04-11-2017, 01:06 AM
A bit of fiction if you want, not your everyday stuff, but meh I had this story in mind for a week or so now 
Bad luck, Good contacts and just unable to be bothered.
Flight AVA 128 flown by Tempest 01 was well underway from Toronto to Honolulu. In the cockpit Captain Kain Garion, Co-pilot Zyal Manii and flight engineer Lucas Mervan had settled in for the cruise over open water, not a route the plane had ever flown before and on the edge of the safe range, but it was working out just fine for the last few weeks and passengers primarily vacation goers seemed to enjoy flying the classic birds. The purser tapped on the cockpit door and Lucas opened it, "Evening Max how are things in space ship central?" he said remarking the stark contrast between the jet age cockpit and the high tech science fiction style interior in the passenger compartment.
"Well all is fine, the lighting is dim and people are trying to catch some shut eye, so anything I can get for you all?" Max said simply to business not sharing the more loose nature of the flight engineer.
"Tea, tea and coffee if I am not mistaken Max and make sure to get some rest to we still have north of 3 hours to go." Kain stated looking over his shoulder and 2 more grunts confirmed the request drinks wise.
"Not a problem I will get right on..." Max started, but could not finish his sentence as the plane took a violent hit from something and the cockpit went full tilt. "What the fuck was that!" Max said having kept himself upright in the door frame.
Kain did not reply right away as he and Zyal where getting the plane back to level out and checking the most key things, "Not sure, but I don't like it, go see after the passengers as we figure this out."
"I will." Max said closing the cockpit door to calm the passengers, many of whom did not enjoy the shaky experience on what was to be a smooth flight.
"Shit shit shit shit!" Lucas belted out suddenly as he saw his fuel for the left wing draining from nearly half full to zero in seconds and as the plane went to trim itself the others to before he could shut off all fuel transfer to the left wing. "Whatever that was it knocked a large hole in left wing fuel tanks, we just lost over a third of our remaining fuel."
"Zyal go take a look, Lucas I need to know what this means for us." Kain said calmly, with 30 years of flying panic was not something to strike him anytime soon.
"Will do." Zyal said, barely matching the captain in years alive to his year of flying.
When Zyal left the cockpit Lucas spoke up, "In short we need to land in under 2 hours."
Kain went to take a look at his maps and shook his head, there was not a single strip in range, "Not happening." he said and went quiet to think for a moment as Zyal entered the cockpit again.
"Well found out why she is not generating as much lift left and why we ran out of fuel there is a 10 perhaps 15 centimeter hole clean through the wing." she said taking her seat again.
"I will contact HQ, we got less than 2 hours of airtime and nothing in range." Kain simply said, they would need to be made aware and who knows perhaps they had a solution.
***Highway near Toronto***
The high revving 4 cylinder pink sports bike was moving at some speed as Juni easily moved through the light traffic as she heard the call coming in. She slowed down to accept it, not many people had her number and none of those who did would be foolish enough to disturb her without good reason, "Yeah?" was her simple greeting as she answered.
"Major we have a problem Tempest 01 has been hit by a foreign object and is critically low on fuel and unable to reach save haven." the voice belonged to one of the operators and it was clear he was distressed.
"Shit I am 5 minutes out, do me a favor and patch me through to the Colonel, he should be in my contact list." Juni said whilst she pulled a dangerous U turn on the highway leading to some horns being sounded to let known their operators displeasure, but she was not paying attention to that as her speed went from fast and fun to fast and dangerous. In her ears however a familiar voice sounded, "You do know that around these hours we tend to be off duty major, so what brings me the pleasure of your voice?"
Juni smiled under her helmet the Colonel had been a good friend and superior officer, "I need a KC either from Hawaii or the west coast." she said her tone to business as the sounds of her bike and traffic could be heard in the background.
"A KC? Last I heard you where retired from service and running an airline and airlines don't need KCs, what is going on?" The colonel asked his tone however serious.
"Yes I am running an airline and one of my jets has been hit by something mid air and lost a lot of fuel and are now out of range of any landing strip. I got about 90 souls onboard that jet, so I need your help." Juni replied hitting the breaks hard as a truck pulled in front of her.
"Shit, but still you are flying civilian jets, what use does a KC have, I mean I can scramble one no doubt emergency is an emergency paperwork be damned, but how do you plan to refuel a civilian jet?"
"They are old Vickers VC10s, this one a super and she is former RAF, during the rebuild it was calculated that removing the inflight refueling for the plane itself was to much effort and cost so we kept it in. All of it should still work as long as you got a drag chute."
"Alright, if you say so I will contact the US Airforce, call you back in minute." with that the call ended and Juni drove onto the terrain of her HQ. She put the bike on the stand next to the main entrance and rushed inside to the control room.
***Tempest 01***
"Captain Garion this Jun'ko Zane, I have been made aware of your situation, can you update me on the currents though?" Came in over the headset and the 3men cockpit crew shared a glance not expecting the boss to jump in.
"Evening Major, currently things are as they are we are maintaining course Hawaii is still the closest, but we lack the range to make it. Passengers so far are holding it well we made clear we have some issues, but no more." Kain replied.
"Well I have good news, I made some quick calls and the US Airforce is scrambling a KC-10 from Travis so I want you to change course and head that way in a straight line, we already cleared this with traffic control. You should run into them in about 90 minutes which I know is tight, but it is the only shot we have. I hope you are not to rusty on your mid air refueling." Juni her tone was light not wanting to come over to heavy.
"Been a while, but I think with the 3 of us here we can manage." Kain replied giving a nod to Zyal as they plotted a new course and started to turn around.
"Good to hear, keep us posted we are watching. HQ out." Juni stated over the coms and briefly the cockpit became quiet.
"Get Max in here." Kain said.
Lucas took the internal phone and a few moments later Max showed up, "So what is the status?" he asked some fear in his tone aware of how bad things where.
Kain looked at Max with a small smile, "Seems the Major got us some fuel curtsy of the US Air Force and the fact that we are flying a former Royal Air Force tanker so we have the means to take some onboard. I will not lie though it is going to be cutting it really close. I assume all the passengers are awake by now?"
Max nodded somewhat relieved that there was hope, "Aye and it good to hear, I assume you want to make an announcement?"
"Correct, so get back and I start in 30 seconds." Kain said.
30 Seconds later his voice sounded throughout the airplane, "May I have your attention please this your captain speaking. As you have been made aware we have some issues, that issue being the rather sizable hole in our wing as some of you will have noticed. The fact is that hole drained a large portion of our fuel leaving us without the means to get back to dry land. However not all is lost, as I speak we are heading to the West coast of the United States in order to rendezvous with a KC tanker, which is a large plane designed to refuel plane in mid air. Because of the nature of this particular plane we have the means to refuel in mid air and with this fuel we can safely land. I will be honest and say it is all cutting it very close, but I have full faith that we will make it all happen and land safely. For now please remain calm and follow the instructions of the cabin crew."
***Andromeda Aviation HQ***
"So far so good major, it seems they are about 10 minutes apart." The operator stated clearly on edge still.
Juni however was calm as she listened in to the communications just like the operator. Inside she was deeply thankful for the fact that Tempest 01 has been an old RAF plane and that above all they had not removed it's ability to take on fuel mid flight. On the other hand it did make her wonder about the fact if the VC10s where just a great idea.
"You do realize you own me more than a few drinks for this one?" The voice of the colonel came in over an open phone line, the good man could not just sit it all out.
"The Hakushu right?" Juni asked knowing he liked his malts.
"That would be lovely, still though I think this might be the first time a civilian passenger plane gets refueled mid flight."
"I just hope it works Colonel."
"I pray it does."
***Tempest 01***
"Tempest 01 this the US Air Force, we got in sight, we will fly over and form up in front of you, please maintain 350knots." Came over the coms.
"Understood US Air Force, maintaining 350 knots awaiting line up and permission before making contact, please note our fuel situation is critical." Kain said and the entire cockpit was tense even the normally relaxed captain who had to direct a damaged jet liner into one of the most tricky and dangerous maneuvers known to pilots. At least the KC crew seemed to be quite relaxed, or at least appeared that way over the radio.
Not much later the giant KC-10 was hovering in front of them. "Tempest 01 you are cleared for approach." came over and Kain took some deep breaths, "Understood approaching now." he said in full control as Zyal simply looked on talking to him about the location of the chute. Slowly ever so slowly the two large planes came together the VC10 struggling in the turbulence of the KC-10 and the damaged wing from the VC10 was not helping things. However after about 3 minutes Kain managed to poke the probe into the chute and formed a connection.
Lucas who had been down in the hull checking the system in the our before opened the valves on his end, "US Air Force we are ready to receive." he stated.
"Copy that, green here to, starting the transfer."
For the next few minutes Kain was in full focus keeping the connection safe until Lucas fianlly gave him the good news, "We are all full, valves closed."
"US Air Force this is Tempest 01 we disengaging all tanks are full. Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearths you have saved 88 souls today." Kain said.
"Tempest 01 you are most welcome, fly safe."
***Andromeda Aviation HQ***
There was a collective sigh of relief at the news in the operations center, "Tempest 01 this is HQ please return to home base." the operator stated.
"You get your drink Colonel, I owe you more than 1 of those." Juni said just as relieved.
"I will hold you to those, sleep well Major." and with that disaster had been narrowly avoided. Tempest 01 returned several hours later to Toronto where the passengers where welcomed back to firm ground and looked after to make sure that those who still wanted could head out on flights as soon as possible. Tempest 01 however would be out of the running for a month or two undergoing repairs and investigation to see if anyone could figure out what had hit the plane. Juni in the mean time got a hefty bill from the US Air Force, but that was one she had absolutely no issue in paying. As for the crew, well Max took a week off, the rest was flying the next day though somehow none of them wanted to fly on anything that could not refuel in mid air for a while.
Bad luck, Good contacts and just unable to be bothered.
Flight AVA 128 flown by Tempest 01 was well underway from Toronto to Honolulu. In the cockpit Captain Kain Garion, Co-pilot Zyal Manii and flight engineer Lucas Mervan had settled in for the cruise over open water, not a route the plane had ever flown before and on the edge of the safe range, but it was working out just fine for the last few weeks and passengers primarily vacation goers seemed to enjoy flying the classic birds. The purser tapped on the cockpit door and Lucas opened it, "Evening Max how are things in space ship central?" he said remarking the stark contrast between the jet age cockpit and the high tech science fiction style interior in the passenger compartment.
"Well all is fine, the lighting is dim and people are trying to catch some shut eye, so anything I can get for you all?" Max said simply to business not sharing the more loose nature of the flight engineer.
"Tea, tea and coffee if I am not mistaken Max and make sure to get some rest to we still have north of 3 hours to go." Kain stated looking over his shoulder and 2 more grunts confirmed the request drinks wise.
"Not a problem I will get right on..." Max started, but could not finish his sentence as the plane took a violent hit from something and the cockpit went full tilt. "What the fuck was that!" Max said having kept himself upright in the door frame.
Kain did not reply right away as he and Zyal where getting the plane back to level out and checking the most key things, "Not sure, but I don't like it, go see after the passengers as we figure this out."
"I will." Max said closing the cockpit door to calm the passengers, many of whom did not enjoy the shaky experience on what was to be a smooth flight.
"Shit shit shit shit!" Lucas belted out suddenly as he saw his fuel for the left wing draining from nearly half full to zero in seconds and as the plane went to trim itself the others to before he could shut off all fuel transfer to the left wing. "Whatever that was it knocked a large hole in left wing fuel tanks, we just lost over a third of our remaining fuel."
"Zyal go take a look, Lucas I need to know what this means for us." Kain said calmly, with 30 years of flying panic was not something to strike him anytime soon.
"Will do." Zyal said, barely matching the captain in years alive to his year of flying.
When Zyal left the cockpit Lucas spoke up, "In short we need to land in under 2 hours."
Kain went to take a look at his maps and shook his head, there was not a single strip in range, "Not happening." he said and went quiet to think for a moment as Zyal entered the cockpit again.
"Well found out why she is not generating as much lift left and why we ran out of fuel there is a 10 perhaps 15 centimeter hole clean through the wing." she said taking her seat again.
"I will contact HQ, we got less than 2 hours of airtime and nothing in range." Kain simply said, they would need to be made aware and who knows perhaps they had a solution.
***Highway near Toronto***
The high revving 4 cylinder pink sports bike was moving at some speed as Juni easily moved through the light traffic as she heard the call coming in. She slowed down to accept it, not many people had her number and none of those who did would be foolish enough to disturb her without good reason, "Yeah?" was her simple greeting as she answered.
"Major we have a problem Tempest 01 has been hit by a foreign object and is critically low on fuel and unable to reach save haven." the voice belonged to one of the operators and it was clear he was distressed.
"Shit I am 5 minutes out, do me a favor and patch me through to the Colonel, he should be in my contact list." Juni said whilst she pulled a dangerous U turn on the highway leading to some horns being sounded to let known their operators displeasure, but she was not paying attention to that as her speed went from fast and fun to fast and dangerous. In her ears however a familiar voice sounded, "You do know that around these hours we tend to be off duty major, so what brings me the pleasure of your voice?"
Juni smiled under her helmet the Colonel had been a good friend and superior officer, "I need a KC either from Hawaii or the west coast." she said her tone to business as the sounds of her bike and traffic could be heard in the background.
"A KC? Last I heard you where retired from service and running an airline and airlines don't need KCs, what is going on?" The colonel asked his tone however serious.
"Yes I am running an airline and one of my jets has been hit by something mid air and lost a lot of fuel and are now out of range of any landing strip. I got about 90 souls onboard that jet, so I need your help." Juni replied hitting the breaks hard as a truck pulled in front of her.
"Shit, but still you are flying civilian jets, what use does a KC have, I mean I can scramble one no doubt emergency is an emergency paperwork be damned, but how do you plan to refuel a civilian jet?"
"They are old Vickers VC10s, this one a super and she is former RAF, during the rebuild it was calculated that removing the inflight refueling for the plane itself was to much effort and cost so we kept it in. All of it should still work as long as you got a drag chute."
"Alright, if you say so I will contact the US Airforce, call you back in minute." with that the call ended and Juni drove onto the terrain of her HQ. She put the bike on the stand next to the main entrance and rushed inside to the control room.
***Tempest 01***
"Captain Garion this Jun'ko Zane, I have been made aware of your situation, can you update me on the currents though?" Came in over the headset and the 3men cockpit crew shared a glance not expecting the boss to jump in.
"Evening Major, currently things are as they are we are maintaining course Hawaii is still the closest, but we lack the range to make it. Passengers so far are holding it well we made clear we have some issues, but no more." Kain replied.
"Well I have good news, I made some quick calls and the US Airforce is scrambling a KC-10 from Travis so I want you to change course and head that way in a straight line, we already cleared this with traffic control. You should run into them in about 90 minutes which I know is tight, but it is the only shot we have. I hope you are not to rusty on your mid air refueling." Juni her tone was light not wanting to come over to heavy.
"Been a while, but I think with the 3 of us here we can manage." Kain replied giving a nod to Zyal as they plotted a new course and started to turn around.
"Good to hear, keep us posted we are watching. HQ out." Juni stated over the coms and briefly the cockpit became quiet.
"Get Max in here." Kain said.
Lucas took the internal phone and a few moments later Max showed up, "So what is the status?" he asked some fear in his tone aware of how bad things where.
Kain looked at Max with a small smile, "Seems the Major got us some fuel curtsy of the US Air Force and the fact that we are flying a former Royal Air Force tanker so we have the means to take some onboard. I will not lie though it is going to be cutting it really close. I assume all the passengers are awake by now?"
Max nodded somewhat relieved that there was hope, "Aye and it good to hear, I assume you want to make an announcement?"
"Correct, so get back and I start in 30 seconds." Kain said.
30 Seconds later his voice sounded throughout the airplane, "May I have your attention please this your captain speaking. As you have been made aware we have some issues, that issue being the rather sizable hole in our wing as some of you will have noticed. The fact is that hole drained a large portion of our fuel leaving us without the means to get back to dry land. However not all is lost, as I speak we are heading to the West coast of the United States in order to rendezvous with a KC tanker, which is a large plane designed to refuel plane in mid air. Because of the nature of this particular plane we have the means to refuel in mid air and with this fuel we can safely land. I will be honest and say it is all cutting it very close, but I have full faith that we will make it all happen and land safely. For now please remain calm and follow the instructions of the cabin crew."
***Andromeda Aviation HQ***
"So far so good major, it seems they are about 10 minutes apart." The operator stated clearly on edge still.
Juni however was calm as she listened in to the communications just like the operator. Inside she was deeply thankful for the fact that Tempest 01 has been an old RAF plane and that above all they had not removed it's ability to take on fuel mid flight. On the other hand it did make her wonder about the fact if the VC10s where just a great idea.
"You do realize you own me more than a few drinks for this one?" The voice of the colonel came in over an open phone line, the good man could not just sit it all out.
"The Hakushu right?" Juni asked knowing he liked his malts.
"That would be lovely, still though I think this might be the first time a civilian passenger plane gets refueled mid flight."
"I just hope it works Colonel."
"I pray it does."
***Tempest 01***
"Tempest 01 this the US Air Force, we got in sight, we will fly over and form up in front of you, please maintain 350knots." Came over the coms.
"Understood US Air Force, maintaining 350 knots awaiting line up and permission before making contact, please note our fuel situation is critical." Kain said and the entire cockpit was tense even the normally relaxed captain who had to direct a damaged jet liner into one of the most tricky and dangerous maneuvers known to pilots. At least the KC crew seemed to be quite relaxed, or at least appeared that way over the radio.
Not much later the giant KC-10 was hovering in front of them. "Tempest 01 you are cleared for approach." came over and Kain took some deep breaths, "Understood approaching now." he said in full control as Zyal simply looked on talking to him about the location of the chute. Slowly ever so slowly the two large planes came together the VC10 struggling in the turbulence of the KC-10 and the damaged wing from the VC10 was not helping things. However after about 3 minutes Kain managed to poke the probe into the chute and formed a connection.
Lucas who had been down in the hull checking the system in the our before opened the valves on his end, "US Air Force we are ready to receive." he stated.
"Copy that, green here to, starting the transfer."
For the next few minutes Kain was in full focus keeping the connection safe until Lucas fianlly gave him the good news, "We are all full, valves closed."
"US Air Force this is Tempest 01 we disengaging all tanks are full. Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearths you have saved 88 souls today." Kain said.
"Tempest 01 you are most welcome, fly safe."
***Andromeda Aviation HQ***
There was a collective sigh of relief at the news in the operations center, "Tempest 01 this is HQ please return to home base." the operator stated.
"You get your drink Colonel, I owe you more than 1 of those." Juni said just as relieved.
"I will hold you to those, sleep well Major." and with that disaster had been narrowly avoided. Tempest 01 returned several hours later to Toronto where the passengers where welcomed back to firm ground and looked after to make sure that those who still wanted could head out on flights as soon as possible. Tempest 01 however would be out of the running for a month or two undergoing repairs and investigation to see if anyone could figure out what had hit the plane. Juni in the mean time got a hefty bill from the US Air Force, but that was one she had absolutely no issue in paying. As for the crew, well Max took a week off, the rest was flying the next day though somehow none of them wanted to fly on anything that could not refuel in mid air for a while.