Read Beyond the Sea for Free Online Page B

He was quiet for a few moments, and then swore under his breath. “Wet season is supposed to be over. It’s May! Goddamn global warming. I don’t know where the hell that storm came from. Seemed like a full-out cyclone. The wind was too strong, and we changed course toward Kiribati to land and wait it out. And then… Hell, I can’t believe the rain came down that fast.”
    Brian almost seemed to be talking to himself now. When he didn’t go on, Troy asked, “But planes fly in rain all the time, right?”
    “ Yes.”
    “ So what was different?”
    After a few moments, Brian said, “Huh? Sorry.”
    “ It’s okay. You should rest.” The net brushed against him, and Troy jumped a little before adjusting it. It was claustrophobic in the blackness to have the net on his head and around him, but he could hear mosquitoes whining. He was usually catnip to the little fuckers, so the net had to stay.
    “ No, I’m fine.” Brian cleared his throat. “In torrential rain, when a high volume of water falls too quickly, a film develops on the wings and fuselage. It becomes like…waves almost.”
    “ So that causes friction?”
    “ Exactly!” Brian sat up a little straighter, his voice more animated. “The friction builds, dragging on the aircraft.” His elbow brushed Troy’s. “Oh, I guess you can’t see what I’m doing with my hands. Do you really want to hear all this?”
    “ Totally. Keep going.”
    “ Just tell me if I’m boring you. I can talk for hours about aeronautics.”
    “ Well, I was going to watch that new Matt Damon movie, but I guess that’s off the menu.”
    Brian chuckled, and warmth spread through Troy even as he shivered in the night. Brian continued, “So when there’s too much friction, the lift is compromised, and the stalling speed increases. The engines flamed out. We dove, but couldn’t restart them.”
    “ But why would you dive? Isn’t that just bringing us closer to crashing?”
    “ It’s like… Imagine you’re driving uphill and your car stalls. If you keep trying to go up, you won’t get anywhere. There’s no momentum. No speed. You need to go downhill. The velocity restarts the stalled engines. Assuming the flameout wasn’t due to fuel starvation.”
    “ Huh. Okay, that makes sense. But it didn’t work?”
    Brian sighed. “The engines might have ingested too much water. I can’t say for sure. But the bottom line is that the engines were gone.”
    “ So basically we were fucked.”
    “ Indeed. Without the rain and wind, we could have tried gliding to the airport.”
    “ Glide ? I mean, I know it was a small jet, but seriously?”
    “ You’d be amazed what aerodynamics can do. Transat two-thirty-six heavy glided across a big chunk of the Atlantic to the Azores in 2001. Three hundred people on board. They had a fuel leak, and the pilot soared her in. Some of the best damn flying in history. Granted, they fucked up the fuel transfer, but hindsight’s twenty-twenty. They saved all the souls on board.” He was silent a moment. “That’s what matters,” he added quietly.
    Troy thought of Paula and didn’t know what to say. He fidgeted in the oppressive darkness, fiddling with the net. He felt better when Brian was talking, so he cast about for something to say or ask. “What does that mean, when they call a plane heavy? Is it just like, literally big?”
    “ Hmm? Oh, yes. It’s a plane capable of a hundred and thirty-six tons MTOW or more. Sorry. Maximum takeoff weight. So yes, when a plane is designated ‘heavy,’ it’s literally heavy.”
    “ Okay, so why do they say that?” Troy wanted to keep him alert and talking.
    “ Because of the wake turbulence. If a smaller plane got too close, it could flip over. ATC—air traffic control—makes sure a heavy jet gets a wider berth, and other pilots hear the call sign ‘heavy’ and know to stay clear. Does that make sense?”
    “ Right, I get it. You know a lot about flying.” He laughed softly. “Duh.