Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2009 09:01:24 -0800 From: Tom Baxter Subject: Pensacola - 9 This story is fantasy. It never happened. If it is illegal or inappropriate for you to read this, don't. This story is the property of the author. The author encourages others to read it, download it, and even print it for their own use. Any commercial use, mass reproduction or reposting to another website, however, would require permission from the author in advance. Copyright 2009 --------------------------------- Pensacola - Chapter 9 --------------------------------- Josh sat nervously in the briefing room. As much as he hated flying with Lt Pride, at least he had some comfort in knowing what to expect. He would now be flying with a different instructor on every flight. He was scheduled with Captain Wilson today. Capt Wilson was a Marine helicopter pilot who had flown combat rescue missions under fire in the gulf. He was known to be very aggressive and liked students that could take his gruff attitude without getting too bent out of shape. Josh just wished he could fly with one of the instructors he would see around the ready room who actually smiled at their students. "You must be Ensign Scott, I'm Capt Wilson" the Captain introduced himself as he entered the briefing room. "Yes sir" Josh replied. "I've heard a lot about you," Capt Wilson started. "You're the hot shot of class 16 I guess?" "I don't know about that sir" said Josh wishing that his performance hadn't earned him any notoriety. The last thing Josh needed was some big mean Marine trying to knock him down a few pegs to put him in his place. "Well I guess we're about to find out!" Capt Wilson announced. The captain began the briefing "Up to now, flying instruments in the simulator, and flying your familiarization phase in the aircraft, you have been learning to fly all wamby pamby with finesse. Now I'm gonna teach you how to tell the airplane who's in charge. We are going to use our muscle to put this aircraft exactly where we want it in a dynamic, three-dimensional environment. When I say `Pull!', I want to see a solid 4G pull straight back towards your chest and I don't want you to let that pull dribble off until we have completed the maneuver. Understood?!" "Yes sir!" Josh replied with more eagerness than he really felt. The Captain continued "In this aerobatics phase, you will be learning the basic maneuvers of aerial combat: the Wingover, the Barrel Roll, the Aileron Roll, the Loop, the Split S, the Immelmann, and the Half Cuban Eight. Later, in the formation stage, you will learn how to perform these same maneuvers while flying just a few feet away from another aircraft, so you need to learn them well now!" Josh was truly afraid as he walked down the flight line to climb into the cockpit today. High above the Florida forest in Operating Area 2 Josh took control of the aircraft following Capt Wilson's demonstration of a loop. Josh put the aircraft into a full throttle descent to achieve 250 knots. "Pull!!!" Capt Wilson prompted. Josh pulled straight back until the G-meter read 4-Gs. Josh's body now weighed in excess of 600 pounds and holding his head up and keeping his hand on the stick were major efforts. "Keep the pull on! Look at that gauge we've fallen off to 3.5Gs!" the Captain screamed. Josh pulled harder. "Now as we go over on our back, lift your head and look through the top of the canopy looking for the horizon and level your wings to it" Capt Wilson instructed. As he lifted his head, at first Josh just saw sky, but then he saw the earth falling towards the top of the aircraft. Sure enough, the wings were not parallel to the horizon and in his inverted pull, Josh corrected his wing attitude. Josh kept pulling until the aircraft was right back at the altitude and airspeed that he had started from. "That was pretty neat!" Josh thought to himself. "Now look!" Capt Wilson complained. "You are 30 degrees off the heading you started on! This is a loop, not a corkscrew, it needs to stay in a single geometric plane!" Josh considered all the things he has having to look at here, heading, wing attitude, g-force, altitude and airspeed. It seemed like a lot to keep track of while he was upside down, straining to hold his head up to look out of the top of the canopy while he fought four times the normal force of gravity! "You need learn what four Gs feels like so you don't have to watch the gauge, and then you need to pick some ground references so you can keep your head looking outside the cockpit throughout the maneuver." Capt Wilson instructed. "Do you think the Blue Angels are lookin inside their cockpits when they're doin this shit, hell no! That's why they fly a practice flight before each show; they're out there picking their ground reference points." Josh tried the loop again this time following a long north-south running highway with his eyes while Capt Wilson called out the G-gauge readings through the maneuver to train Josh's `feel' for the pull. "See how much better that was this time!" Capt Wilson praised. =============== Ryan sat studying his aerobatic maneuvers in the Study Center when Joe walked in from his safe for solo check ride. "I passed that shit, I'm safe for solo!" Joe announced. "Congratulations dude! You're really gonna dig that solo flight, it's so cool to fly without an instructor" said Ryan. "Ya, I'm really lookin forward to it. Joe was the ranking member of their class and had thus been assigned the position of `Class Leader'. He was prior-enlisted, meaning that he had originally joined the Navy as an enlisted man, and after serving several years of showing great promise, the Navy put him through an enlisted commissioning program that included sending him through college and making him an officer. Now, at 27 years old and married Joe was more mature than his peers and was subject to a lot of `grandpa' jokes. He kind of felt like an old dog learning new tricks, though, as he was not picking up on the whole flying thing as fast as the younger guys in the class. Ryan on the other hand had skipped a grade in elementary school and had always been younger than his peers. This combined with his smaller stature had made him the boy that was picked on a lot. Ryan was still only 21 years old. "So Joe, do you and Josh still live in those quadplexes off Olive Road?" Ryan asked. "Ya, it's a ways from here, but it's a good central location" Joe replied. "I should come up and hang out with you guys sometime" Ryan suggested. "Ya that would be cool" Joe agreed. "Say, we're havin a bar-b-que on Wednesday, why don't you come? Josh will be there with Brandon, and it will be me and my wife, Susan, and the other people in our quadplex" Joe invited. "That sounds cool. I'll bring the beer!" replied Ryan. =============== Finally they had opened up the swimming pool at Josh's complex for the summer. Brandon was looking really hot like he did that day at the beach when Josh picked him up to go swimming. They grabbed a couple of lounge chairs and spread out their towels. They went through the ritual of covering their bodies with sun cream enjoying the excuse it gave them to touch each others bodies, rubbing the lotion in until it was completely absorbed. "People have noticed my haircut at school" said Brandon. "Cool, do they like it?" replied Josh. "Ya they do" said Brandon. "You know it seems like since I have been hanging out with you, people have been treating me different, Josh" "Different in what way?" asked Josh. "I don't know, it's like people think I'm cooler than I really am" explained Brandon. "The change might not be in them, it might be in you, dude. I think you're gaining confidence and you're just able to be yourself without having to put up a front. And, I think people really like you – I know I do!" Josh suggested. "Hey Brandon!" Brandon and Josh turned and noticed two cute young guys walking towards them along the edge of the pool. "Hey dudes!" Brandon replied. "I didn't know you lived here" once of them stated. "I don't, I'm here with my bud" Brandon motioned to Josh. "He's the one that lives here." The two boys looked at Josh and thought "Wow, we don't have any older friends like him!" "John and Spence, this is my friend Josh. Josh this is John and this is Spence" Brandon introduced. As they all shook hands, Josh was pleased at how well Brandon was handling these social situations these days. Josh admired the physiques of these boys. Both were a lot more muscled than Brandon, particularly Spence. He had a well defined chest and arms but still had the super thin waist that was characteristic of teenage boys. "Let's play a game!" Josh suggested. "Cool" the boys agreed. "Ok, this side of the pool is your goal, the other side is me and Brandon's. We'll start in the middle and you can pass the ball or swim with it – but you have to be holding the ball when you reach the goal though." "What's the rules on getting the ball from the other team?" asked Spence. "You can do anything short of punchin the guy, you can grab, tackle, dunk, whatever" Josh replied. "Shit, ur gonna win!" John complained. "I'll restrict myself to only one hand when I'm tryin to steal the ball, Ok?" Josh conceded. The game was rough. Brandon was between John and Spence and wouldn't let John get past him. John passed the ball to Spence and Brandon managed to jump up and snag it out of the air. Spence was on him fast, grabbing and pulling at his arms while Brandon held the ball tight to his belly. Josh moved into position for Brandon to pass the ball to him, but it was difficult with Spence crawling all over him. Brandon shoved the ball Josh's direction and John picked it up. Now it was Brandon's turn to get all over John to try to steal the ball back. Brandon had John in a tight bear hug around his waist to hold John from swimming the last few feet to his side of the pool. John wiggled his way towards the side and Brandon's hug slowly slid lower and lower on John until Brandon just had his legs. John finally broke free and bolted for the pool side. "Goal!!" John yelled. "Ya, but I got your shorts!!!" Brandon laughed and held up John's board shorts that had slid off down John's legs with Brandon's tight hug. "Give em back!" John screamed. "Josh! Keep away!" Brandon yelled as he wadded the shorts up and threw them to Josh. Josh was laughing. He wished John would climb out of the pool so he could get a view of what John kept under his shorts, but their were some other people in the pool area, so that wasn't likely going to happen. Spence was just cracking up and not helping his teammate retrieve his shorts, so Josh and Brandon had an easy time passing the shorts back and forth keeping them away from John. Eventually, it lost its amusement and John looked like he was getting pissed, so Josh tossed him his shorts and he quickly put them back on, under the water. They resumed their original game. "Hey Josh, can we invite the guys over to your apartment for a little bit after the game?" Brandon asked Josh quietly. "Sure if they're up for it" he replied. Finally John and Spence won the game. Brandon was a bit disappointed because he thought Josh was being too easy on the guys. "Shit, I gotta get home!" announced John. John, like Brandon lived a few blocks away from the complex, it was Spence that live there like Josh. "So Spence, do you wanna hang with us for a little while over at Josh's?" Brandon asked. "Sure, that sounds cool" Spence agreed. Spence and Brandon were not real good friends at school. Spence was more of a Jock and hung in a more popular crowd than Brandon, but they had known each other for years and had always been friendly to one another. Josh offered Spence a beer and they hung up at the kitchen bar. Spence was not impressed by Josh's apartment as he basically lived in the same place. What Spence was impressed with was that Brandon was friends with Josh, and he could hang at his place drinking a beer and shootin the shit with this cool older guy. Brandon and Josh both withheld the `Big Brother' story from Spence. That whole scam was dreamed up to make their friendship more acceptable to adults, but to kids like Spence, Brandon looked even cooler in that he had made this older friend on his own. On the kitchen table, Spence noticed two plastic airplane model kits, both T-34s. "How come you bought two models of the same airplane?" asked Spence. "Josh is a Navy pilot!" Brandon quickly threw out there, but Brandon had no idea what the models were for either. "That's the exact airplane that I fly" Josh explained "I was hoping that Brandon would help me build them and then I will use them for visualizing aerobatic maneuvers that I am learning to perform in the aircraft." "I don't get it, you're gonna build these and then buzz them around the living room? questioned Spence. "I know that sounds funny, but that's exactly what I'm going to do" laughed Josh. "I just need one right now, but when I get into formation flying I'll have Brandon with one plane over there by the sofa and I'll have one over here and I'll get to see what it's going to look like as I rendezvous and then fly together in formation. Spence thought this sounded neat and was envious that Brandon got to help this Navy pilot prepare for his flights. "Cool" said Spence. After Spence finished his beer he looked at the clock and announced that he needed to get home for dinner. "See ya Spence, stop in anytime you see that black BMW out there and you can hang with me and Brandon." Josh suggested. Spence said "cool!" and left. "Fuck!" said Brandon "ur worried bout Ryan, you shoulda seen yourself drooling over that kid!" Brandon laughed. "Well shit, he was hot!" Josh replied. "Should I be gettin upset here?" asked Brandon recalling Josh's reaction when Ryan was ogling Brandon. "No sweetie" said Josh as he put his arm around Brandon. "I just didn't realize you had such hot friends" Josh added. "Fuck, those guys aren't my friends, they're way cooler than me, I hang with Steve and Jim" replied Brandon. "Well I think ur their friend now!" said Josh. =============== Wednesday afternoon Josh and Brandon went to the grocery store. Josh's responsibility for the bar-b-que was to make a platter of burger toppings: tomatoes, onions, lettuce, pickles, and cheese. Then they spent some time in the apartment slicing up all of the produce before coming out onto the front lawn to join the rest of people that lived in Josh's building. "Hey Brandon!" Joe's wife Susan greeted him as Lorna was walking up the walk as well. "Brandon, honey! It's so good to see you!" Lorna gushed as she smothered Brandon with a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. Brandon was also introduced to the people that lived kiddy corner from Josh in the building, a pair of sisters named Barbara and Linda. A car rolled up, parked, and Ryan climbed out. "Hey Josh!" Ryan greeted him cheerfully. "What are you doin here?" Josh replied in an unfriendly tone. "Shit Josh lay-off, I invited him, he's the man with the beer!" Joe stepped into the conversation. Ryan opened his trunk and pulled out his cooler. Joe started cooking about a dozen frozen burger patties and a thick burger smoke rose through the neighborhood. "So Brandon, has Josh taken you over to the pool yet?" asked Lorna. "Ya, we went swimming a couple of days ago. One of my friends lost his shorts during a game we were playing" Brandon laughed. "How'd that happen?" Ryan joined the discussion. "I was holding him to keep him from scorin, and I was holding him so tight they just came off in my hands!" Brandon explained. "That's funny, I woulda liked to have seen that!" Ryan laughed. Josh was avoiding Ryan and whenever he did have to talk to him, he was curt. "So Ryan, I soloed yesterday!" Joe said proudly. "Shit hot dude! This is gonna be a fun Tie-Cutting this Friday, we getta laugh at all you guys without havin to stand up there ourselves" Ryan congratulated Joe. "So how are things goin in the aerobatics phase for you dude? Joe asked Ryan in a concerned voice. He was referring to Ryan's problem with airsickness. "Fuck dude, I'm still getting sick" Ryan confessed. "Now we're not just flyin straight and level anymore, we're upside down and all over the fuckin place! Since I got a different instructor each day now, I keep tellin them that it's just an isolated incident and none of them have been reading the notes from previous flights" Ryan explained. "Ya, but when you get to your first check ride, the instructor is gonna to review your training jacket and he's gonna see all those notes" Joe cautioned. "That's what I'm worried about! I'm fucked. They'll send me to Sick School for sure and I'll get bumped to another class" Ryan said worriedly. The Naval Aerospace Medical Institute (NAMI) ran a school they called `Aviation Disorientation', but the aviators just knew it as `Sick School'. Aviators with airsickness problems were sent there for two weeks of getting spun, shook, hung and turned inside-out with the thought that after this intense motion exposure, anything the aviator might encounter in the cockpit would be mild. Besides being excruciatingly uncomfortable, it would set the pilot back two weeks and force a reassignment to another flight class. This was dreaded because the aviator would be on his own as he lost the support structure of his fellow classmates that he already had a rapport with. "Well, I've heard of guys fixing the problem themselves on a merry-go-round" said Joe. "Josh, you and Brandon should take him over to the park tomorrow and spin the shit out him on the merry-go-round, and when he pukes and cries for mercy, spin him harder!" Joe suggested. "I'm busy" Josh replied tersely. "Fuck Josh, I'm bout sick of this shit!!" Joe yelled. "I don't know what Ryan did to you, but get the fuck over it! We aint havin this shit in our class... we're a team and we stand by our classmates!! Now, your classmate needs your help, are you gonna help him?!" Joe scolded. Josh just stood there. "The two of you go over there to Josh's and work this shit out! And don't come back til you fuckin got it handled!" Joe ordered. Joe had come unglued over this one. Josh had been a total asshole since Ryan had gotten to the bar-b-que. Joe knew this was totally uncharacteristic of Josh, so he realized that there must have been a problem between them, but he wasn't having it. It was his responsibility to ensure that his class functioned as a cohesive unit, and though it wasn't like he was commanding a squadron, he took this responsibility very seriously, as it was in all of their interests. Josh and Ryan went into Josh's apartment alone. They stood in the living room staring at one another. "So what is it Josh? I thought we were friends" Ryan said in a disappointed tone. "You know!" prompted Josh. "No actually I don't" replied Ryan. Josh didn't know exactly what to say; he couldn't actually say what the problem was. He had to find a way to dance around the true issue. "I saw you trying to be friends with Brandon!" said Josh. Luckily, Ryan didn't just come back with a big "So?" because as soon as Josh made that statement he realized how stupid it sounded. "Listen Josh, I want to be your friend a whole lot more than I want to be Brandon's. Up until now, you have been so nice to me and have shown me more respect than any of the rest of these guys, except maybe Joe" Ryan pleaded. "You mean a lot to me Josh. I never meant to get between you and Brandon. I just want to be your friend, and since you're so close to Brandon, it would be cool if I could be his friend too" Ryan added. Josh looked at Ryan's cute, almost pouting face. He had always really liked Ryan too, and that's why Ryan had taken notice of how Josh treated him special. Shit, right now Josh and Brandon were both meeting a lot of other guys and it wasn't ruining their relationship. This little issue he was having with Ryan was kind of stupid and not really fair. "Ok dude" Josh apologized. "Thanks Josh!" Josh put his hand out to shake Ryan's hand but Ryan had already leaned in for a hug and just ran into it. They did hug each other, but it was awkward and a little uncomfortable. Though they had worked the problem out enough that Josh had decided to be nice again, they really hadn't discussed the situation very thoroughly. When Josh had said that he saw Ryan `trying to be friends with Brandon', did Ryan really comprehend what Josh was accusing him of. And, when Ryan acknowledged that fact that Josh was really `close to Brandon', did he really understand how close? They stepped back out onto the lawn. Joe took note that they were smiling and talking to one another, so he allowed them to save face and didn't mention the incident again. At the end of the bar-b-que, Josh and Brandon helped clean up the mess on the lawn before going inside. "So are you and Ryan friends again?" asked Brandon. "Ya, we're cool" answered Josh. After putting a few things away, Josh suggested that they go watch TV in the bedroom so they could lie down and relax. "So is Joe like your commander or something?" Brandon inquired. "Well he's the ranking member of the class and the class leader, so he's in charge of us all, but my CO is Commander Richardson" Josh explained. "Well I just saw him order you guys around, and you did what he said, so I was just wonderin" said Brandon. "Listen Brandon, I did what he said cuz he was right and I was wrong, not because he ordered me to do anything. Now can we just leave it alone please?" Josh was getting annoyed. "Sure dude, no prob" Brandon replied, not realizing that his questions were getting under Josh's skin. Josh pulled Brandon closer and they melded into one as they watched some show about haunted houses. "We haven't done it in a couple of days Josh, is that weird?" asked Brandon. "No, I think that it just shows that our relationship is not just about sex dude. I enjoy being with you, we don't always have to have our lips wrapped around each other's dicks to have a good time" Josh replied. Brandon laughed and then visualized the two of them with their lips doing just that and he started to get a hard-on. "You know, when we don't do it, I just run home and jack off anyway, so we might as well do it – even though we don't have to" Brandon reasoned. "That's right! At your age if ur not ejaculating every few hours you get that deadly sperm buildup, don't you?" Josh laughed. "I'm not that bad! Brandon giggled as he defended himself "but pretty much I gotta do it every morning and night." Josh laughed and said "well, just jack off and think about me, then you'll want me even more when you do see me!" "So I suppose we could work on your `hard' problem now, what do you wanna do?" Josh asked as he groped Brandon's very stiff dick. "I want you to fuck me again" Brandon said shyly. "That would be fun!" Josh agreed as he reached down and lifted Brandon's shirt over his head. "How bout we try something new?" Josh suggested "I'll lay here on the bed and you sit on top of me and put my cock in ur ass. That way you can control how fast it goes." They got into position and Brandon leaned back onto Josh's hard shaft. "Fuck! I forgot how much that hurts!" cried Brandon. "Take ur time buddy" Josh encouraged. "Aaah! I can't do it this way!" Brandon whined "I need you to stick it in me, and then I can't puss-out." "Ok" Josh chuckled at Brandon's cute expressions. They flipped over and with Brandon on the bottom, Josh slowly fed him his 7" meat. Josh began to thrust in and pull out as he remembered what an awesome experience this was. He looked at Brandon face and saw that he was intently studying Josh's face as well. Brandon's mouth was slightly open and soft whimpers followed each pump of Josh's hips. Brandon grabbed his own cock and started stroking it. Josh leaned in to kiss him and Brandon had to stop stroking for a moment as his hand and cock were sandwiched between their bodies. When the kiss ended, Brandon resumed his masturbation as he felt Josh's sex and love completely filling his private cavern. He enjoyed the feeling of Josh's shaft quickly moving back and forth across his sphincter and the charge he got as Josh hit the bottom of each stroke. Brandon began to pump his sweet cum out onto his chest. Since he had been limited in his sexual releases in the past couple of days, he fired a bit further than normal and hit his chin with the first spurt. Brandon smiled and licked some of it into his mouth as he looked into Josh's eyes. Josh returned the smile and leaned in and licked some of Brandon's spunk off of his chin as well. Josh looked down at his gorgeous boyfriend as he continued to pump even faster. He admired Brandon's shape and knew that the stream of cum laying across his chest was inspired by his lovemaking. Josh grabbed Brandon's legs just below his hips and pulled him in as close as he could for his last thrust as he erupted. "Aaaaah! Fuck that's sweet!" screamed Josh as he pumped his load into the condom he had buried in Brandon's ass. =============== "This guy must be one in a million" though Josh as he briefed for his next flight with Lt Garcia. The lieutenant smiled! And he was nice! Lt Garcia had a very laid back demeanor and let Josh brief most of the maneuvers. The lieutenant only spoke when he was introducing the new maneuvers that they would be learning that day. "This is your hop Josh, you run it and don't forget to have fun!" he said. "Have fun?!" thought Josh, he didn't know he was allowed to have fun! They went to Area 1 which was basically all of the airspace between the city of Pensacola and Mobile Bay. They coordinated over the radio with the other aircraft in the area to have some airspace all to themselves before they began their aerobatic maneuvers. Lt Garcia was teaching Josh the finer points of Barrel Rolls this afternoon. "Visualize it like the plane is tracing the inside of a Barrel" the lieutenant explained. Josh was having a hard time pulling the nose to a heading 90 degrees off the initial heading at the top, inverted portion of the roll. Lt Garcia rode on the controls with him to demonstrate how hard to pull and when in order to achieve the maneuver the way it is described in the flight training manual. Josh tried another one and made the heading! Suddenly, as he was inverted he could hear a tone change in the headset within his helmet. No, it wasn't a tone change; it went from the soft buzzing that Josh always heard to total silence. As Josh rounded out the final portion of the roll, checking his ground reference points, he glanced back into the cockpit to verify that he had returned to the original heading. "This can't be right!" Josh thought to himself, the heading was off by almost 60 degrees. He also noticed that his attitude gyro was beginning to roll onto its side, though Josh was flying straight and level. "What the fuck!" Josh thought as he keyed his mic to talk to Lt Garcia. There was just silence. Josh was beginning to realize that all kinds of things in the cockpit weren't functioning properly. "Fuck, what kinda shit is the lieutenant pullin on me?" Josh was getting pissed. Every electrical device in the aircraft appeared to be inoperable. Josh had never heard of an instructor completely shutting down the entire electrical system of the aircraft to simulate a failure. Hell, he didn't even know if that was possible. Maybe he was truly having a real emergency here! He didn't smell any burning electrical smells and the engine appeared to running well, though he had no gauges to base that opinion on. He decided to return to Whiting Field using the recovery procedures for an aircraft with a failed radio since he wasn't going to be able to talk to anyone. He figured that Lt Garcia could grab control of the aircraft at anytime if he didn't like what Josh was doing. As a matter of fact, Josh was surprised that the lieutenant had not taken control already. Most of the instructors had such an ego, that they couldn't just sit and watch a student handle an emergency that they knew they could handle better. He crossed the Initial Recovery Point, Horak, at 5000 feet. By the local flying rules he knew that this would alert Pensacola approach that he couldn't talk with anybody by radio. "Fuck! They don't know what altitude I'm at!," Josh thought to himself, "My transponder isn't working either." The transponder was a piece of equipment installed in almost every aircraft, both military and civilian that highlighted the airplane on the air traffic controller's scope with a code identifying the aircraft and its altitude. Without the transponder, the controller's radar `painted' the aircraft's position, but did not tell him that Josh was at 5000 feet. "Well, I won't hit anybody, cuz the normal recovery traffic is beneath me at 3000 feet and the outbound traffic is at 4000 feet" Josh reason to himself as he continued. Once Josh entered the Airport Traffic Area at Whiting North Field, he checked that the airspace beneath him was clear and descended to pattern altitude. He searched the planes in the pattern to choose his interval for landing. On the downwind, he slowed to landing gear speed and dropped the gear handle and set half flaps. Normally he would start hearing and feeling the clunks and bumps as the landing gear doors opened and the gear came down, but today, total silence. "Fuck!!! The gear is electric!" Josh thought as he immediately recalled his emergency landing gear extension procedures that he had practiced with Lt Pride. He was nearing the position in the landing pattern abeam the touch down point so he was running out of time! He knew they were already looking at him from the tower with binoculars wondering why his landing gear wasn't down. He reached down and pulled the landing gear door emergency un-lock handle and heard a little clunk as the doors unlocked and the weight of the gear and wheels forced the doors open a couple of inches. Then he started flying with his left hand as he reached to the floor and unlatched the emergency gear extension crank. He was running out of time!! He used all the muscle he had and cranked the handle with all his might. In the tower, they could see the landing gear slowly coming out of the bottom of Josh's wings as the aircraft passed the 90 degree position off the runway. With one last umph of energy, Josh got the gear to lock into place and the wheels were safe to land on. He sat back up in his seat and realized he was not in a perfect position to land as he had been fighting with the landing gear and not flying the best approach. He also realized at this point that he wasn't going to have any flaps either, because they too were electric, "well I've practiced that before too" Josh thought to himself. He knew he needed to get the aircraft on deck on this pass, so he worked hard and made the necessary adjustments to get the plane into a decent position to land. He was long of the normal landing zone, but there was plenty of runway in front of him as he pulled the throttle to idle and flared his aircraft onto the ground. Josh felt a huge sigh of relief as he heard the squeak, squeak of his tires making contact with the asphalt. After he parked and shut the engine down, Josh unlocked his canopy and slid it back and then just slumped over in his seat held up only by the straps of his parachute. Lt Garcia climbed out of the rear cockpit and came forward to Josh. The lieutenant slapped Josh on the top of his helmet and said "Come on Josh, we're debriefing at the Officer's Club, I wanna buy you a beer!" Josh, exhausted, sat up and smiled. He hadn't anticipated every contingency, but like Lt Pride had taught him, he continued to work the problem and managed to get the two of them plus their aircraft safe on deck. They walked into maintenance to fill out the necessary paperwork to get the aircraft repaired. At the Officer's Club, Josh felt like a fleet aviator debriefing with his copilot after a tough flight. He was enjoying his beer as he and Lt Garcia discussed what went well and what could have been done better. "I figured that you're a solo qualified pilot Josh, so unless you were gonna do something dangerous, it was your aircraft" Lt Garcia told him. "I wasn't sure if you were aware that the landing gear was not going to be functional when we got back to the field. With as late as you got it down, I think that one surprised you a bit, huh?" the lieutenant added. "Ya, I was thinking about so many other things, things that probably didn't even matter, but it just didn't occur to me until the landing gear didn't come down" Josh explained. "Well, good job scrambling at the last second to get the wheels down, there's no crank in the rear cockpit, so I couldn't have put them down" Lt Garcia praised. Josh would have to fly that event again as Lt Garcia had to call the flight `incomplete', but the lieutenant gave him some really good grades on the portion of the flight he did complete, so Josh was happy about that. Josh went over to the Study Center where he told Nick and Ryan about his afternoon adventure. "Fuck, I probably woulda freaked out when that landing gear didn't come down and I was making my final turn before touchdown!" said Ryan. Nick too was impressed that Josh managed to get the aircraft home without the instructor having to take control of the aircraft. "Well, Lt Garcia is super cool too" Josh added. Josh and Ryan had agreed the day before to go to a park near Josh's place and play around on the merry-go-round to see what would happen. Ryan hopped in his Honda Accord and followed Josh back to Pensacola. It was early enough that kids were still in school, so they had the park to themselves. "Shit, I haven't come to the park to play on the playground in a few years!" Ryan joked. "Ya, here we are after climbing out of high performance aircraft comin down to the playground to continue our training!" Josh laughed. "So how do you wanna do this?" Josh asked. "I guess I'll just climb on and you can start spinning me" said Ryan. "You should move your head, hold it down for a while and then pick it up too. That will fuck with the semi-circular canals in your middle ear" Josh suggested. "We also need to agree on how sick you get before I stop. I'm not cruel but I will be to help you out if you want me to" Josh added. They agreed to continue until Ryan decided that he really couldn't handle anymore. Ryan climbed on and Josh started spinning him. Faster and faster the merry-go- round went. "Don't stay right in the middle Ryan, lean against one of these posts here" Josh pointed. Ryan complied. "Fuck this sucks!" Ryan moaned. "Now put your chin down to your chest and hold if there till I tell you" Josh instructed. After a minute or so Josh said "Ok now raise your head!" Ryan looked up and the world didn't just seem to be going around and around any more, but it felt like the merry-go-round was lifting onto its side as well. While holding on to the metal railing, Ryan leaned over and vomited. Ryan and Josh hadn't thought this part out very well as the vomit spiraled outwards and some of it hit Josh's leg. Josh continued to spin and Ryan wished he was dead. "Now let's try the same head movement, but let's do it with your eyes closed this time" Josh suggested. "Fuck!!" Ryan complained, as a little vomit mixed with sweat and saliva dripped from his chin. "Do it!!" demanded Josh knowing that his function was not only to spin, but also to push Ryan to his limits. This time when Ryan lifted his head he had no visual references and his body told him that he was tumbling wildly in all three dimensions. He began to vomit again, but didn't have much to offer this time. After 2 or 3 more minutes, Ryan cried Uncle and Josh allowed to merry-go-round to start winding down. When it stopped, Ryan let go of the rail, moaned and rolled over onto his stomach. He leaned up to make some dry heaves and some really wretched throat noises once more before collapsing. "Come here Ryan, you'll be more comfortable lying in the grass" Josh suggested. Ryan looked up but couldn't move. Josh stepped onto the merry-go-round and picked up Ryan and carried him onto the grass, laying him down softly. Josh liked how compact Ryan was and enjoyed holding him like this. Josh lay down on the grass next to him and waited for him to recover. They laid there for half an hour before Ryan could even speak. "That really sucked!" said Ryan. "Ya, but did it help?" asked Josh. "I felt so much worse just now than I ever have in the cockpit, if we do that a few more times it just has to help" Ryan reasoned. Josh noticed that same drive within Ryan that he had himself. The drive to put yourself through this kind of hell to achieve a goal. Josh figured that all of the guys in their class probably had this drive, or they wouldn't be able to do it. Finally Ryan sat up and tried to get to his feet, but he was still pretty weak kneed and decided to sit back down again. "Would you do this with me again Josh? The other guys would probably come out here if I asked them, but they'd make fun of me and make this harder than it already is" Ryan asked. "Sure dude, we'll do whatever it takes to help you beat this thing" replied Josh. "Let's walk over to the bathroom and clean up a little, then let's go visit Brandon. It's his mother's day off, so he is staying home" Josh suggested. Ryan splashed water on his face and they wiped up their flight suits, they also got some paper towels to clean up the merry-go-round a little too. Josh joked that they didn't want to be responsible for some child slipping in vomit and breaking his neck. Jane was outside working in the yard when the two nice cars pulled up with Josh and Ryan. "Hey Josh!" she greeted. "Hey Jane! Is Brandon around?" "Ya, he just went in to use the bathroom he should be out in a minute" she replied. "Jane, this is Ryan Young, another pilot from my class." "Hi Ryan!" "Nice to meet you maam" greeted Ryan. "Hey Josh, hey Ryan!" Brandon had stepped out on the deck. "Whatcha guys doin?" "We just figured we'd come over and say hi" said Josh. Brandon got them each a beer, but Ryan took one sip and realized he wasn't up to drinking it. "No problem, I'll drink it!" said Brandon. Josh looked over to see what reaction Jane would have to this and she just continued pruning her rose bushes. Brandon wondered what was wrong with Ryan that he couldn't drink the beer and they told him about the merry-go-round training. "I bet that sucked!" Brandon declared. "Ya, it did" Ryan agreed. They stayed talking with Brandon for about an hour and then hopped into their cars and drove to Josh's place. "These models look cool, you gonna build them to help you study?" said Ryan. "Ya, I asked Brandon to build them with me, now we just gotta do it one evening" replied Josh. "That would be cool to have a guy like Brandon to come over and help you study and hang out with you and stuff" Ryan observed. "Ya, we have a good time together" said Josh. "Shit, it's hot, let's get out of these bags!" Josh suggested that they change out of their flight suits. "Wanna borrow a pair of shorts?" asked Josh. "Yours might be a little big on me" replied Ryan. "I gotta pair that's too small for me that Brandon wears sometimes, those will fit you. Josh led Ryan back to his bedroom and found shorts for both of them. Ryan glanced into the bathroom and saw the Jacuzzi. "This looks cool!" said Ryan. "Ya, Brandon and I have had a lot of fun in there!" Josh replied before realizing that he was kind of `letting the cat out of the bag'. "I'll bet!" Ryan grinned. They took off their boots and unzipped their flight suits. Their conversation took on an awkward silence as they stepped out of their bags and stood there in their underwear. Josh was wearing a pair of Calvin Klein briefs; Ryan was wearing a really cute pair of boxers. The fly of Ryan's boxers was slightly open and Josh looked in hopes of seeing something, but had no luck. They each stepped into their shorts and as the zippers were pulled up, they could feel the sexual tension between them come down. They went to the kitchen and Ryan decided that his stomach was almost back to normal so Josh pulled out a couple of hoagie rolls and they made sandwiches. They brought their food out to the coffee table and ate the sandwiches as they watched some TV. "It was really cool of you to go to the park with me today and then hangin out with me" said Ryan. "Sure thing, we'll go to the park again tomorrow" replied Josh. "I think it would really be cool if I could hang with you guys here sometimes. I know you want some private time with Brandon, but maybe some other times" Ryan suggested. "Ya, that would be cool, we should hang out" Josh said sincerely. It appeared that Ryan was fully aware that Josh was having a sexual relationship with Brandon, but since they were in the Navy, Josh still couldn't actually bring himself to say it. There was still that small chance that everything up to this point had been misunderstood and Ryan might not be thinking along those lines at all. Josh just couldn't take the chance. --------------------------------- I always enjoy any comments you may have. The offer for a photograph of Brandon remains open for anyone that may missed it before. Email me your request. (it's the same photo offered in previous chapters). Tbax93722@hotmail.com