Hey guys. Here's the next chapter of "Flight 1917". It is also the longest chapter so far. I hope you enjoy it.
Clear Skies and Smooth Landings,
Peter
The Next Day
Peter stood in front of his mirror, adjusting his tie, cap and suit, as well as trying to make his fur look less unkempt. Ivan, who had arrived a few minutes earlier and was now sitting on the couch, said "I've never seen you put so much effort into how you look."
Peter glanced over his shoulder and replied with "I've never had to worry about the press this much before." He turned back to the mirror and nodded, seemingly satisfied that he looked presentable enough, before turning back to Ivan and continuing. "I am Pan Zootopian's Chief Pilot. I represent all of the pilots of Pan Zootopian, so I have to make a good impression. Remember, this is Western media we're talking about. It's not like back home in Russia." Peter said with a joking tone, earning an eye roll from the coyote.
At that moment, Peter's phone let out a ding. Peter took the phone out of his pocket and checked the message.
"We should head down. Juan just said that there should be a car here to pick us up."
Ivan nodded, and both canines grabbed their pilot's bags and headed down. Ivan was just about to open the door when Peter grabbed him by the collar and pulled him back.
"What are you-!" Ivan began to say, before Peter raised a paw to silence him. Much to the coyote's confusion, the wolf then proceeded to glance outside through the window next to the door, before nodding in satisfaction and opening the door and stepping outside with a confused Ivan following suit.
"What was that about?"
"Just wanted to make sure there were no reporters milling around." the wolf replied, nonchalantly, earning an indignant glare from Ivan, which the wolf seemed to know about despite not having looked at the coyote, as he continued.
"Remember, at the start of the jet age, the public saw pilots as being one step below astronauts, not one step above bus drivers."
Ivan scoffed at this, which led Peter to begin smirking, as he added "I know it sounds crazy to us now, but people actually used to respect pilots, instead of complaining that their flight was delayed because the pilot found a fault with the aircraft."
Both pilots shuddered slightly at that, both of them having had to deal with more than their fair share of idiot passengers.
It was at that point that the car sent to pick them up, a limousine, arrived. The two mammals quickly got into the backseat. After Peter closed the door behind him, the driver pulled away from the wolf's apartment.
"So, what's the exact plan of events?" Ivan asked Peter, who was given more details about the schedule due to his seniority.
"Well, we'll head towards the Pan Zootopian headquarters, and from there we'll form into a convoy with Juan's limousine. We'll then travel to the airport with a police escort, and when we get to the airport… well, smile and wave at the crowd, answer a few questions, and then head to the plane."
Ivan nodded, seemingly satisfied with Peter's answer, before something seemed to cross his mind.
"What kind of plane?"
"Zooeing 377, I believe."
Ivan began to smile, before saying "It'll be interesting to fly a large prop that isn't an Il-18."
Peter also smirked.
"Well, there will probably be significantly less chickens, and the cockpit door is probably able to close properly." he said, in reference to a flight they took from Sochi during their career in the air force.*
Both of the canines laughed at the memory of that flight, before their laughter gave way to silence as they approached the Pan Zootopian building. Both mammals had their eyes focused on the outside, hoping to figure out if Peter's assumption about the press was true or not.
As the limousine slowed to a stop in front of the building, the two canines could only see a single news van and 4 reporters. This, along with the presence of a few police cruisers that would be their escorts, put the coyote at ease, while Peter only became more tense.
A few minutes later, Juan and Sarah left the building and walked to the limousine parked in front of Peter and Ivan's one. Juan answered a few of the reporters' questions, before getting in the limousine.
After a few more seconds, the leading limousine pulled out, with Peter and Ivan's one following close behind, with the police cruisers getting into formation around the two limousines.
While observing the city passing by outside, Peter noticed that the two officers in the cruiser nearest to their limousine were Officers Wolford and Fangmeyer, the same officers who were involved in the in the incident three days earlier. Smirking, Peter gave the wolf and tiger a mock salute, which led to the two mammals focusing intently on the road, or pretty much anything other than the window of the limousine. Peter chuckled slightly, which got Ivan's attention.
The coyote gave Peter a questioning look, to which Peter replied by pointing at the police cruiser. Ivan glanced over at the cruiser in question, looked confused for a few seconds before he recognised the two officers, and joined in with Peter's chuckling. A comfortable silence settled on the back of the limousine as both mammals were taking in the sights as they drove through Zootopia.
However, as they drew closer to the airport, Peter's worry began to spike as the road became more and more crowded, with a good few of them being news vans. Getting out his phone to check how much longer it would be until they reached the airport
"T-10 minutes" he thought to himself, before taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down and compose himself. Ivan noticed the wolf's increasing worry, and patted him on the shoulder in an attempt to reassure the larger canine.
Peter gave Ivan a grateful look, but it was blatantly clear that he was still nervous.
The last few minutes of the drive passed by in silence. Peter's nervousness spiked as their limousine came to a stop. It wasn't their turn to face the music just yet, as Juan and Sarah's limousine was currently parked next to the red carpet leading to the terminal's door.
Peter took a deep breath as the horse and maned wolf stepped out of their limousine, and their's moved in to take its place. He looked over at Ivan with a solemn look that seemed to say "It's time". The two canines then moved to open the doors of the limo.
The wolf took a second to compose himself after stepping out of the limousine before closing the door of the limousine and turning to face the large crowd standing outside the airport with a smile. He then began to walk up the red carpet, with Ivan following close behind. As they approached the door, both canines waved at the crowd and reporters, some of which were shouting questions at them. Peter pretended to not have heard them, and simply continued to smile and wave, with Ivan following suit. After about half a minute, they stepped through the doors of the terminal. The two canines let out sighs of relief, glad to not need to deal with the press.
"Well, that was awful." Peter said to Ivan. However, it wasn't the coyote that replied.
"It's the press. What were you expecting?"
Both canines looked up to find the source of the voice, Sarah, standing in front of them.
"Touché" was Peter's reply.
Sarah then gestured for them to follow her, which the two canines did. The group proceeded to the security checkpoint in silence.
As they walked through the surprisingly quiet terminal, Peter silently wondered how lax security will be.
"Will we even have to go through the metal detector? Well, we're about to find out."
The three canines were the only ones at the security checkpoint, other than the security guards. The security facilities were pretty basic, with each area containing an X-Ray machine and a metal detector, without a single full body scanner in sight.
As they approached the checkpoint, the security agents looked up in their direction. However, most of them lost interest upon seeing that all three of the approaching mammals were wearing Pan Zootopian uniforms.
"Ivan, you go to checkpoint 1, Peter to 2 and I'll go to 3." Sarah instructed the two pilots, both of whom nodded in acknowledgement.
As Peter walked up to checkpoint 2, he was approached by a security agent, a young looking deer who looked to be barely older than 20 (How Peter could tell this, he didn't know).
"Could I see some ID, Sir?"
"Sure." Peter replied as he reached into his breast pocket and pulled out his Pan Zootopian issued ID and showed it to the agent.
After checking the ID, the agent nodded and gestured for Peter to put his briefcase through the X-Ray machine. The wolf had to resist the urge to roll his eyes at the obvious instructions.
"I know. Have you failed to notice that I'm Pan Zootopian's chief pilot? I think I know how airport security works." Peter fumed silently as he put his briefcase onto the conveyor belt and walked towards the metal detector. Knowing his luck, Peter was expecting the metal detector to go off, but fate seemed to decide to give him a break, as it remained silent.
The deer looked at him with mild confusion, seemingly surprised that the wolf knew what to do. Peter responded to this with a straight face, saying "I've been through security many times. I know how this works" in a deadpan tone. He then picked up his briefcase, which had passed through the X-Ray machine without issue in the meantime. He then walked over to join Sarah and Ivan, who had already passed through security.
Sarah then turned around and began to walk towards the gate, seemingly annoyed at the agent for holding Peter up, as the other agents basically waved them through after seeing their IDs, as most of the agents had the idea that airline employees wouldn't try to hijack a plane from their own airline.
Peter noticed all these, and thought "No PSA 1771 or FedEx 705, huh?"
He wasn't sure how he felt about that. On one hand, it would make his time passing through the airport significantly easier. On the other hand, it left a major hole in security that someone might exploit in the future.
"If I don't say anything, it might lead to plane crashes in the future. But if I do try to increase security, it will piss off pretty much everyone, because security will take longer, and be more expensive. So, even if I try to get something done to increase security, people will probably ignore it."
After contemplating it for a few seconds, Peter came to the conclusion that "Some lessons need to be learned the hard way."
They continued to walk towards the gate in silence, with both Peter and Ivan looking around both the terminal, and when they could see outside, the apron and taxiways. Both pilots noted that all the aircraft were props, like L-1049s, DC-4s, DC-6s and Zooeing 377s, in Pan Zootopian livery, as well as many other international airlines, with Peter even noticing an Aeroflot Il-18 in the distance.
Before the pilots could fanboy over all these retro aircraft, they reached the gate, with Peter noting that the 377 was just pulling into the gate. Juan, who was sitting in a lounge next to the gate, stood up and walked over to the group.
"Peter. Ivan. Glad to see that you both got here without any issues."
Peter nodded in acknowledgement, before gesturing towards the 377 and asking "Is she empty, or do we have to wait for the passengers to exit?"
The stallion glanced over at the aircraft, before saying "No, it's empty. It was just brought in from one of our hangars."
As soon as he said that, the door of the 377 began to open.
"Well, that's our que." Juan announced, and led the group through a door leading to the outside of the building, down some steps leading down to the apron, and along the apron to a set of stairs leading up to the open door of the 377, where there was a jaguar wearing a Pan Zootopian flight attendant uniform, who greeted them as they boarded.
"Welcome aboard. My name is Monica. I'll be your lead flight attendant today. If there is anything I can do to help, let me know."
Juan, Sarah and Ivan gave polite nods and smiles in response, while Peter lagged behind a bit, which Monica noticed.
"Can I help you, sir?" she asked with a cheerful tone.
"Yes. You see, my parents will be on this flight, and I'm pretty sure this is their first flight. Can you keep an eye on them to make sure they're not getting airsick, or panicking, and so on?"
"Certainly sir. What are their names?"
"Vivian and John Wilde."
The jaguar made a note of the names, before nodding and saying "Ok. Is that all?"
Peter nodded. "Yes. Thank you."
He then turned to follow the rest of the group towards the front of the aircraft. He took a few steps, before he seemed to remember something. Stopping and turning towards the flight attendant, he added "Also, just to let you know, my parents are foxes."
For the first time since he boarded the plane, Peter saw Monica's smile disappear, being replaced with a look of confusion. However, she didn't voice this confusion, giving a nod instead.
Peter then made his way towards the front of the aircraft, into the business class cabin, where Ivan, Juan and Sarah were waiting for him.
"What kept you?" Juan asked upon noticing Peter's arrival.
"There was something I needed to discuss with Monica." Peter said with a tone saying that he won't be elaborating.
The other three noticed this, and decided that it would be best to move on.
"Alright. We were just about to discuss the schedule once we get to Zeattle." Sarah said, attempting to change the subject.
"I was wondering about that." Peter said as he sat down in the window seat, before turning his attention back to the maned wolf.
Sarah nodded, and took out a tablet, bringing up the timetable she had prepared.
"So, when we get to Zeattle, you" she pointed at Peter "will have an hour to get some food. Then, we're going to Zooeing field, where there's going to be the roll out ceremony of the 707, where you'll give your speech, and accept the 707 into Pan Zootopian's fleet. Then you, Ivan and some Zooeing engineers will check the plane over, and, if all goes well, you'll take off about four hours after we arrive in Zeattle."
Peter repeated the list in his head, before nodding.
"Sounds good to me."
Ivan thought it over as well. He, unlike Peter, had a question.
"What will I be doing while he's giving his speech?"
"Whatever you want. Just be at Zooeing field for the safety checks."
Ivan nodded in confirmation.
While this conversation was going on, Peter had noticed that the rest of the passengers had started boarding. This led to the wolf keeping a keen eye on the crowd, hoping to spot his parents. It took a few moments of searching before he spotted Vivian, and who he could only assume was John walking alongside her towards the airstairs. But what took Peter by surprise was that following some distance behind her in the crowd was Nick, and, if the pair of bunny ears were anything to go by, Judy.
"So, he did opt to take my advice. At least we now know that he probably does have a crush on Judy." Peter thought, making a mental note to inform his mother later.
A few minutes later, all the passengers were aboard and the door had been closed. The flight attendants had begun their safety demonstration. Looking out his window, Peter could both see and feel as the first engine was started, the pistons firing to get the four bladed propeller up to speed. Within a few minutes, this process was repeated with the other three engines, and the plane began to be pushed back from the gate. During the pushback, Peter heard the telltale sound of the flaps being extended. Shortly afterwards, the pushback ended, the flight crew set the parking brakes, and began the flight control checks.
Peter continued to observe the aircraft silently, judging the actions of the flight crew. After the conclusion of the flight control tests, and after (Peter hoped) getting permission from air traffic control, the rumble of the engines began to increase slightly, and the plane began to slowly roll forwards while making a few turns to get onto the correct taxiways to get it onto the runway from which it would take to the air.
Peter was keeping a close eye on the taxiway signs, making a mental map of the airport for future reference, until the plane stopped, holding short of a runway which, according to Peter, was 31L. After idling for a few seconds, the aircraft lurched forward, before turning and getting lined up with the runway and stopping for a second time. This was it. The last chance to diagnose an issue before beginning the takeoff roll. Maybe it was because of not being in control, or maybe it was because of what happened on his last flight, but Peter was nervous.
After a few more seconds of idling, the rumble of the engines was replaced by a roar as the four piston engines spooled up to full power. Peter tensed up a little as the plane began to accelerate down the runway, the wolf attempting to check as many parts as he could. But there were no issues with this aircraft, and after what to Peter felt like a much longer than normal takeoff roll, the 377 lifted off the ground, followed shortly by the clunk of the landing gear being raised. After about a minute, the flaps were also raised, and the aircraft continued to climb to its cruising altitude.
Now being sure that everything was going to be fine, Peter visibly relaxed, which Ivan noticed, leading to him chuckling at the sight of the veteran pilot getting preflight jitters, which Peter noticed, and just rolled his eyes while muttering "After what happened last time I have the right to be nervous."
Due to his enhanced hearing, Ivan heard Peter's muttering. At first, he didn't get what Peter was talking about, until it suddenly clicked, which immediately turned the coyote's chuckling into a wince. He was about to apologize, but Peter waved it off and patted him on the shoulder, silently saying that it was fine, and that there are no hard feelings.
He then said "Well, I'm going to take a nap. Wouldn't want to be tired when flying the 707. Wake me up if something happens."
The wolf then pulled his cap down over his eyes, reclined his chair, and passed out.
*A/N This is based on a story my grandfather told me.