Pornstar (mxm)

Chapter 14

After take-off, Tristan followed the given instructions to leave the control zone by taking a gentle left turn during their climb, just as the radio spoke to them again.

"Seven Bravo Kilo, airborne one six. Report leaving control zone."

"Airborne one six. Will report leaving control zone, Seven Bravo Kilo," Tristan reported back, glancing over at Warren, whose hand was still underneath his.

Warren had a large smile on his face, and was leaning towards the right window in order to look down.

"Seven Kilo Bravo, fly heading one four zero degrees, direct echo two." The radio gave him his flight route just as they began reaching their cruising altitude of 3000 feet, upon which Tristan had to remove his hand, which he actually wanted to keep in place. Possibly forever.

Once he confirmed his instructions, he set the trimmer to their current speed and altitude and then switched off the fuel pump as well as the landing lights, and closed the flaps.

~*~

Warren watched curiously as Tanner switched around on random things. It looked so utterly complicated.

"What are you doing?" he pointed at the switch Tanner had flipped.

Somewhere in the background, Warren could hear someone talking over the radio, but it was a different call sign, and Tanner simply ignored it.

"Well, this is the trimmer." He pointed at the small wheel he had turned earlier. "It adjusts our equilibrium to our current altitude and speed. It helps me with the steering by keeping the plane stable. Contrary to what some people like to think, airplanes are actually very stable in the air, and don't randomly fall out of the sky the moment you let go of the stick." The man simply let go of the steering, placing both his hands on his knees instead.

Warren's instinctive reaction was panic, but just like Tanner said, not much happened.

"Of course, eventually we will come off course." He pointed at another one of the gauges. "This is our compass. We are meant to fly with a heading of one four zero degrees, but as you can see, we are slowly starting to drift to the left, and are almost at one four five degrees already."
With a gentle movement of the stick, they plane gracefully moved back to the 140°.
"This here," the pointed at a switch that said 'landing light', "is the landing light that we only need within 10 miles of the aerodrome, so now we turned it off. And this," he pointed at another one that said 'fuel pump', "is our fuel pump, which we only need during take-off."

Warren nodded enthusiastically. "And what is that?" he pointed at the gauge he meant.

"That's our speed. We're flying with almost 110 knots, which is a little over 125 miles per hour."

"And this? That's our altitude, right?" Warren asked excitedly.

Tanner smiled with a nod. "Just a second, I have to report to the tower." He pressed the radio button on the stick again before speaking. "Leaving control zone. Request to leave frequency, Seven Bravo Kilo."

A moment later, the tower replied. "Seven Bravo Kilo, approved to leave frequency."

Tanner switched something off, before picking up their earlier conversation. "Yes, this is our altitude. We're flying at 3000 feet. Altitude and speed are controlled by the throttle." He patted the lever that his hand was resting on again. This time without Warren's hand there.
"If we stay at 4500 RPM as we are right now, and tip the nose down, we will lose altitude but gain speed. If we lift the nose, we will gain altitude but start to lose speed. It's all pretty simple."

Warren nodded enthusiastically, staring at the gauges at didn't waver much.

"So, you ready to take over?" Tanner asked with a grin.