Air Vagabonds by Anthony J. Vallone

Author:Anthony J. Vallone [Vallone, Anthony J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-58834-465-6
Publisher: Smithsonian
Published: 2015-05-25T16:00:00+00:00

Kerby was becoming a guru for all things having to do with ferrying, for there was almost nothing anyone could ask him and not be given an answer. If not right away, then a few days later, when he produced a thick file folder complete with facts, figures, and several magazine articles on the subject. If anyone wanted to know what the winds were like over the Atlantic for any given month, Kerby found it in an old weather folder. If someone wanted to know what restaurant to go to in a particular city, Kerby not only came up with a name but a description of food and ambiance so exotic one might think they were talking to the restaurant critic for National Geographic.

While most of Globe Aero’s pilots had a small notebook with information on some of the places we flew to, they consisted mostly of airport and weather-station phone numbers and performance data on airplanes. Kerby, however, had several notebooks, every one of them filled with train and airline schedules, phone numbers of nightclubs, hotels, restaurants, contacts that could help if we got into trouble, and anything else he considered to be of more than passing interest. If any of us were about to leave for some place we had never been to before, all we had to do was ask Kerby. But we had to be prepared to take notes.

“When you land,” he would begin, “be sure to tell the tower you wanna park on the south ramp, because that’s where they’re gonna refuel you. If you don’t say anything, they’ll send you over to the boondocks, and then you gotta walk half a mile to the airport office to tell them you want fuel. Then you gotta walk back to the airplane and taxi over to the south ramp, which is where you wanna be in the first place because it’s close to the met office and the terminal. After you finish refueling, get one of the girls in the traffic office to make hotel reservations for you. Try to get a room at the Palace. It’s one of the better hotels, and they give you a crew rate. Just ask for Harry, the head desk clerk. He’s a buddy of mine, and he’ll take care of you if you tell him you fly for Globe Aero. He’ll wanna take you out and get you drunk and then go to a snake shop for dinner. Now everybody ought to try that at least once. They put a snake in the same cage as a mongoose, and after they get finished fighting it out, they’ll cook the winner for you. And don’t forget to bring some Oreo cookies, because they can’t get any there.”

Kerby’s fanciful tales of islands that until now had been little more than quick refueling stops or a place to grab a few hours sleep were contagious. We began to appreciate not only the logistics of our work, but also the different cultures we came in contact with.

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