PPP-1 The Book

Chapter Five

 

 

The First Cross Country Flight

or

HOW DO YOU FLY THIS THING!!!

 

 The PPP-1 had been climbing for over an hour and was cruising through 15,000 feet above sea level.  The ants were starting to get braver and move about the plane; some were even hanging their heads over the edge looking down.  This was causing the PPP-1 to rock and roll a bit.  Wise-ant saw what was happening and decided to try a test.  "Everyone moved to the nose!"  He yelled.  All the ants hustled to the nose and the plane entered a steep dive.  Wise-ant ordered half of the ants to move to the rear and the plane pitched up into level flight.  Wise-ant spoke loudly so they all would be able to hear, "you must follow these directions precisely, those of you at the front will move to the rear, when the plane gets real slow I want all of you to run to the nose, Count 5 seconds then run to the rear and hold on.  After we go upside-down I want you all to move to where I'm standing, understand?..."  Wise-ant made eye contact with his new crew and ordered "GO NOW!!!"  The plane responded just like Wise-ant had said it would, after a perfect loop they all met Wise-ant standing at the center of gravity.  The plane resumed level flight and Wise-ant spoke "I have good news and better news!"  He paused then continued, "the good news is that I know how to fly and land this plane..., the better news is that we can go wherever we want to go!"  The end of his announcement came sooner than expected, (Wise-ant often rattled on and on), and left a blanket of silence.  Then voices were heard, "you mean we could fly to a baseball stadium and have hotdogs?"  "We can go scout picnics from the air?"  "We can fly aerobatic all day long?""visit our relatives?"...  All the ants were excited now, talking wildly about where they wanted to go.  Their decision was made for them when Wise-ant announced that they would just fly downwind for a while and see if anything appealing appeared below them.  The ants took up observer positions around the wings as Wise-ant and Penee navigated from on top of the upper surface at the nose.  "Home, 2 o'clock low!"  Was heard coming from the starboard side.  Everybody ran to look and the PPP-1 fell off into a diving spiral.  Wise-ant gave the command to "CENTER UP!!"  And soon the PPP-1 was back into the level flight mode.  "No-one move, I'll check this spotting out and advise of what I find. "NOBODY MOVE!"  Wise-ant had taken command and went to look.  What he saw was what looked to be the largest ant Hill he had ever seen or even heard of.  A huge dome with a hole in the top.  He knew it wasn't their home but it was probably some relatives since they had trillions of them.  Wise-ant advised the crew and they decided to land and visit.  Acro ant asked Wise-ant if he could take command during the descent since the goal was to lose some altitude quickly.  Wise-ant agreed and Acro huddled the crew and gave the orders.  "Ready, split right...  NOW!"  The plane fell off to the right and dove for speed, 50% pitch back,..  Now roll left!"  The plane dove out of the sky doing some aerobatic maneuvers never before seen.  Acro carried the 'batics real low and when he finally leveled out the plane they were about 300 feet over the opening of an absolutely huge dome.  All the ants peered over the side.  No ants that they knew lived in something like this.  It dawned on everybody at once, it was a baseball stadium.  The chant "HOTDOGS, HOTDOGS, HOTDOGS" had started and was getting louder.  Wise-ant immediately took command "70% dive, left roll..  NOW!......  Roll right..  Hold it...  To the rear now!!  The PPP-1 plopped to a perfect landing atop the steel girders holding up the dome.  From this observation point the ants could see everything.  They saw from the large screen scoreboard that it was the seventh inning stretch and the Giants were playing Dodgers in a tie game.  The ants loved baseball at home on television.  With all the inattentive eating going on, there was plenty of crumbs for everyone.  The ants had only heard rumors about being at a live game, rumors about billions of hotdogs.  Suddenly the large screen flicked to a different picture.  The ants were puzzled for a moment until they recognized themselves.  A camera-man had seen them land and got the whole landing on tape.  The crowd was going wild cheering the landing of the Plane.  The ants were scared, they had been spotted!

Chapter Six

 

 

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