Eric Von ZEFFER was at the Controls..... and he was a bit nervous... he had only been behind the yoke... in the right seat for a few hours and now here he was alone in San Andros with the plane as the Pilot in Command.... and it was packed to the gill's with the family that owned the plane and needed to get to Nassau Pronto! As they had a commercial flight to catch.... that evening....
It was dusk and the sun was two fingers above the horizon to further enhance the pleasantries of the situation..... one woman on board had mentioned she had been on the prior days flight in the same Airplane and said the right engine had been intermittently back firing.... and had anything been done about 'IT' ? Joys...... he thought to himself..... he did not know what to say.... except... 'Don't worry about it mam' he got both engines started and discovered the brakes were spongy..... A couple of the young children on board were bickering and another crying.... it was very soothing....
He could not do a proper run up as the plane would move forward ... prior to reaching run up R.P.M.
So he figured that meant... see how she was producing power on the take off roll... in other words just GO for it! and Forget the Mag. check...The old balls to the wall trick... up and out suck the gear up... and besides .... the runway was plenty long in Nassau.... so he could just come in behind the power curve operating at Gross weight or over a bit and drop it in and chop the power... there should be plenty of room to come to a stop without any brakes... or the little he had... he wondered why it was the Starboard engine had been belching the prior day? as he adjusted the trim... or so he was told by a passenger ......... maybe just a little shit in the fuel or perhaps a little water... causing it to pop.... ?
and Everyone was so anxious to go.... and the sun was setting...... he had lots of time in the Cherokee 6 and of course the 182 172's and 150's and Arrows.... but only about 5 hours in the Navajo with the suspect engine on its starboard side..... one of the two and he had not wrapped up his multi engine rating just quite yet...... but never fear he had read about how to handle engine failures... in the flight manuals ... several times...
Way he had it figured worst case scenario was just pull the power back on both engines .... or... Step on the good engine and that same rudder peddle and lower that wing and see what happened ... as long as he was not Slow.... in dumping the nose....
He had a massive set of Balls........ for a 21 year old.... His Resume might read.... 'Mi Name es Erich Von ZZZeffer.... I have only 5 howers is za Navajo..... but.... I feel da confidenze... ve vill Make it'........
Fly the Bahamas........
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