ROMANTIC FLIGHT
SYNOPSIS - Hiccup Haddock is a young Berkian Air Force Night Fury pilot who does air experience flights [AEF] and training for his local flight club in his down time. When he takes a claustrophobic young blonde up for an AEF, she shows him there is a life beyond just being up in the clouds.
"Oi Hiccup! Change o' plans fer yer late afternoon slot, little Gustav Larson had an accident so he won't be going up today. A young lass by the name o' Astrid Hofferson'll be going up for an AEF instead." Came a loud Scottish voice down from the control tower to the waiting room below it.
The man himself perked up at the thought of doing something different on his only low-light shift all week. He had 3 months leave from the air force and the lack of anything to do was driving him crazy. AEF's could do loops and wingovers, but those learning had to do it themselves so were relatively boring. But before Hiccup could fully get excited he was shot down by the next call;
"Oh yer, she's also claustrophobic so ye'd better take her up in the Scuttleclaw [1]. NO AEROBATICS."
Hiccup groans. He had only ever taken up two claustrophobic people before, but they both forced him down minutes after take off because the cockpit was too small. The Scuttleclaw was a larger aircraft, used to be used in the air force for initial training and it has a larger than normal cockpit with side by side seating. The canopy itself was more like a bubble than something streamlined.
"Why am I always lumped with the claustrophobic ones!? Can't Snot do it!?" Hiccup called back. He was more than a little put out from this.
"Yer know Snotlout is grounded fer flyin' over Mildew's field at five feet tryin' ter impress Ruffnut! Now go an' draw up a new flight plan!"
Gobber's statement was final. Hiccup put his sketchbook down and picked up the clipboard in front of him. He pulled off what he was planning on doing with Gustav today and put it at the back somewhere, out of sight. Gustav was a good kid, he just had overconfidence issues. A mini-Snotlout, if you will.
Hiccup's plan for an 'aerobatic-less' flight involved simply taking off and taking the plane for a spin around the local airspace. He drew up the same flightpath as he normally would use for AEF, but it was flat and didn't have loops every kilometre or so. Hiccup left the altitude request the same as if he were doing aerobatics. When Gobber checks over flight plans, he rarely checks much beyond the actual shape of the flightpath. Hiccup hopes this is one of those times. If this Astrid wants to pull a loop, then they can do and he won't be violating any air laws.
Making a flight plan takes a little while, and when he's finished, there is little time left before this slot is supposed to take place. Hiccup climbs the ladder to the control tower to garner permission from Gobber for the flight. As the only Air Traffic Controller in the tower, he is ultimately the person who will let him take off or not. Thankfully for Hiccup, Gobber has so much on his plate at the minute he barely glances over the paper, preferring to trust him over having to take his eyes off the busy skies on his RADAR screen, while bellowing into the radio at the same time.
"All's good. Astrid's wit' Val at the minute doing chute trainin', should still be some fuel left over from the last flight. Best go down now and do yer pre-flight checks."
Hiccup didn't argue with that, he was already halfway down the ladder before Gobber had even finished.
A man can grow old waiting for a rookie to complete their pre-flight checks. But Hiccup had grown up around Scuttleclaws so he knocked off the checks in less than 10 minutes. No water in the fuel tanks, flaps and slats are steady, no smokey nuts and bolts and no obvious wear and tear on the tyres or brake pads.
Hiccup is just climbing into the cockpit via the side ladder when he sees movement out of the corner of his eye. Looking over he sees his mother and a blonde woman with her. They're walking into the small building by the side of the runway where all the helmets and flight suits are kept. There's everything from the most basic helmet, to ones with microphones, built in shades and even a spare one for Hiccup's Night Fury.
He checks the avionics, fuel and lights. It wouldn't do to have to land without a nose wheel or wing root lights, even Hiccup would struggle to land in complete darkness.
Time to fire up the engine. Fuel-air ratio is set to rich, brakes are on and throttle is open. Hiccup pushes the button to start the engine, and it starts perfectly. All that is to be done now is to wait for Astrid and his mother to come out.
The wait isn't long. Hiccup is waiting leaning on the wing root on the passenger side of the aircraft when the two women walk up. Astrid is in a green jump suit with similarly coloured helmet. Her hair is tucked into the jumpsuit and the shades are up, so Hiccup can see her face clearly [2]. She may not be into aerobatics, but that was only partially offset by her looks, Hiccup couldn't remember the last time he gave someone a second look.
"Astrid this is my son and your pilot, Hiccup." Valka said loudly, having to half shout over the engine which was ticking over. "Best pilot on Berk, you're in good hands if he's piloting!"
"Thanks mum! I'm standing right here you know…" Hiccup said, mocking embarrassment. Then he turned to Astrid and motioned for her to climb the ladder to the wing root to get to the cockpit. Astrid however, was hesitant to move.
After a minute of glaring at the aircraft like her life depended on it, Astrid climbed the ladder. Hiccup made sure she stayed on the roughly textured section along the wing root closest to the fuselage, which was appropriately labelled 'Walk here'.
Once he had made sure Astrid had made it to the cockpit without being blown away by the rotor wash, Valka removed the step ladder and shouted "stay safe" to Hiccup. The man himself scooted around the tail to his side and jumped onto the wing, followed by sliding into his seat and pulling the canopy shut with him. Hiccup took a glance at Astrid, who was white as a sheet and just staring directly ahead, zoned out.
They couldn't fly like this. Hiccup could see it now, halfway down the runway Astrid having a complete meltdown and causing them to crash. It would only ever happen to Hiccup.
Much to his now broken heart, Hiccup went through the procedure to power down the engine. He'll have to do his checks again if they get flying, but that looks unlikely.
When the propeller stopped spinning and the cylinder heads in the engine came to rest, the cockpit was left in an eery silence. Hiccup followed up by opening the canopy back up.
"Looks like you could do with the air." He said, in as soothing a tone as he could. Hiccup couldn't fathom what was to be scared about while flying. Statistically, it was safer than driving.
They sat there.
And sat there.
And sat there.
Until Astrid finally moved from her completely rigid position and tilted her head back, resting on the headrest, letting out a heavy sigh.
"Well, I'm a coward." She said quietly. Hiccup looked at her out of the corner of his eye.
"Pardon me?" Whats this?
"My uncle Finn bet that I would be too scared to go up in a plane." She says bluntly. "I'm sorry to waste your time." She started to unbuckle her harness which she's somehow managed to do up herself, but her hands were shaking too much to be of much help.
"Before you go, what's worry's you so about flying? I commonly go at over mach 3, flying at low level at both night time and in adverse weather. Never had a problem. This thing," He smacks the dashboard with both hands, "does absolute tops 195 knots and can't do night or adverse weather. In fact on the topic of speed, we even won't be pushing 150 knots…"
"Knots…?" Astrid replies, still fiddling with her harness. And still failing.
"Sorry, 360 kilometres per hour tops and we wouldn't be exceeding 280."
Suddenly Astrid let out a raw-throated yell and punched her harness connector. However, since this was a solid lump of metal, it won the fight and her hand was sent reeling with a yelp from its owner.
Hiccup jumped at the sudden show of violence;
"Astrid! Please calm down!" He pleaded, "No-one here is going to hurt you."
She promptly gave up with her assault and rested her head back on the headrest.
"Whats up?" Hiccup asked again, "If you don't mind my asking. I've never encountered anyone who has had such an adverse reaction to being in a cockpit before…"
There was more silence. Hiccup could hear the wind flowing over the propeller blades, creating a slight howling noise, and even the sun beginning to set at the end of the runway. He was just about to give up and undo both of their buckles strapping into the plane when Astrid made a move. She slowly turned to face him, and it was the first time he got a good look at her face close up and not at a slight distance.
He was unable to see her hair, or sides of the head. It was just the face. The first thing that he saw were the bottomless blue eyes. Sapphires. And they spoke volumes to him, what it seemed she was unable to put into words. And most of all, he understood. Hiccup knew what fear was and how it could incapacitate anybody who it latched it's claws in to.
"I know what it's like you know, to have a deep-rooted fear." He said quietly. Astrid wasn't looking Hiccup into the eyes beforehand, but she was now. Hiccup could see her swallow nervously.
Hiccup had never tried to comfort anybody before. Let alone to this level.
"I know it's not much to go on, I can't put how it feels to fly into words so just let me show you. I'll take her up slowly and we'll take a flat flight path. Please, Astrid."
He could see the cogs turning inside her head. Planning, deliberating. Followed by a nod. However small and slight it was, it was still a nod.
"Right. I just need to go back out and redo some preflight checks as…well as you can see, the engine is turned off so uhhh…I'll be back in a sec."
To go with the small nod, there was an equally small smile which cracked on her face.
He didn't need to do as many checks as last time, so Hiccup mainly centred on the engine and mechanical components.
Sliding back into the cockpit, Astrid portrayed a completely different persona to the person who he'd left just a minute ago. She was moving her head and upper torso around the cockpit, looking at all the different dials and instruments on the dash and the rudder pedals by her feet. It was the quickest change in face that Hiccup had ever seen.
"Well, I can't say I'm not welcoming the change. I'm going to close the canopy now, you ok with that?" He asked, hand on the grip at the top of the canopy.
There was a small break in Astrid's new fortress, but it was quickly covered up. She nodded enthusiastically before looking straight ahead, past the propeller.
Hiccup yanked the one-piece canopy shut and locked it in. The engine was restarted and he made connection with the tower;
"Tower this is Toothless, radio check over."
"Toothless…?" Astrid quizzed. Hiccup waved his hand to show he'd answer her in a minute.
"Toothless, Tower loud and clear. How copy?" Came Gobber. At this point, Astrid waved her pigtail [3] in the air, which Hiccup promptly plugged into the centre console so she could hear what was happening on the radio.
"Loud and clear too tower, request permission to taxi to runway for immediate takeoff."
"Yeh realise it'll be dark by time yeh git' back after yer delay? Yeh passenger alrite' wit' that?"
Hiccup looked at Astrid who hesitated again, immediately causing his heart to sink. She gave confirmation though, as if realising Hiccup's heart was hovering somewhere near rock bottom.
"She's good with it tower."
"Alrigh', now git' out' there! Tower out!"
"Well, that could have gone worse…" Hiccup said, taking the brakes off and letting the little plane slowly roll forwards.
"Anyway. Toothless?" Astrid asked, curiosity highly evident in her voice.
"Oh that. Yeah, I fly a Night Fury with the tail code 70074-1355, which looks like the word 'Toothless'. Combined with the fact that Night Furies have retractable weapons bays and well, the name stuck."
They made it to the end of the taxiway and onto the runway itself, Hiccup lining up dead-centre. He looked right at Astrid, who was looking nervous again.
"It's not too late to turn around you know." Hiccup said into the microphone, hoping he wouldn't startle her.
There was a pause of no more than a second where there was no response from Astrid, and that was all it took for Hiccup's heart to drop and begin planning the turnaround to get off the runway. Yet, Astrid steeled her face and nodded;
"Let's go."
Hiccup blinked and then turned to look forward. He quickly gave one last look over his both his shoulders while testing the controls to make sure his flaps and stabs were good before pushing the throttle forward.
There were two options he could take; the first being taking a slow takeoff so as not to scare Astrid, with the disadvantage being it was more dangerous the longer they were on the ground, and the second option being Hiccup go full throttle. It might scare Astrid to absolute Hel and back, but at least they would be in the air quicker; safer than on the ground.
Hiccup picked the latter.
"Hold on!" He said, giving her two seconds from when they started rolling to prepare.
Through his peripheral vision, Hiccup saw Astrid grab each of the available handles both sides of her.
'Good, she's not frozen again.' Hiccup thought to himself, pushing the throttle to the maximum.
Hiccup revelled in the feeling of the acceleration, the force pushing him back into his seat. Of course, this was nothing compared to doing a maximum performance take-off in Toothless, but it was surely enough for Astrid.
When their wheels were barely off the ground, Hiccup glanced sideways and would have fallen out of the plane had he not been in an enclosed cockpit:
Astrid was grinning, outright looking like it was the happiest day of her life.
Hiccup could not believe it, was everything ok with this girl upstairs?
They were still accelerating, Hiccup having only pushed the throttle down seconds prior. Astrid gave a loud "WOO!" and Hiccup could not help but grin himself.
Perhaps this flight would not be so bad after all.
"Alright so I'm going to point the nose up to about fifteen degrees and then apply full left stick with full right rudder, I want you to ghost the stick and pedals, you understand that?" Hiccup said, surprised at how well this girl could fly.
"I'll probably get it more when you do it." Came the response in Hiccup's ears.
He nodded, "Halfway round take I'll be taking my feet off the rudder, ready?"
"Shoot."
Hiccup pulled back on the control column, and then moved it to the left, concurrently pressing down with his right foot onto the pedals. He felt Astrid on both the stick and the pedals, though barely. It was like flying an aircraft after a deep clean, everything was slightly stiff and in need of a good long flight to loosen up again.
They were quickly upside down, and Hiccup released the rudder, Astrid following his actions at the exact time required. Hiccup was more impressed by the minute.
They eventually flattened out. The wingover was a simple enough maneuverer, but separated the naturals from the rest. Taking the rudder off too soon meant you would still end up with a slight elevation, and too late you were in a slight descent.
"So then, you ready to try yourself?" Hiccup asked, though he already knew the answer.
"Definitely! You going to ghost my controls again like the loop?"
"Yep, ok then you have control."
"I have control, here goes…"
Astrid manipulated the controls exactly as Hiccup had, and ended up with the attitude indicator almost exactly level. The woman herself whooped at the achievement and Hiccup let her keep control a little while longer.
Hiccup gazed out through the canopy at the setting sun. As much as Hiccup wanted to stay out longer, it didn't look like they would be able to.
"Ok I have control."
"You have control."
"To say I'm impressed is an understatement. As much as I'd like to stay out here and do more loops and wingovers with you we need to head back."
Hiccup hesitated before continuing; "Want to try your hand at landing?"
Not something he had ever said to someone on their first flight, let alone someone with such a bad case of claustrophobia not an hour before.
Astrid looked at him, and he looked at her. Both of them had their shades up and were looking the other right in the eye. There were no other aircraft up for miles around and Hiccup would be able to tell if they were doing anything other than straight and level flight, so it was fine for them to look away from the front temporarily.
"Are you uh, you sure you want me to land?" Astrid quizzed. To her, performing in the air was one thing where there was no chance of hitting anything, but landing was going the exact opposite. A controlled crash, if you will.
Hiccup chuckled, "It's fairly simple, keep power moderate and extend the slats and flaps, keep the nose up and increase power slightly at the end to lower the rate of descent. I'll talk you through it."
Astrid shrugged, "Well you've got me through everything else today, landing should be a cakewalk…"
Hiccup stared into Astrid's eyes a little longer before breaking off, not wanting to appear like a creep. He felt her own eyes linger on him for a few extra moments before turning away and gazing at the sunset.
"Tower, Toothless, request permission to land."
"Toothless, Tower, bring her down, yeh passenger alrite' wit' all tha' up there?"
The pair glanced at each other again, and just as Hiccup was about to reply, Astrid buzzed her own reply in;
"Tower, Astrid, never been better!"
There was a moment where the only noise was the engine, and Hiccup was pretty sure he could hear Gobber just staring at his radio set.
"Astrid, Tower, it's good tae know yeh'r havin' fun but please leave th' comms fer' 'Iccup there.
The man himself snorted and lined the plane up with the runway.
"Ok Astrid, you have control."
"I have control." She said, struggling not to laugh, with Hiccup having the same problem.
After landing, Hiccup left the plane running for the next occupant, Fishlegs and Heather going up for a late-night flight. There was enough fuel left for a couple more hours and Heather needed the night experience for her job.
The pair crossed the tarmac toward stores to drop off their helmets and jumpsuits.
"So how much does Finn owe you for doing all this?" Hiccup asked
"Enough for several pints at the pub. 'Fearless' Finn, we've been caving, sailing, scaling mountains and other things together. We tried so many different things, something which I would really enjoy. Sure, I enjoyed all that, but I never managed to get into an aircraft to try flying. After today though…"
Astrid stops mid-sentence and points to a plane half poking out of a hangar. The only reason they'd seen it was due to the lights being on.
"What plane is that?" She asked, Hiccup detecting something in her voice, not able to put his finger on it.
It was bright blue and yellow, designed from the ground up to be thrown around and used to perform.
"That is our stunt-plane, Stormfly. She doesn't have a pilot at the minute, we were hoping she could perform at the local airshow but it doesn't look like that's going to happen now…"
Astrid turned to look at Hiccup, and looked him in the eye with a sly smirk on her face and fire in her eyes.
"How long to train before I can fly her? Solo?"
Yeah, there's some fairly technical wording in this…sorry! But it's realistic. This was an absolute joy to write, reminiscing my own time performing aerobatics in a Grob Tutor or an Ikarus C42!
[1] - For the curious, I am basing this off the T-67 Firefly. I know the name 'Zippleback' would be more suited to side-by-side seating than 'Scuttleclaw' because you know, two heads v one, but eh.
[2] - Also for the curious, the helmet these two are using is the RAF Mk.15 flying helmet.
[3] - On the topic of helmets, the audio jack used to plug a helmet in for radio is occasionally called a 'pigtail', other branches use this term for a wire which connects to missiles sending the 'launch' signal.
There will be a sequel, Astrid and Stormfly will return…
Thanks for reading!