Little Eye in a Big Sky

By Paul Marsh

After hearing about some unusual activity at a supposedly abandoned building near their model airplane flying site, Rob and his son Nate determine to build their own amateur UAV, or drone, to circle the building and see what's going on. The building is too far away to fly their video-equipped plane manually, so they must use an on-board autopilot to guide it. The video recorded from their little drone draws them deeper and deeper into a mystery that not only involves law enforcement, but puts them and the rest of their family, a mother and daughter, in great danger.

"Little Eye in a Big Sky" was written with the young (early to mid teens) male reader in mind, but others might find the story interesting and entertaining as well.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paul Marsh
• Release date: Jan 21, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301788088

Paul Marsh

In his spare time, when he's not building or flying model airplanes, Paul Marsh dabbles in writing. Professionally, he works in product management in high tech industries. Paul is married with three children and five grandchildren. He lives with his wife, Nanette, in the little town of Craley, Pennsylvania.

Book preview

Little Eye in a Big Sky

Paul Marsh

Copyright 2013 by Paul Marsh

Published at Smashwords

Prologue

The little airplane was flying as steady as a rock. Well, maybe not that steady. Let’s just say it was flying very well and leave it at that. At the moment, its tiny little brain only knew that it was to fly in this direction, at this altitude and at this airspeed. In the background though, almost subconsciously, it was asking itself Are we there yet? The answer kept coming back No. Are we there yet? No. And so it went, thousands of times each second. Are we there yet? No.

Are we there yet?

Yes.

If this were a car full of kids there would be a great deal of excitement indeed, but the little brain in the little plane had no emotion at all. That simple response told the airplane it was time to do something different. It had arrived at a predetermined point in space and it was time to go to work. The brain sent a signal to a servo. The servo, which is little more than a very small electric motor, turned the control arm on its head about ten degrees. That control arm was connected to another on the airplane’s rudder, causing it to swing left ten degrees. The plane slowly banked in that direction and began to fly in a very precise circle around a very specific spot. In the bank, though, it began to lose altitude. The little brain controlling the plane sensed this and sent a signal to the throttle control, which then increased the speed of the engine and got the altitude back to where it was supposed to be. For five minutes the plane flew in a circle, constantly checking and correcting its heading and altitude to make sure it stayed within a radius of 100 feet from the point it was circling. Only two people knew that the plane was there, and they were about three-quarters of a mile away—much too far to control the plane themselves. For now, the plane was flying itself.

Not only could this small aircraft control its own flight path, it could see as well. Its one eye, which was located on its belly instead of its head, was looking down and to the left, directly at the spot on the ground that the plane was circling. The eye was actually a very small camera that was sending live video directly to those two individuals three-quarters of a mile away. What they were seeing with their own eyes on their laptop screen at that very moment was scaring them to death!

Chapter 1

Three Months Earlier

Nate! Rob yelled up the stairs. Will you puh-leeease hurry up!? Waiting for Nate was the norm, but it never stopped frustrating his dad. They were on their way, or at least should be on their way, to the flying field. Nate’s dad had been flying model airplanes since he was around 10 or so, and radio controlled planes since he was 16. Now it was Nate’s turn to learn—if only Rob could get him to get a move on! It wasn’t that Nate wasn’t interested. He had been asking his dad to teach him how to fly RC planes for a few summers now. But Rob never felt Nate’s attention span was long enough until this year, and he was beginning to have his doubts once again.

Finally, he thought with a sigh, we’re on our way. Two model airplanes, their wings separated from their fuselages, were carefully loaded into the back of Rob’s SUV and braced or otherwise padded to protect against damage during the short drive. Rob’s plane, a fast sport model, was gas powered. Nate’s brand new plane, a slow and stable trainer, was electric powered. Even though the hobby was more-and-more going electric, Rob still liked the sound and smell of gas engines—he hoped that Nate would as well, in time.

As they turned onto the dirt road—a trail, really—that went from the main road to their flying field, Rob glanced to the left and barely noticed the huge abandoned building he had seen so many times that it didn’t even register any more in his mind. The story was that the company that owned the building ran out of money while it was being built. It was actually little more than an empty shell, or so he’d been told, but a nice-looking shell nonetheless. The large structure was mostly glass with a beautiful silver framework holding it all together. For the model airplane club, though, it was probably a good thing that construction stopped. If that building ever got occupied, it would probably mean they’d have to move to some other site to fly their planes—and flying sites were getting harder and harder to find.

Hey, Dad! There was no small amount of excitement in Nate’s voice. Can I go first!? And with that, Nate jumped out of the car as soon as it stopped and ran around to the back to begin unloading the planes and all of the gear needed to get them into the air. When he wanted to, Nate could move very fast indeed. And it was a beautiful day for flying, too. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, there was hardly any wind and the temperature was mild. Perfect.

With a smile and a laugh, Rob said, sure buddy, of course you can. Nate had been spending a lot of time on the simulator learning how to take off, fly around and land. In Nate’s own mind, Rob knew, he was ready to fly anything! In reality, and even though today’s simulators were indeed quite realistic, flying the real thing was different, and crashes really could end up with broken planes and broken hearts. Fortunately for Nate, a few hours before they left his dad thought to charge the battery that powers the electric motor on Nate’s plane. Nate should get a good 10 minutes of flight time, after which the car battery would be used to recharge the airplane motor battery right there at the field. Within 15 minutes of arriving, Nate was standing next to his dad, transmitter in hand and plane assembled, with a big smile on his face and nearly jumping up and down with excitement.

OK, Nate. Let’s get this show on the road. And with that, Rob picked up the little electric plane and walked it out closer to the runway. He attached Nate’s transmitter to a buddy box. On this first flight, and maybe one or two more, Rob would actually be the one to do the takeoff and landing. Once in the air, he would move a switch on his transmitter that would shift control to Nate’s transmitter. If Nate got into trouble, Rob could simply release the switch, regain control and, hopefully, save the day!

Aw, come on Dad. Let me take it off. You know I can do it! Pleeease?

It nearly broke Rob’s heart, but he said No, sorry Nate. We don’t want any tears, now do we?

Oh, alright, Nate said with resignation, but I’m taking off next time!!! And as it turned out, he did.

+ + + + +

How’d it go, fellas? Nancy asked over her shoulder as she sat at the kitchen table reading e-mail on her laptop.

FANTASTIC! Nate said as he ran for the refrigerator.

Now hold on there a second, young man! Nancy said. Dinner is just about ready. Don’t you go and spoil it. Still, she couldn’t suppress her smile. She could see Nate was very pleased with himself. He must have done a pretty good job flying his plane for the first time today.

Aw, come on Mom, flying makes me hungry.

Aw, come on, Rob said with a laugh as he walked over and gently closed the refrigerator door. I think that’s your favorite phrase!

"Aw, come on Dad, no it