Flying the Dominant Billionaire

Black Hawk Down

Kelly

5 years ago

Kelly jumped in excitement. Her joy knew no bounds. She was holding a letter from the Women in Aviation International in her trembling hands.

Her hands shook and words danced as she read the lines in bold. This is bloody unbelievable. Yesss! She read them over and over again. A surge of happiness coursing through her, every time she repeated the words in her mind.

***** We are happy to let you know that you have been granted a full WIA scholarship for your Flight Training. *****

The letter went on to explain the grant and the things it covered. This is so dope! I won't have to pay a single penny for my freaking education!

She wanted to be a helicopter pilot from the time she was seven years old.

She could still vividly recount the first time she had seen a giant chopper. The enormous frame of the flying machine landed right in front of her eyes in a hayfield next to their farm.

There was so much hay spinning and floating in the air! The dirt and hay almost blotted out the afternoon sun.

Even after so many years the incident was still fresh in Kelly’s memories. The memory was recorded in the mind of a seven year old, it appeared magnanimous!

*** Flashback Starts ***

The deafening noise muffled all other sounds and then everything flew around her. She ran to her father. Aaron Smith had gotten off the tractor to take a closer look at what was happening.

The corn stalks in their field were pushed down to the ground in one direction as the powerful machine, with a huge fan on top, landed across the farm track.

Little Kelly's little hand held her father’s hand tightly. He was holding onto his straw hat by the other hand to prevent it from flying away. She should have been scared, but instead she was mesmerized by the monster that descended from the sky.

Look at it hovering on the field, like a dragonfly! Kelly thought, amazed. Is the big black machine actually weightless?

As the whirlybird gently touched down on terra firma the little girl who was growing up in a farm in Culpeper county stood transfixed.

It looked like the largest bald eagle on Earth which had descended from the sky. With its giant wings folded at the back, it now stood majestically in the middle of the field. And just like and eagle, it towered over everything. It was an imposing structure.

“Do you want to take a closer look?” Her father asked. Kelly’s heart skipped a beat in apprehension. She nodded resolutely.

The two went hand in hand across the farm towards the waiting, silent, eagle. The Sheriff and some troopers were already there, so were the town’s fire tender and a few ambulances from the county hospital. There were tons of people scurrying around the eagle.

The eagle is gazing at me. Kelly felt the goosebumps rise on her skin as they approached the bird. Will I be able to touch it? Is it smooth and soft?

Little Kelly saw a man in dark overalls standing next to the steel bird. There were more people who emerged from within the helicopter, but this man had something about him that drew Kelly towards him.

Her father was speaking with Sheriff Newman.

“US Military chopper…Emergency landing…some light in the cockpit issue…routine stuff…” Kelly overheard the Sheriff.

Nervous but determined, she took tiny steps towards the man in the dark overalls standing next to the chopper.

He was smoking a cigarette and looked relaxed, even as people scurried around him.

Who is he? Is he the boss? Kelly was intrigued by his calm and casual manner. He noticed her and smiled.

A guarded Kelly found the man’s smile simple and reassuring. He seemed to have singled her out amongst the gaggle of people around the chopper.

"Hiya!" He spoke in a friendly tone. "Are you from around here?"

Kelly simply nodded in acknowledgement. She was still unsure and wary of the whole affair.

“I am Officer Waldo. United States Army. I help this fat lady fly.” He lovingly touched the chopper’s dark hull. He must have recognised the longing in little Kelly’s eyes and asked “ Do you want to touch her?”

Kelly turned around to look for her Dad. She desperately wanted to touch the bird, but wasn’t sure if she could. For anything that they weren’t entirely sure of, the Smith’s had assured their children that they could reach out to their parents for advice. If Papi says yes, of course! she thought.

Her father approached. He touched his straw hat with two fingers, looked at the man in the overalls and greeted him, “Officer! Aaron Smith; and this is my farm.”

“Howdy, Mr. Smith! Thanks to your patch we were able to land our Black Hawk safely. Is this your daughter?”

Kelly’s father put an arm around her and she wrapped herself around his father’s leg. “Yes” Aaron Smith looked lovingly at his daughter. “This is Miss Kelly Smith”

Kelly blushed when her father introduced her as a little lady.

Officer Waldo winked at Kelly. She already liked him. “My daughters are five and eight,” Officer Waldo told her father. “Miss Smith must be eight, nine?” he guessed.

“Seven, actually.” Aaron Smith corrected him and smiled. Kelly was always big for her age.

“So. Would Miss Smith care for a ride in a chopper?” Officer Waldo asked.

Kelly’s heart pumped in her throat. She could not contain her excitement. Really? Kelly excitedly thought. She gripped her father’s leg tighter and looked pleadingly at her father, begging him to say yes.

We will be heading back to Washington as soon as we have clearance. Everything is in order with the chopper. Before we leave, I would not mind returning your favour by giving you guys a little aerial tour of your farm. From up there!” Officer Waldo told her father earnestly and pointed at the sky.

As Kelly entered the helicopter and the overhead motor came to life, she felt like she was in a dream. Is this really happening? She clenched her hands as the chopper rose from the ground. That was her tryst with the G-forces. Her little body was straining from the torque, but she loved it!

“Woohoo,” she exclaimed, as Officer Waldo put the Black Hawk’s nose down and flew over their farm.

Kelly’s father was mildly amused with his daughter’s reaction to flying.

The helicopter banked as it made a circular flight around their farmstead. Kelly could see the ground from the window.

That’s our house, the driveway, the tractor parked in the field…There are the stables! Everything looked tiny from above. They look like my toys! Kelly thought. As if, she could reach out of the window and pick up the tiny barn!

She had not imagined, even in her wildest dreams, that things could look so tiny from above. The blue sky, the green woods with the little broccoli like trees, the dinky cars, the narrow crooked asphalt roads snaking between the farms. A wave of exhilaration swept over her.

The little girl had returned home to tell her mother and sister about her little adventure.

She was panting with excitement as she blurted “Mum, Bella, you should have been there today. Everything looked like toys from up there.” She pointed up just like Officer Waldo.

She was elated with her little escapade.

When her father came inside the house, he hung his straw cap on a wall peg, went across the room and kissed her mother first. Kelly had gone upto Bella who was playing with her ice cream doll, putting it to sleep.

She was rattling on, gasping as she spoke. In her excitement she did not stop to take breaths. "It does not fly like a plane. It floats in the air. It tilts forward and back." Her tiny hands flailing in the air as she tried to show her mother and her older sister how the helicopter flew.

“Why don’t we get a chopper for the farm, daddy?” Kelly exclaimed. “It would be so useful! We could fly over the fields. We could easily look for the horses, the cows and the sheep herds.”

“Does John Deere have helicopters? She asked her father. Kelly imagined a green and yellow helicopter parked in front of their barn. Kelly looked expectantly at her father as he pulled a stool and sat down at the big wooden table in the center of the kitchen.

Every big machine that they had on their farm was from Virginia Tractors in Orange. Her father had taken the entire family in their pickup a few months ago and driven for 30 minutes from Culpeper to the John Deere dealership to buy a new harvester.

Her father called the place the Farm Shop. Kelly never found any resemblance to any store she had seen in Culpeper. It was just a big farm, like theirs, cleaner. It was dotted with a few large and beautiful looking buildings instead of fields, stables and barns. Everywhere she looked there were big machines parked outside these buildings. She loved big machines.

Kelly was convinced that a John Deere helicopter should be their next acquisition.

Her father, a very patient and loving man, had spent the rest of the evening explaining to Kelly why they couldn’t get a chopper.

“Listen sweet pea,” her father used to call her by her special nick name when he would need to negotiate, “John Deere does not make helicopters.”

“Aww,” Kelly was a little dejected. “Then who does?”

Her father had no idea who made helicopters. But he tried to explain to her that a chopper was a more complex piece of machinery than any of their farm equipment, only because it was able to fly.

Aaron Smith told Kelly that a helicopter cost a lot of money and they could never afford to buy one.

“Even if we sell everything that we own on the farm, our machines, our animals and maybe even our house, that money couldn’t buy a helicopter”.

Kelly didn’t quite understand the reference, but she trusted what her father said.

It was not only that. “It needs periodic maintenance, it needs parts, we need to pay for parking wherever it goes and most importantly it needs a pilot who knows how to fly it. “It’s not like any other machine, sweet pea, it is a flying machine.”

Kelly's little heart sank. “Aww, daddy. But I really wanted one,” she spoke in a quavering voice.

This usually worked like a charm on her Dad. Aaron Smith would get up, say “Well, What the heck” and give Kelly whatever she wanted.

Her charm did not work this time. Aaron Smith gave her three more reasons why it was not a good idea to get a helicopter for their farm.

Kelly eventually gave up. She sat feeling dejected at the kitchen table as tears welled up in her eyes.

“Then how can I have one?” she said, fighting back her tears.

Her father came around to her and gently stroked her blond hair. “You can always go to flight school and become a helicopter pilot, darling,” Aaron Smith had reassured her. “Just like Officer Waldo.”

“That’s it then.” Kelly stood up and smiled through her tears. “I am going to be a helicopter pilot when I grow up!” she said with so much conviction and finality that her mother and sister had both turned around to look at her.

The sound of resolve in the voice of a seven year old surprised them...

*** Flashback ends ***

Kelly picked up the phone and dialed Barbara, her batchmate and bestie at Western Michigan University. They were the only 2 girls in the undergraduate course of Flight Sciences at Battlecreek.

“Barbie-doll. What you doing b***h?” Kelly sang into her cellphone when Barbara answered.

“SOSO,” Barbara responded, “What’s with the buzzin? No, wait. No kiddin. Don’t tell me. Did you hear from them?” Barbara shot off.

Kelly beamed at her friend’s prattle and said, “Yes, I got the letter in the mail today”

She recoiled and jerked the phone away from her ear, when Barbara shrieked. “Yee-haw! Paaaarty!”

*****