by Roo

Part Three - Chapter Fifteen

Back to Earth

Editing by Bronwen

Previously:

As I was nearing Toowoomba I noticed a smell of burning wiring filling the cockpit. I thought, 'OK now keep your head and follow the right procedure, remember you trained for this, JEAN where are you?'..............

My air speed had dropped to two hundred and eighty knots, and as long as I could keep her at that I'd be able to land without too much trouble. The smoke was making me feel sick and as I was approaching the runway the left engine feathered out as well. Now all I could do was to keep her nose up. I could barely see the runway for the haze inside the plane.

'Jean are you still with me?'

Carla was in trouble. Unable to see through the smoke haze in the cabin, and both engines feathering she managed to bring the plane down but hit the runway hard which made the landing gear give way. The plane belly flopped and the emergency crew were there within thirty seconds of the plane skidding to a halt – sparks flying everywhere and smoke pouring from the fuselage. Carla was knocked unconscious when her head hit the instrument panel even though she was strapped in to her seat. The crew opened the door and pulled Carla free from the plane just as it burst into flames, and by the time they had her thirty yards away and laid on the ground the Piper blew up in a fireball.

'Hello sister dear,' said Jean sitting in their favourite spot in the spirit realm that Carla seems to visit all to often.

'Jean why am I back here again? I'm supposed to be in Brisbane with Mary and Sam.'

'The Piper!! I crashed the Piper! Ricky will be upset. Oh Jean, the baby! Is Paul ok?'

Jean replid 'Yes Carla, he's fine, but perhaps the doctor should have grounded you until Paul is born. As for Ricky, well at he moment he is holding your hand with tears in his eyes wanting you to wake up.'

I started to open my eyes and things were blurry and I could not focus properly. I heard Ricky call to someone, “She's awake!”

My vision was not good but I could see two people bending over me, one was shining a bright light into my eyes which made me squint, One of them said, “Get the doctor now.” The other one was holding my hand and said, “Honey it's me Ricky.” My vision was starting to clear and I could see my husband with bloodshot eyes squeezing my hand.

“Hi honey” I said as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

“My God Carla what went wrong?”

“I don’t know. I was nearing Toowoomba and I wake up here with you holding my hand.”

“Honey you crashed, the Piper is a total loss - there is nothing left of it.”

“Oh dear I'm sorry, I can't remember any of that.”

“I'm not surprised! You were knocked out when you hit your head. The emergency crew pulled you out just in time or you would have been with Jean forever.”

Ricky than produced a tape recorder of the exchanges between me and the Toowoomba tower. When I heard it I started to cry because it was starting to come back to me what had occured, I said “Ricky there was smoke and the engines started to fail. I want to know who serviced the Piper. My God I might have been killed.”

“Calm down sweetheart, you need to rest and than we will go through what the possible cause was. The air safety people are now involved and are going through all the records of what has been done to the Piper.”

I was told to stay in hospital for a few days in case of complications from concussion after being unconscious for at least nine hours. Only Ricky was allowed to stay with me while I was in Intensive Care, but now that I was coherent the rest of my tribe were all filing into my room. Jean was present but stayed silent; Mum and Dad both couldn't hold back their tears and hugged me till I couldn't breath.

Mum said, “Carla we honestly thought you were gone till Jean said we had no such luck.”

Mentally I said, 'Thanks sis you'll keep!'

Her response was 'You're welcome, besides you have a son on the way.'

Before they let anyone else in I had lunch to get some strength back and then the twins and everyone was there. Jamie had a lot of questions about how I brought the plane down.

I replied, “Jamie, it is a matter of training and keeping you head and hope you survive.”

After an hour I was left with Ricky and than we both laid on the bed and cried and laughed and discussed what was to happen in the future.

Having gone through something like this you would have thought that I would never want to fly again but I was already talking about what sort of plane I wanted to replace the Piper Comanche.

Ricky said, “Ok my little Carla, I suppose you will want another aircraft to wreck!!?”

“Well husband dear seeing it wasn't my fault that the Piper went down, than yes I do want a new plane!”

Ricky replied, “Alright, once you get the all clear and the family go back home we can fly down to Sydney and have a look at what you would like to buy.”

“What do you mean what I would like to buy? The Piper was a a Croft Airways plane and the company will pay for a new one. Anyway the insurance should pay most of the cost.”

“Don’t get your knickers in a twist sweetheart, the company will pay for a new toy for Lady Carla.”

“Watch it dear or you will never make another baby again.”

After I sorted Ricky out which took all of three minutes, all of the family came in to the room to say goodbye before they all went back to Quilpie. The twins weren’t happy to go back with Mum and Dad so Rita and Peter said they would look after them for a while.

Rita said, “It will be good for Peter and myself to get to look after them before our little boy comes along”

6/3/74 Thursday

It was ten am and I was champing at the bit to get out of the hospital and go to the Toowoomba airport to have a look at what was left of the Piper, and then fly down to Sydney with Ricky to have a look at what aircraft I would end up with.

We arrived at the airport by taxi and went straight to the hanger where the remains of the Piper were all laid out, Ricky was holding my hand and said, “Sweetheart you don't have to do this.”

“Yes I do! Have you any idea how many hours I spent in that aircraft?” I started to shake and tears formed in my eyes.

Ricky held onto me and said, “Carla when I heard what happened I honestly thought I had lost you.”

“Well,” I replied, “I think Jean might have something to do with me still being here.”

“Yeah, why is she being so quiet? She usually joins in on our conversations.”

Jean announced herself and said to us both, 'I'm here but sometime nature has to also take its course and all I do is be there when thing go wrong like a bird falling out of the sky.'

I replied in my mind, 'Thanks sis I don't mean to be a burden to you.'

'Sweet sister of mine how can you be a burden to me when we are two halves of one spirit?'

'Ok point taken.'

Ricky was getting impatient, “Ok lets get out of here.”

I wanted to see the actual spot where I hit the ground before we left so we borrowed a golf buggy type thing and drove down the runway where all we could see was the remains of stains on the tarmac and where grass had caught alight when the fuel tanks exploded. I felt quite numb and got shivers up my back when I thought, 'If Jean wasn't there at the time I would now be with her for good.'

We went back to the hanger where one of our twin Cessnas was parked. A larger plane was charted earlier to fly the family back home.

Ricky had arranged to have the plane made ready to fly the previous day. It was the one he flew down when he got the call to say I had crashed. I hated to think the state he was in then and was glad there hadn't been another accident.

I was getting hungry and wanted to have a meal before we flew down to Sydney so we had lunch at the cafeteria.

I said “Ricky I need clothes. What am I supposed to wear apart from what Mum brought down for me?”

“Honey, Mum and Rita packed all the clothes you will need for at least a week.”

That satisfied me for the moment but once in Sydney I decided to go shopping for clothes before looking at aircraft.

We boarded the Cessna and I said I wanted to take the controls.

“NOOO way,” said Ricky, “You have been unconscious and have not been cleared to fly for at least another three days.”

“Oh bugger!” was my response but the doctor has the say about those sort of things so I guessed I’d just have to bide my time and behave which is not easy for someone as strong willed as me.

I felt a little nervous at first but once we were airborne I settled down. I also kept a close eye on all the instruments which in turn made Ricky nervous.

Jean made herself present in both our minds and said, 'Don’t worry, nothing is going to go wrong. What happened to the other plane was something that happens along the way in life.'

Ricky replied, “Jean are you telling us that you knew the Piper had a problem?”

'That would be telling wouldn't it?' She then added 'Ricky, don’t worry, Carla and little Paul were protected by the spirit world.' She than went quiet before we could ask any more questions.

Three hours later we had parked our craft at one of the hangers that we do business with and also borrowed a car from them.

Ricky wanted to go and have a look at what was available straight away but I was getting tired and blamed my pregnancy, so Ricky wasn't game to argue with me.

He said, “Ok honey we can book into a hotel and have a good night's sleep and be fresh tomorrow to see what suits you.”

“Yes I agree and besides I want to be cuddled in bed by my lover.”

“Only cuddled?” he replied. I miss Ricky when I’m away more than a couple of days so that night was something that I desperately need, especially seeing what we had both been through the last week.

I needn't have worried about not having enough clothes to wear because Mum and Rita know exactly the type of things I wear. They don't call me 'colourful Carla' for nothing. I picked out a business type suit for the day because when I do business I like to look more mature and I seem to get more respect from the people that I deal with, which are usually men who think they know everything, including my husband.

It was Friday morning and we probably wouldn't be home for at least four or five days because on our way back I wanted to stop in Brisbane to see Mary and Sam which was what that trip was all about in the first place.

I said to Ricky, “Before we go to the restaurant for breakfast we had better ring home and talk with Donna and Jean.”

I rang and Mum answered,“Hello Donna Croft speaking.”

“Hi Mum just ringing to say g'day to the girls.”

“Carla they are at Rita's, remember?”

“Oh damn!! Sorry Mum the knock on the head must have done more damage than I thought.”

“Carla sweetheart are you sure you are ok? Let me talk to Ricky.”

“Mum I'm fine, just a bit tired that’s all.”

Ricky could hear the conversation and I just handed him the phone, “Hello Mum, Carla is fine don’t worry I will keep a close rein on her today and if she plays up I will fly her straight home.” I ignored that and went on getting ready for the day.

Ricky rang the right number and Rita answered. After a few minutes the girls were on the phone, so Ricky put the phone on speaker, both girls talking nineteen to the dozen, “Daddy Mummy Unka Pete wet us wird a horsey.”

After talking with them I felt a little bit melancholy and wish I could have brought them with us. Once I get back I will endeavour to spend as much time with them as possible and Ricky is going to cut back on his work as well.

At nine a.m. it was time to head to the airport and where the hangers were to see what was there to look at. We drove up to a large hanger complex which had Cessna Sales written on the side of the main building. We went to the front office where we were greeted by a well dressed lady in her fifties.

“Good morning,” she said looking at Ricky and not really acknowledging me. When this sort of thing happens Ricky steps back and lets me do my thing; he knows how much I hate people thinking women should be seen and not heard.

I said, “Good morning madam, I'm here to have a look at what craft you have to offer. Could I speak to your boss please?”

She replied rather sheepishly, “I am the owner of the business, how can I help you?” Ricky kept quiet and let me handle this lady.

I said, “I'm Carla Smith and this is Ricky my husband. We own Croft airways and need to replace a plane which went down last week.”

She replied “Oh of course, it was on the news. Was it you who was the pilot?”

“Yes, so if you don’t mind we are keen to have a look at a Cessna twin if you have one in stock.”

With this she wasn't game to talk to Ricky which is ok with him, he is more interested in the technical side of things anyway.

She showed us into the main hanger and said “By the way I'm Brenda Lockwood and I'm sorry we got off on the wrong foot.”

Ricky had a grin on his face when he replied, “Carla is the business person and I sort out the running of the craft.”

I cast my eye over a brand new shiny twin Cessna. It was exactly what I was looking for but I didn't let her think that straight away.

I never ask the price till later, in case I seem too keen to purchase an item. Ricky started to look around the machine and I was more interested to get up into the cockpit to see what is felt like.

It was a Cessna 414 capable of carrying up to eight passengers, so it could be used to do charter work when I didn’t want to use it. I wanted something in which I could virtually take the whole family or at least most of them when I want to. Ricky had spoken about that for quite some time, so this craft looked like it fitted our needs and was capable of earning its keep in our fleet of fifteen fixed wing aircraft and two choppers.

This plane was flight ready which was a good sign for the business that Brenda was running.

The craft was taken out to the tarmac and ready for us to have a test flight. Brenda, herself a pilot said it is an insurance requirement for her to be with the plane on any test flights which I would have expected.

Once on board Ricky sat in the right hand seat which I normally like to use when flying but at that moment seeing I had been told I shouldn't fly for a couple more days I guess I would have to wait to get my hands on this beautiful aircraft.

We ended up doing a deal with trading in the twin Cessna that we came down in and then decided to fly back on Monday via Brisbane and than home to Quilpie.

Monday 9/3/74.

We were both eager to get going and arrived at the airport at eight am and surprisingly Brenda was there to greet us, “Good morning Carla and Ricky,” and she winked at me while she said that. Ricky had a smirk on his face which said it all but he is used to being married to a strong woman, but can also take control of me if I get too pushy.

We climbed aboard after we both went through all the pre-flight checks and settled into the cockpit with me in the right hand seat. Ricky didn't object and said, “Well sweetheart, radio the tower and give them our flight plan and get clearance to take to the sky.

The power of this craft was more than I have ever experienced and we were up over the western part of Sydney and on our way in no time. I took her up to twelve thousand feet and set our course for Brisbane.

Cessna Twin 404

To be continued. Please leave a comment.