Living Within Four Elements
Ch 4
"Thankyou trade winds," Bella said, after checking her GPS reading.
Flying straight and level at fourteen thousand feet, Bella had a ground speed of just over two hundred knots aided by the tail winds that she'd mapped out for that altitude.
That meant that she'd stripped an hour off their flight time to Honolulu.
The aircraft was performing perfectly and was lovely to fly as the Grumman boats always were.
With the autopilot on there wasn't really much to do, so as time went by, both Bella and Edward knew that the boredom would inevitably be alleviated by chatter.
Bella was dreading exposing her life story to a total stranger. Luckily for her, Edward was an open book and had no problem spilling his guts when Bella cleverly started a conversation that was focussed on him.
Bella was genuinely interested in learning all about the attractive man from down under but wanted to keep the discussion safe and restricted to what they had in common.
"So Edward, what does a man from Australia want with a flying boat?" she asked.
"Do you want the long version or the short version?"
"We've got time," Bella smiled.
"Well..." Edward started.
In his younger years, Edward was a bit of a hellraiser. His father was a pearl diver in the tourist town of Broome. It was a lucrative but dangerous profession and of course as a kid, Edward wanted a piece of the action.
But he was still too young at only fifteen.
Education up in the north west was limited back in the eighties. The local high school didn't offer the two senior years, so kids were often sent to boarding school or enrolled in distance education to complete their high school diploma.
Edward's grades weren't the best; he figured he didn't need a great education to make heaps of money. He liked girls and partying and the carefree 'Broome-time' lifestyle.
But that wasn't going to continue if his mother had anything to do with it - not while the boy was living under her roof.
So a deal was struck.
Edward's grades had to improve, and when he was home for the holidays, he would be kept busy working as a ringer at a cattle station not far from the town.
He also had to go to university to study whatever he wanted. All expenses paid, but he had to stick it out.
If, after all that, he still wanted to dive, then he could.
Edward was petulant about it at first but conceded none the less.
He found out that he actually liked being a ringer. He could still get to town on the weekends with the other blokes, still got to party and still got the girls - especially since they loved cowboys and their tall stories.
He just never told his mother about it.
Luckily for Edward, the station owner liked him and took him under his wing. He knew that this wayward kid could do more with his life and encouraged him to learn how to work smarter, not harder. He said that Uni was not a bad start and convinced Edward to take key courses for his future.
So Edward did. He majored in aquaculture and minored in business, and by his final year, he was interested in getting his pilot's licence because his boss said it could come in handy in the Kimberley.
Much to his mother's frustration Edward still become a pearl diver, and the proceeds were put towards learning to fly.
Fast forward five years and his family got the opportunity of a lifetime.
A fifty percent share in a small pearl farm a couple of hundred kilometres north of Broome, on the remote Dampier Peninsula, northwest Western Australia.
In order to afford it, Edwards family had to pool all of their resources and sell their house, only to live in what was not much more than a shed in one of the loneliest places on earth.
They say that without risk, there's no reward.
That little venture was eventually bought out and became the Kimberley South Sea Pearl Company.
Fifteen years ago, Edward had decided to try his hand at tourism, and set up an eco-friendly tourist resort not too far, but far enough, away from the pearling base.
While accessible by unsealed road, the corrugations in the red earth could shake vehicles to pieces in the dry season, and on the other side of the coin, it could be a complete wash out in the wet.
Similarly the gravel Airstrip could also get washed out, leaving only access by boat at certain times of the year and that was also at the mercy of the elements.
Edward often chartered amphibious aircraft from either Broome or Darwin.
Indeed, over the years one of the associated Pearling companies had acquired three Mallard flying boats, which quickly proved their worth within the industry.
And that was fine until demand started to outstrip convenience.
"... Short of sealing the whole road through outback country, buying a suitable airplane was actually their cheapest option," Edward said, his story coming full circle.
"And here we are." Bella said.
"Yeah, here we are. It's the next step that has so much potential." Edward said with a nod.
"No, I mean here we are," Bella said pointing out into the distance.
About twenty miles ahead and punching through the clouds were the twin peaks of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.
The Big Island's dormant volcanic mountains stood like two sentinels guarding America's fiftieth state, and stuck out like a welcome beacon for weary travellers.
They marked the conclusion of the first two thousand miles of their journey across the mighty Pacific Ocean.
Bella couldn't believe how the time had flown (pardon the pun) She was happy that Edward had taken the lead in telling his story, because it saved her from having to disclose hers.
For now anyway.
Starting their decent to the entry corridor over Kalaupapa and Molokai, Air Traffic Control guided her out over the water south of Honolulu International Airport. At one thousand feet above sea level, Bella followed the directive to turn back to landfall for finals, leaving her a straight in approach to runway 4R.
After three greens and a visual check on the landing gear, they made an uneventful landing. While she taxied, Bella started to chat to the Fixed Base Operator who would be looking after them on the ramp.
A grounds-person marshalled them in nearer to the hanger, before Bella cut the engines and successively shut the Mallard down leaving them in the relative quiet of the cockpit. Making a move, they stretched the kinks out and climbed gingerly onto Honolulu soil.
The day wasn't over though. Checks had to be made, fluids had to be topped up and the aircraft had to be put to bed before the next leg of their epic journey.
Only then could they retire for the day to stay in the comfort of a hotel.
Edward was pleasantly surprised when Bella was unperturbed by the news that they were going to share rooms for the remaining nights. Since the original plan had been for two blokes traveling together, there wasn't an issue with occupying twin singles. But with a sheila he wasn't so sure.
He needn't have worried though; they were both pretty wrecked after the long day and hit the hay early, ready to do it all again tommorow.
The following day, long before the sun had topped Diamond Head crater, the pair had to wait for customs to give them the all-clear before they could start the second leg.
Their course was for Majuro, Marshall Islands, located in the geographic centre of the Pacific about two thousand miles south-southwest of Honolulu.
The best tail wind this time was at twelve thousand feet, propelled along by the full force of the Trades, and once the crew had settled the white duck on auto pilot Edward was itching to ask Bella about her story.
It was very apparent that Edward had done almost all of the talking on the previous day. Bella had had plenty of opportunity to chime in and reveal snippets of herself in conversation, but apart from small talk she'd divulged very little.
He tortured himself for an hour before he finally asked, "So Bella, how did you become a flying boat pilot?"
Bella laughed out loud, which caused Edward to give her a confused look.
"What's so funny?" he asked.
"Lord Edward, the way you've been squirming in your seat, I thought it might have been something you ate and that you needed to go out back!" she joked, throwing a thumb over her shoulder with another hearty laugh at his expense.
"Nah trust me, I'm not one of those people that could sit on that sort of thing for too long," he said giving her a crooked smile that may have belied his outward confidence.
"So instead you thought you were sitting on a loaded question?" she asked, secretly liking that cute, lopsided grin
Edward barked out a laugh of his own, impressed with Bella's acute sense of awareness, it appeared that she didn't miss a thing. "I don't know," he shrugged, "seems to me that you're happier listening than talking."
He was right, but Bella wasn't the only one who took notice of her surroundings. Edward similarly read her well enough to know she didn't want to talk about her business, and as a consequence he'd agonised over what he hoped was a relatively innocuous question.
"How did I become a flying boat pilot..." Bella mused out loud whilst staring out over the long nose of their airplane into the blue, blue sky.
Florida.
That's where she told everyone that it had all started for her
When her mum took her to Bimini for a tropical island holiday.
It was her first trip in a flying boat, and she'd been enamoured with the hybrid concept ever since.
It wasn't long after that, that she set her sights on becoming a pilot.
Renée didn't think Bella's dream would last but, didn't get in her daughter's way when it did.
By the time she was nineteen, Bella had saved enough money from her part time jobs to be able to put herself through flight school.
At twenty two she used her dad's birthday money to top up her savings and got her Commercial Pilots licence, before getting a job at a small charter company out of Fort Lauderdale. She slogged her guts out for a couple of years sweeping hangars, making coffee for the boss, filing endless amendments for manuals, and accumulating a few hundred hours which in turn afforded her twin, and then eventually turbine ratings.
Then she met a guy.
Michael Newton convinced her to take a break from her Florida home to chase the promise of adventure as every young American should, by seeing the rest of the great ol' U S of A.
A mammoth road trip around the States. First North to New York and then east to join the famous Route 66 all the way to California.
They stopped in towns along their path and worked on farms to get by, until Bella spotted a crop duster skimming the fields while they were traveling though Texas and her interest was piqued - much to Michael's apprehension.
She asked around and found a company owned by a gnarly old fella called William Black. He was weary of blow in's and said that being an Ag pilot would be 80% Ag and 20% flying. If Bella really wanted to pursue it, she wouldn't get any airtime at all until she got her certificates in chemical handling and committed herself to a course that the company provided, which included everything she needed to know about cropping and relevant Ag work.
That came with a contract to keep her around and the course cost would come out of her weekly pay.
Unfortunately, this was not compatible with a road trip and Bella's immediate ambitions were dashed.
Until she met Alice.
Then everything changed.
Alice was Bill's niece and she worked in the company office. She was the glue that held the company together -her words, not Bella's.
Alice had a spare room and Michael saw the writing on the wall. He and Bella were just at the start of their relationship, and if her eye was being swayed by something as little as a tin can with a propellor slapped on the front of it, he knew his time with her was over.
He, by the same token, wanted to explore the world a bit and in his eyes that made him as selfish as Bella was. So the pair cut their losses and after a matter-of-fact discussion, they affably parted ways.
"Won't be long before he hooks up with the next girl," Alice said knowingly while the girls looked on, watching the rear of Michael's car disappear into the distance.
"How do you know?" Bella asked her new friend, to which Alice answered by tapping the side of her nose with a wink.
It would be two years of aggressive, low level flying in Air Tractors, dodging wind turbines, powerlines and terrain, before Alice and Bella - who were now the firmest of friends - decided to complete the road trip that Bella started, during the company down season.
Making it to Cali, Alice met a top gun of her very own while he was on shore leave. Jasper Hale was celebrating in the warmth of the Los Angeles sun before heading off to Seattle to complete his current tour of duty on the USS Nimitz.
The native Texan was fifteen years Alice's senior, but the girl was smitten, and she talked Bella into accompanying her northbound, following the ship up the coast to Seattle where Jasper had invited the girls to stay at his waterside cabin.
Bella was struck by the landscape of the Pacific Northwest. Used to the warmer regions of the southern states, she was now surrounded by the green of tall timber and mountains topped with a dusting of snow. The air was crisp and even though it smelled damp, it was not at all offensive.
The aroma was pure nature.
Alice and Bella picked Jasper up from the Puget Sound Naval Base and he gave the girls directions to his cabin in the small community of Holly, on the Hood Canal.
Bella was delighted to find that not only did Jasper have a quaint log cabin on a two acre plot in a beautiful setting, he also had a hanger that housed an awesome vintage Grumman Goose amphibian aircraft.
That day sowed the seed for Bella, who took the right hand seat the next day for door to door birds eye views of the picturesque region during a lap around Mount Olympus.
It was her second flight in a flying boat, and it was the second time she fell in love with the ability to splash and dash.
From that visit, Bella followed a lead that Jasper gave her, and she got her foot in the door when she achieved a float plane endorsement, followed by a hull rating. Giving her notice to Billy after the dusting season, she made her way to Canada to fly supplies into remote communities for a few years.
"And that's how I became a flying boat pilot," she said, knowing that much of her journey appeared to have unfolded through happenstance and good luck.
Her mother didn't believe in coincidences and often said that everyone made their own luck. She also thought that Bella was one of the few people in the world that was blessed enough to be surrounded by the elements of mother nature in her day to day life, and feel comfortable in all of them.
Edward knew that his own life story was pretty unusual - exotic even to the ears of the many tourists he'd had a yarn with around the campfire over the years.
But he suspected that with what little Bella had selected to reveal from the narrow subject of her aviation life, it was likely just the tip of the ice burg of her intriguing tale.
Whether he would ever be privy to all it was anybody's guess.
Bella had managed to fill in the hours well enough to last the distance to Majuro.
It was a longer leg than the last one. They landed much later in the day and it was almost dark by the time they had readied the aircraft for the next section of their flight.
They were both starting to feel the long hours they were putting in, even before they started the next day's flight.
There were long silences between short bursts of small talk and sterile cockpit chatter, so Bella decided to fly the aircraft manually to keep her tuned in. She also gave Edward command a few times and the pair made it to Honiara in the Solomon Islands, not far from the infamous Guadalcanal.
Wheeling their minimal luggage into the hotel, Edward and Bella both froze inside the doorway when they noticed their dilemma.
This was not a twin share room.