Our aviation business involved flying bags of bank checks from Miami International Airport to Atlanta Hartsfield Airport where they were taken by van to the Federal Reserve Depository for processing.Our aviation business involved flying bags of bank checks from Miami International Airport to Atlanta Hartsfield Airport where they were taken by van to the Federal Reserve Depository for processing. The income was predictable; but the flying wasn't -- particularly in the summer when the Florida thunderstorms topped out at about 40,000 feet. What we admitted, to everyone but the I.R.S., was that our money- losing business was just an excuse to fly and hang around the airport's Fixed Base Operation trading lies with the other pilots and would-be pilots that inhabited the pilots' lounge. There was a flying school there -- a collection of Cessna 150's, young instructors with their eyes set on the airlines, and students from the local area. Late afternoon usually found a fair sprinkling of women in the pilots' lounge; some of them students, but mostly the girl-friends of the students and instructors. They all knew about our operation, and with suitable hints, could wrangle a ride in Triple-Nickel-8-Ball on our Miami-Atlanta-Miami trip when we wanted the company. A few weeks before, the female "regulars" in the lounge had jokingly announced formation of a local chapter of the "mile- high" club -- and that subject had replaced discussion of instrument-approaches and engine overhaul prices. As I understood it, the rules were simple: sex above 5280 feet, unaided by co- (or auto) pilot. |