” Isaac said, showing it to Timmy. “What do you think?”
“I’ve never been to one of these before, I’m game” Timmy said. He had no way of knowing that he had just chosen a path of destiny he could never have imagined.
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