Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2009 09:01:24 -0800
From: Tom Baxter <tbax93722@hotmail.com>
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