[Backup] Economics 101 pasteboard flight

[This is material that didn't make it into Getting through Winter in the Second Year: http://free-is-not-free.blogspot.com/2016/08/economics-101-novel-ch07-pt2-getting.html, (produced during the work backed up here: http://joel-rees-economics.blogspot.jp/2016/08/bk-economics-101-novel-ch07-pt2-getting.html. Originally at http://free-is-not-free.blogspot.com/2016/08/pasteboard-flight.html, which was never published.)]

Then Bobbie said, "Say guys, I have something I need a little help with."

Karel said, "We're all ears."

"I told you guys I have a pilot's certificate, didn't I?"

"Huh?"

"Oh, yeah."

"So what's up?"

"It's been a while since I've flown, and I need a little time in the air."

Dan suggested, "How about flying us all down to St. George and taking a hike in Zion's Canyon?"

"That's kind of what I was thinking."

"I'm in."

"Count me in, too."

"How do we get from the park to the Canyon?"

"Karel, you are such a wet blanket."

"If you have friends with big farms, you don't have to put down in the public airport."

"Cool!"

"Now how am I supposed to do the wet blanket thing about that?"

And they all laughed, quietly, so as not to disturb other students.

"When ya got in mind?"

"This weekend?"

"What about studying for the tests?"

"We can study in the air."

"If you guys spell my at the controls, I can do some studying, too."

"How does that work out as practice?"

"What I need most is getting in the air and getting back down. The rest is mostly practice staying awake, and keeping an eye on the weather and the instruments, which I can do while I study."

"Well let's get as much study as we can out of the way. "


Early Saturday morning at the airport, Bobbie's little brother Rick flew in with his wife, Lupe. Bobbie and Rick checked the plane out while the others watched, and Rick got started fueling it.

Bobbie showed the other three how to read the weather forecast for the prevailing winds and set up the flight plan. Just for fun, Karel showed them how to use calculus instead of the flight computer. But they all agreed that took too long.

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You are thinking that a flight computer is an anachronism. I know you are. So look up "E-6B flight computer" on your favorite search engine.

Oh, you knew about that already. Maybe I shouldn't pretend to know so much about airplanes, after all.

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When they were finished with the flight plan, Bobbie and Rick took it to the airport office to file it.

Then she had her friends walk through the pre-flight checklist with her and explained the various procedures to them, to refresh her own memory.

And then they made a phone call to the friends who owned the land where they would be setting down, so they could have an idea when to expect them. And they boarded the plane with Bobbie at the controls and Rick in the co-pilot's seat, taxied out, got final clearance, and took off.

Karel, Dan, and Kristie each took a turn at the controls, with Rick coaching them, while the rest studied and watched the scenery below. They didn't get as much studying done as they might have, but they had fun with it.

Rick and Lupe got involved with their discussions of Lectures on Faith.

Lupe said, "Rick and I have been reading it, and I'm not sure it is very important any more."

Rick agreed. "It seems to me that the primary ideas in it that don't seem to be as clearly made somewhere else are faith as the power of God and the generality of the Abrahamic sacrifice."