Jane McGraw, Bush Pilot

By Rich Day

Jane McGraw is a young Athabaskan, native girl from the tiny town of Chicken Alaska. With the help of a student loan, she attended college at Missoula, Montana where she studied Botany because she loved the outdoors and the plant life that made it beautiful. But, she met Grady McGraw and fell madly in love with him and with flying, she could no longer remember why she chose Botany. Jane quit school, used her student loan to get her commercial pilot's license. Oh, did I say that the another reason she quit school; she was pregnant.
They married and she changed her last name from Walkingtall, which was a common native, Athabaskan, Indian name to McGraw. After Grady graduated, worked a while as an Engineer and then lost his job, they moved to Alaska and Jane became a successful, "bush pilot," but with success comes danger and she found a lot of that. What happens when she has to land in a snot storm? What happens when she lands on a sand bar or when her engine quits? Can she handle the rigors of winter flying in Alaska?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rich Day
• Release date: Nov 17, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005314781

Book preview

Jane McGraw

Bush Pilot

By

Rich Day

Book Du Jour Publishing Company

Copyright © 2020 by Richard Day

This book is a novel. It is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either produced by the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locals or persons, living or dead, is purely and absolutely coincidental.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or any portion thereof in any form whatsoever.

Published by Richard Day dba Book du Jour Publishing Company.

4885 W. 93rd Avenue

Westminster, Colorado 80031

Dedication

I dedicate this book to

Barbara

The love of my life for 63 years

Acknowledgements

I acknowledge three of the women in my life. Carol Ranum, my sister encourages my writing and has spent many hours proofreading my manuscript. Our daughter, Christy, has likewise, proofread this book. Lou Garone also read my manuscript and had valued criticism. And my wife, Barbara, oh my gosh! She has not only proofread this book, but she has been so supportive of my idiosyncrasies, especially those that relate to the selfish act of telling my story.

Our son Brad is Director of Maintenance on two corporate jets. His many years of working with airplanes helps me with technical support; and he gives it freely.

It is hard to imagine my life without these folks; there would be little love in my life and there would be no novels written.

My thanks go out to them.

I am an equal pay author; none of them received anything but my love.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Epilog

Other Books by Rich Day

Meet the Author

Preface

Meet Jane. She is a thirty-one-year-old wife and mother of two. A boy, Roger who is nine years old and his sister, Gretchen, who is seven. Her husband is named Grady McGraw. What this does not tell you is that Grady is a package delivery dad and Jane is a bush pilot; and they live about five miles out of Fairbanks, Alaska.

They met in college. Grady was in his Junior year in the pursuit of a Mechanical Engineering degree. Jane Walkingtall, which was her maiden name, was in her sophomore year, studying Botany and having a hard time with it. She couldn’t remember why she chose Botany, except that she loved the outdoors and all of the plant life in God’s creation. It wasn’t what she expected.

Grady got his degree, but Jane didn’t finish college; she dropped out when she met Grady and when she joined a flying club at the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana. Between these two endeavors she was unable to have any more interest in Botany. So, she used her college loan fund to fly.

Jane was known for jumping into an endeavor with both feet. She devoted all of her energy into whatever was her interest at the moment. When she met Grady, she fell madly in love with him. All she could think about was loving Grady and flying. Another reason it seemed right to quit school is that she found herself pregnant. They both agreed to marriage because of their love for each other and of course the pregnancy.

At Grady’s graduation, Jane had a husband, Grady McGraw, who was a Mechanical Engineer, a baby boy that they named Roger and a private pilot’s license. Oh, my gosh, was she happy.

They liked Missoula. Because she was into her flying there and because Grady got a job with an engineering firm with inroads in the construction of several dams on a couple of the rivers in Montana. It turned out to be a blessing because it afforded them a small home, a decent used car and money to keep Jane in her pursuit of a commercial flying license.

Two years after Roger’s birth, his baby sister, Gretchen was born. The joy of all but Roger. Roger was two years old and used to all of the attention of his parents. Now it was different, and he was involved with being in the Terrible Twos. His parents were able to recognize his state of affairs and deal with it. They were a perfect family and life was good.

Then Grady’s employer finished the dams they were building, and they had to let him go. Grady saw his release coming, as he realized that the jobs were nearing completion. He was saddened and slipped into a funk. Especially after applying for numerous jobs in his mechanical engineering field. It seemed like nobody needed him. After applications in several other parts of the country, Jane could see that he was losing hope, so she started to help him.

While skimming the internet in her attempt to help her husband, she found an advertisement for a pilot to fly delivery routes in Alaska. Jane secretly contacted the ad and asked for more information.

Wow, she could hardly believe the reply. $8,500.00 per month, health insurance and thirty days’ vacation. As soon as she saw this information, she grabbed her cell phone and multiplied $8,500 by twelve and got $102,000.00 per year. She said to herself so that nobody else could hear her, Oh, my gosh! That’s more than Grady was making. She stared out the window, not seeing anything, with a smile on her face.

Then she read the fine print. We will furnish a 1942 Piper Super Cub, or we would pay extra for the use of your private airplane.

She started planning on a way to tell Grady about this and try not to make him feel bad because of shifting the family financial support from Grady to Jane. Oh, she thought, this could really break his spirit.

Jane decided to wait to tell him about her discovery until they had a really nice dinner, a couple glasses of wine, put the kids to bed, and she treated him to supreme love making, so that he was comfortable and in a really good mood. Then, using her sweet, loving voice, she would hint around about things like, Have you ever thought you would want to live in Alaska? Or maybe something like, You know, Grady, I’ve been missing Alaska and my family up there. Another idea she had was to try to convince him that they should raise their kids in a more rural atmosphere.

She was extremely nervous about this and so afraid of Grady’s reaction. But Jane being Jane, she decided that tonight would be the night and she would vigorously pursue this conversation with all of her energy. This was the way she did things.

Chapter 1

Grady demonstrated his funk. He was short tempered with the kids. He did not say much at dinner, which was noodles stroganoff, one of his favorites, except to tell Jane that it was good.

Jane thanked him and tried to cheer him up by telling him anecdotes from the day’s activities with the kids and so on. She could feel his disappointment from not finding a job, when a few days ago, he was a mechanical engineer, supporting his family. Now Grady, who was tired of being rejected, was starting to lack all confidence in his future. He was worried and didn’t know how he could solve his problem. But what Jane discovered was that when Grady acted out his funk, it was contagious. The kids picked it up and began acting out with a tendency to whine and pick at each other and this made her grumpy. Getting her husband over this needs to be a high priority, she thought.

After dinner, the family watched another episode of a television series, but only the kids paid any attention to it. Their father worried about what their future would be when their savings was gone, while Jane was secretly planning the love making, she would do with her troubled husband. When the kids went to bed and were tucked in, the parents watched the ten o’clock news.

After the news and the sports news was on, Jane disappeared and reappeared in a short, slinky nighty and took her husband by the hand and led him into their bedroom. As she started undressing him, she could tell a difference in his demeaner. He was warming to the idea of what was coming. The game was on and all the cares of the day were forgotten.

Later they were lying in the afterglow of love when Jane said, Honey, I found a job opening in Alaska, but it was not for you, it was for me. A company called ‘PackEx’ is advertising for pilots in Fairbanks to fly packages to rural locations. I guess ‘PackEx’ stands for ‘Package Express.’ The pay starts at $102,000.00 per year and they have really good benefits. I looked into it on the internet and it really looks good. I realize it is not what we were looking for, but perhaps we could find a job for you once we moved up there if it is something we would want to do. Would you be interested in checking that out with me to see if it were something we might like to do?

Grady was quiet for a long time, then said, Janie, that is so far from what we have been looking for. What would I do up there? How could we check it out? How can we afford to make a move? What would we do with our house? There are so many questions I would have. I do not think it would be a good idea. Let’s enjoy this moment and maybe talk about it in the morning.? That’s all I ask, she replied, I love you, Grady. Yeah, Janie, I love you. They fell asleep in each other’s arms.

The next day brought the Eighteenth of May, sunny skies, and the kids late for the school bus. Grady said that he would take the kids to school if Jane would keep the coffee pot on so they could have a little talk. Jane had a smile when she said she would do that.

On the way back from the school, Grady stopped at Bryan’s Bakery and bought a dozen donuts. When he walked in with the donuts they sat at the table. Jane just loved the idea of the donuts.

Grady said, Janie, you know I love you. Of course, we should look into that job you were telling me about. It may not be what we want to do, but how do we know if we don’t look into it. She kissed him and slid her chair next to his and she turned on her laptop.

They looked at the information, talked about it, talked about things they could try to do, things the kids could do in Alaska, and finally Grady said, Sweetie, school will be out in a couple weeks, let’s take the kids and fly to Fairbanks and see what they are offering, look around and see if it is something we want. This is not what we were looking for, but it is a refreshing idea and maybe I need a break from what we have here to get me out of my funk. If it is something we want, let’s do it. If not, we can have a nice little vacation.

Jane was so happy; she gave him an arousing kiss and she led him back into the bedroom.

****

When the phone rang at her desk, she answered, PackEx, Julia speaking, how can I direct your call? Julia, this is Jane McGraw calling from Missoula, Montana. I saw your advertisement for a pilot on the internet and I would like to talk to someone about that. Ah, okay, I will connect you to Cecil Blanchard, Cecil is our personnel guy, hold on. Seconds later he answered the phone, Cecil speaking.

Jane said, Cecil, this is Jane McGraw and I am answering your ad for a pilot. Cecil guessed that she would be calling for someone else, because he didn’t expect a young lady to want to be his pilot, so he answered, Sure Jane, what is the pilot’s name that you are calling for? I am a pilot, sir, I am calling for myself.

Of course, Jane, you do realize that you would have to be a commercial pilot? Yes, sir, I am a commercial pilot with instrument and teaching certificates. Okay, Jane, what can I do for you? Well, sir, my family and I will be in Fairbanks on a little vacation in the first week of June and I am wondering if I can come in to talk to you about the job?

Of course, that would be good. I should ask, though, do you know what winter is like here? Yes, sir, I was born and raised in Chicken, Alaska. I moved to Missoula, Montana to go to college and that is where I met my husband, married him and settled down. Now I am considering moving back to Alaska. I am Athabaskan.

Cecil was warming up to Jane, thinking that maybe she might be right for the job, after all. He answered, Of course, I would like to see you in this regard. If you give me a date, we can set a time so I will be sure to be here.

They set a day and a time, and this adventure was on. The McGraw family started planning their trip. And the kids, they were super excited. This was another reason for wanting the school year to end. Even Grady was feeling the excitement. It was relieving him of the responsibility of searching for a job, at least temporarily.

Chapter 2

There was a man that lived in a suburb of Fairbanks. He had a home on nine-hundred-sixty acres, and it was a large home, way back over a hill from the highway, out of sight. His name was John (Johnny) Duran. He had an Eskimo wife and two worthless, blended, adult sons, living with them. They were both divorced, and both with criminal records. The also had an Eskimo couple occupying a small home over the hill and out of sight from Johnny and family. Their job was to do all of the work around the place and the wife was to clean house and cook. Their names were Julius and Mary Jessop. The Jessop couple had a son that was killed in the Viet Nam war and another living in an apartment in Anchorage and was a bus driver for the city.

Johnny owned a local delivery service called Duran and Sons Routing Service (DSRS). This was an attempt to create jobs for his sons. Since his sons were worthless, they hired others to actually do the work. The sons Jeremy and Clemons Duran had desks that they used to lean back and put their feet on.

They didn’t have much business because the owners did not work at it. They thought that the big sign they put up on the highway and the letters they had their people send out to the town’s businesses would put them on the road to financial freedom. Well, it did not work, thank God for the three oil wells their father had on his property; they all lived off of the royalty checks from them.

Johnny owned a Piper Super Cub that they used to get around in Alaska, as well as the two Dodge Ram trucks he bought for each of his boys for Christmas last year. His vehicle was a year-old Cadillac Escalade. They also had an old Chevy Pickup that they let Julius Jessop drive because he was the only one that would do the work it was used for. The DSRS owned two four-wheel drive vans and a ton-and-a-half flatbed truck. They were always parked at the small office and warehouse building that Papa built near the highway and the driveway to Johnny’s house. That was because they did not have much business. These trucks had beautiful signs painted on them which the Boys thought would produce business for the family firm.

Johnny was but neither Jeremy nor Clemons were licensed to fly the Piper Super Cub. A neighbor living about a half-a-mile down the highway named Jack Crosley had a private pilot’s license and owned a Cessna 182 which he landed on a dirt runway that he made on his property. That is also where the Duran Super Cub was tied down.

After thinking about it all night at times when he should have been sleeping, Johnny decided that when he got up in the morning, he would get his sons together and have a meeting. Something absolutely has to be done to make the DSRS company work.

He called Clem, his oldest son, and told him that he wanted to have a meeting this morning. After telling Clem that he wanted to have a meeting this morning, Clem said, Ah, Dad, that’s not going to work. Jeremy is taking his girlfriend fishing today and I have made plans to take my son to the Kids Museum today. It’s my day with Tommy.

Johnny got so angry he swore, yelled, swore some more and told Clem, I will be at your office tomorrow at ten o’clock and If one of you is not there, that person will be thrown out of the company. You will talk to me! Then before Clem could answer he threw the receiver at the phone and it fell on the floor. He did not pick it up instead he went to his bar and made himself a bourbon on the rocks.

****

Ten o’clock the next morning came and Jeremy and Johnny were there, but Clem was not there. Johnny was furious. Jeremy said that Clem called and said he had to take his kid to school and then pick up some things at the store. He would be there, but he would be late.

Johnny raved for a while and when he stopped to take a breath, Jeremy said, Hey, Dad, why don’t you tell me what you want to say, then I will tell Clem.

Absolutely, not! The point is not that I want to say something and then leave to go do something else. The point is I want you two dead beats to come up with a plan to make this business work or go find something else. If you don’t, I will close these doors and you guys will go hurting. I will wait until you are both here, so I don’t have to repeat it.

Ten thirty came and Clem did not show up. Johnny was beside himself. He sat down at Clem’s desk and waited, silently. He knew if he said anything he would explode and before he did that, he wanted both of his sons there.

At about ten minutes before eleven o’clock, Clem came in the door carrying a tub of chicken for his lunch.

Johnny didn’t say anything at first. He was sitting at Clem’s desk. Clem stood in front of the desk awkwardly expecting Johnny to move and give him his desk.

For what seemed like an hour there was silence. Finally, Clem said, ah, I am sorry I am so lat… Johnny screamed, Shut up! I am going to talk, and you are going to listen. So, shut up!"

Then it was quiet for a while and all three were wondering what would happen next. Then Johnny said quietly. You two lazy bums have taken the two-hundred-seventy-five thousand dollars I spent to set you up in this business and you treat it as if I wanted to give you a place to live the easy life. I gave that to you because your squaw of a mother wanted to give you a chance to prove you were capable of making a living. Well you showed us; you are as worthless as tits on a bore. His voice started gradually getting louder and louder until his face got red and he blurted out the words. "You guys have showed that you are not capable or worthy of running a business. You might as well go back to prison; you are worthless. If you do not start working instead of taking kids to museums, going to stores, taking kids to school or whatever you are doing instead of working I will shut this place down and get me some full-blooded Eskimos to run it. Then you can go back to prison, so I do not have to deal with you. Good riddance!

But if you are willing to work until you are making money here, you could make yourselves a lot of money and your freedom from me.

You need to start calling on companies that need stuff hauled, like for instance that PackEx company. They have been advertising for pilots so they must be in a spot where they need stuff hauled.

You guys need to look for work! I have decided that we will have a meeting every Friday afternoon and you will show me a list of who you have talked with, how you met with them and the results. You must have each talked to at least one person or business, looking for work, every day. If not, there will be consequences. Got That?"

Neither said anything they just shook their heads. They understood. Johnny didn’t say another word, he got out of Clem’s chair and left, but on the way out he picked up the bucket of chicken that Clem brought into the office and took it home with him.

****

The next day they were at their office at eight-thirty in the morning. Clem said, Jeremy, let’s try something today; lets both go to the PackEx company and try to talk to someone about hauling some of their stuff? Jeremy thought that was a good idea so he called and asked Julia if he could talk to someone about hauling some of their stuff and got a positive answer. They went there at eleven-thirty that morning. They went in and asked to see the man that they talked with, named Don May, they were showed to his little office off of the warehouse.

After greetings and introductions, Clem told Don why they were there. Don said, "You guys just hit us right, we have a small fleet of trucks and vans, but two of our trucks are out of service. One was in an accident and is in pretty bad shape and the other needs major mechanical work. So, we do have a back log and maybe you could help us with that.

Tell me about your business." Jeremy started telling Don about their business, how they did not have much business since they just started. He told them about their small fleet and how they could carry anything that would fit in their vans up to anything that would fit on their flatbed truck.

Don said he had not heard about their business before this and there was a good chance that they could do local deliveries for them. He also said that he would have to vet them a little and that he would get back to them.

Clem said, Okay, Don. Please check us out and you will see that we are on the level and could do some good for PackEx. But there is something I must tell you up front. We both have criminal records. We are not in trouble, now, but you will find that information. Our father has set us up in business because with our record we were not able to find work. We are new and wanting to work ourselves out of our situation.

Don thanked them for being straight with him and that he would call them in a few days and let them know one way or the other.

They were totally surprised and grateful for the meeting they had. This was work they had drummed up by themselves and if they get it, it will make their father happy. On the way back to the office they stopped by the Moose Horn Tavern for lunch and a beer.

On the way from the Moose Horn to the office Jeremy suggested that they stop by the post office and see if they had any freight they could contract for. They were flat turned down. So, they went back to the office and wrote down this day’s business and discussed who they would talk with tomorrow. They even thought that today was fun and that maybe their dad was smarter than they thought. Naw, they decided they did this on their own.

****

The next day they went together to see an auto parts store to see if they might need someone to deliver parts. Maybe they could help with that. They said they would keep them in their rolodex in case they needed someone.

From there they stopped by a trucking freight warehouse and got some surprisingly good vibes about their chances of getting work from them and they would call if they needed them.

They were doing what their father wanted and it may pay off. They guessed it was worthwhile, but they knew that their police records were probably hindering their chances.

After the first week, they had their meeting with their father and he was pleased with what they were doing, but they were all discouraged. Johnny was happy that they were at least calling on prospective customers and told them that they just had to persist. He also liked that they were going together to meet these people.

Don from PackEx called on the following Monday and told Jeremy that they had ten packages to be delivered locally and they thought they would like to try them out. This was exciting so he sent drivers and the two vans to pick them up. The brothers decided that they should use two vans and get them delivered sooner.

Don and others at PackEx were impressed and told the brothers that they would have more on the next day. After a few days of good service, Don decided to try them on rural trips since it was summer and most of the roads would be clear. Rural deliveries paid more. Some of them might take all day to deliver and get back to Fairbanks. One day they got a mixture of rural and local packages to deliver.

Clem decided to take the rural packages because they were in the same general area, so it made it easier. They were both on Moon Gulch Road, about five miles apart. This worked well and he enjoyed his day. Again, Don and company were impressed.

On a Friday when they were supposed to have the meeting with their father, Jeremy was not at the meeting. When his dad started to get in a snit Clem told him that Jeremy had to deliver a full house generator up Rollinsville Road and both of the vans were tied up with local deliveries. Johnny was so incredibly happy with that news. See what you guys can do if you put your mind to it? Johnny asked.

After the third week, the company was still in the hole, but not as bad as they had been. After six weeks they were breaking even, and everything was looking good. At the end of the second month they showed a profit of One-hundred-seventy-three dollars and twenty-seven cents.

With their first profit, Jeremy and Clem decided to take their parents to dinner at the Roadhouse to show them that they were grateful for the help getting them