Patrick McLanahan #01 - Flight of the Old Dog by Dale Brown

Author:Dale Brown [Brown, Dale]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Technological
ISBN: 9780007305001
Publisher: 1987.
Published: 1987-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

"Seattle Center, Dog Zero-One Fox is with you at two-five thousand."

Traffic Control Center controller The Seattle Air Route checked his radar display. He had already received a call from command Control radio operator McClellan Air Base s Global Co would be appearing in his sector. And -One x that Dog Zero there he was-right where McClellan said he would be.

"Dog Zero -One Fox, good evening, radar contact at two five thousand feet.

Earlier the Seattle controller had passed along a Mode 3

"Squawk" identification code to McClellan for the airplane to set in its I.F.F, its Identification Friend or Foe system. The I.F.F would transmit the four-digit code to the controller's computer, which would display a data block near the airplane's radar dot with the plane's call sign, altitude, groundspeed, and a computer ID number. The Seattle controller checked the area from which McClellan said the aircraft would be coming and, as advertised, the data block and beacon target symbols appeared at the extreme outer edge of his one hundred and fifty mile range scope. There was no primary target return-a smaller symbol superimposed on the larger beacon target symbol-but that wasn't unusual at extreme ranges.

"Dog Zero-One Fox, confirm your destination is Seattle Boeing Field."

"That's affirmative, Seattle. We'll be requesting permission for a visual to an auxiliary field when within ten miles. Boeing has been notified."

That was very strange, but the controller had heard of it before. To avoid attention some experimental or classified planes used one of Boeing's numerous auxiliary fields scattered around Seattle instead of the main corporate terminal. When they did, they didn't tell the controller which one until in the vicinity of all of them. The approach controller would have to clear the airspace and grant clearance to make an approach to a very wide area, which really complicated air traffic control in the already super-congested Seattle-Vancouver-Portland area, but at this time of day it wasn't too much of a hassle. The procedure wasn't limited to military flights, either-the private aircraft firms guarded their newest developments almost as zealously as the military."

"I've been advised, Zero-One Fox, the controller replied.

"I'll pass it along to Seattle Approach in-" The controller saw something that made him blanch-a beacon code being changed to 7700, the emergency code. The plane's data block was instantly surrounded by a flashing border, and the letters "EMRG" began to flash above the beacon target.

It was the newcomer-Dog Zero-One Fox.

"Mayday, mayday!Seattle Center, Dog Zero-One Fox!"

"Zero-One Fox, I copy your emergency code The controller buzzed his shift supervisor, who hurried over and plugged his headset into a jack on the console.

"Shift supervisor A. Watt on console seven, ID number Sone--one-three-one, time two-three-one-seven local time."

That was for the benefit of the continuously running tape that was monitoring all communications-the tape that would be used in an accident investigation.

"Dog Zero-One Fox is declaring an inflight emergency at this time,"

came the hurried transmission. The voicepresumably the pilot, the one who had made the initial call-in to Seattle-was nearly drowned out by a thunderous noise in the background.

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