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As Frank Prescott and David Gorridge were walking into downtown Ismailly to find the blue rental truck, things were fairly quiet in the CIA’s RV.
Jack Hoskins was sitting in the cab area with his feet up on the dashboard quietly checking some e-mail on his laptop and catching up on some phone calls. Back in the rear console area, Brad took a soda from the refrigerator and went back to monitoring the predator with Leslie.
“Are you sure you don’t want one?” he said referring to the can of soda.
“No, thanks.”
“I took pilot ground school last year, and I’m going to start taking private pilot lessons this summer,” Brad said.
“That’s good,” Leslie said as she scanned the radar, “Things are relatively quiet, how would you like to take the predator for a spin?”
“What? Are you sure it’ll be okay?” Brad said as he looked around and saw that Hoskins was still in the cab talking on the phone.
Leslie laughed and said, “Sure, I’ll give you full video from the front of the predator and it will be just like flying a real plane.”
“I don’t know.”
“What if I told you that I don’t think there’s a situation that you could get into that I can’t get you out of?”
“You’re sure it will be okay?”
“Yes, are you ready?”
“Yeah, I’m ready for a ten thousand dollar used Cessna, not a multi-million dollar spy drone, are you absolutely positively certain this will be okay?”
“Believe me, you may never get another chance to fly a plane with the most sophisticated aeronautical equipment available.”
“Okay then, let’s do it,” Brad said excitedly.
Leslie showed him the manual section of the control panel.
“This joystick is obviously your main control, move it left to right for the ailerons, front to back for the elevator.”
Leslie pointed to a slide lever and said, “This is the throttle, push it forward for full RPM and back to reduce speed. On the floor we have two pedals for left and right rudder control and brakes. Take as much time as you need and get familiar with where the controls are and how they feel, then tell me when you’re ready.”
After a minute of simulating some of the control motions, Brad said, “I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”
Leslie pushed a button that released the predator from automatic pilot and said, “She’s all yours.”
Brad had his hand on the control stick and moved it slightly to the right just to see and feel the response, and the main video screen of the predator showed the horizon banking.
“Easy now, Flash Gordon,” Leslie said, “The controls are very sensitive, now gently bank it back to the left so you’re level with the horizon. You could either look at the monitor or the instruments or a combination of both. Keep an eye on this altimeter here to make sure that you’re not losing altitude. I want you to stay around two thousand feet and try to maintain the airspeed right around one hundred knots.”
Brad leveled the plane out, and for the next fifteen minutes he made some minor adjustments and slowly banked the predator into some turns and small figure eights as he watched his heading on the compass. He took it from 2000 feet up to 3000 feet and back down under Leslie’s watchful eye. She then had him bring the plane back over the checkpoint area where she re-engaged automatic pilot and put the predator back into its circular flight pattern
“That was cool,” Brad said.
“You’ll make a good pilot,” Leslie said, “ That was basically the same as flying the real thing except for the fact that not being in the plane, you’re not feeling any of the motion or g-forces.”
“Do you have a lot of flight experience?” Brad asked.
“Yeah, I’ve been flying since I was sixteen, my father was part owner of a twin-engine Piper Comanche, and when the weather was good, he used to take me flying on Sunday mornings after church. The airport was only a few miles from our house, we’d go up for maybe an hour or so, and be back in time for Sunday dinner.”
“I guess you’re looking forward to seeing your folks again?”
“Yeah, they’re getting older now and it’ll be nice to be close to home for a change and spend some time with them. My dad will get a real kick out of this bird.”
“Any chance he could get to see it back in the states.”
“Yeah, I just have to get him a low level clearance and I could give him a tour and test flight.”
“I was wondering, when we get back to....”
“Is everything quiet out there tonight?” Hoskins asked as he walked into the console area.
“If it was any quieter, it would’ve put us to sleep,” Leslie said.
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