The test flight ended in an instant. Everything went well. Once I grabbed the control stick, my body and mind worked automatically. I adjusted the trim tab alignment, and talked through the radio with the mechanic on the ground. He also recorded the data from the instruments of the aircraft. All I had to do was to become a part of the machine and to move smoothly. Anyway, the effulgence above the clouds was truly nostalgic. Yeah, this is it. This is the very place where I have long dreamed of, I thought.
The weight of the weapons and the balance of the airframe were problem-free. After all the tests concluded, I rolled clockwise (to the right) five times, stopped the roll, and then rolled counterclockwise (to the left) five times. The axis of the roll was coincidental with the part around my chest. Very nice. The allowance in the steering was little. I noticed the indication that the aircraft was still fairly young. If so, I would soon get used to it. The engine was impeccable. My guess was that it was just starting to get broken-in properly. I was sure that this aircraft had yet to fly for long hours. The recent general trend appears to be that there are enough aircrafts but the pilots are scarce.
My body got warmed up in a hurry and my mind was soon filled with confidence immediately.
Wonderful.
Sanka, and this sky.
The fact that I am living, and my very being.
Fine.
Everything is fine already.
After being called by the control tower, I descended while turning.
The runway appeared to be sunken at the bottom of the murky air below the clouds.
My Sanka was also sinking into it.
The aircraft got on the landing course, and touched down while being blown by the crosswind and ending up with the oblique orientation as if it was experiencing the sideslip. As I let the aircraft taxi toward the hangar, the young mechanic welcomed me with his smile. I opened the canopy and flashed the thumb-up sign to him. It occurred to me to ask that man’s name. But, I may not stay here after tomorrow’s flight. What will happen on the day after tomorrow? Come to think of it, I have yet to be told anything about it. Will I return to that laboratory?
As I got off the aircraft and walked on the ground, I started feeling depressed. I imagined that the ground tended to seek for our worries to make us gloomy. In other words, it might be a type of the gravitational effect. The entire environment was designed so that we would not just fly away. Our bodies and minds would not fly, if they were rendered heavy and anchored to the terrestrial surface. After all, we would be safe if we could not fly.
During the meeting held in the early evening, I could talk a bit with those belonging to the same team. After that, we also shared the dinner table.
Of course, we did not converse about personal matters. Many of our geeky topics were about the characteristics and specifications of Sanka. Even if they were the same model and the same version, the individual attributes of each aircraft differed from those of others. The most strikingly different aspect lied in the engines. Beside them, some of the parts may differ from others, according to their configurations. The trim tab alignment varied from one pilot to another. Also, even when we executed the same maneuver, the order and the amount with which they adjusted the control surfaces might differ depending on the pilot. The information we pilots were exchanging was such a subtle thing. If you do this, you may have a slight advantage when such cases actually occur. However, contrarily speaking, you can also suffer from disadvantages in another cases. Everything has both merits and demerits. There is no such thing as the best method. It was the reason why the settings and configurations are unique to each pilot.
Some drank alcohol. I did not. We were dismissed and dispersed by 19:30. The leader ordered us to gather again after the general meeting to be held next morning.
After returning to my room, I lay on the bed. I thought I should have brought a magazine. But, if I did it, I would not have been able to read it. When I opened my eyes, I saw the under side of the upper deck of our bunk bed. When I closed my eyes, I could recognize that many streaks of patterns described curves against the background of the blue sky above the clouds. I could trace them as if I myself was absorbed into them. Countless possible patterns of the enemy’s potential maneuvers appeared constantly, and my right hand reacted while trembling each time. My eyeballs would sway rapidly, and my face would resonate slightly.
I thought of whether to take a shower or not. Since my body was already warmed in the blanket, I decided to fall asleep. But I woke up once to brush my teeth.
Just by imagining what would take place the next day, my body started shivering. I can’t wait.
Then, I was so happy in the blanket on the bed.
I did not even have a dream that night.
In the following morning, I woke up naturally, and attended the general meeting as the first step. For the reference material, I filled in the blanks with the numbers. Yet, I would not get a chance to read them while flying. To begin with, I would not get lost, because many aircrafts were going to fly together anyway. If I have to return to the base in the middle of the operation because of unexpected malfunctioning, then it will be a different story. Usually, we do not have to know the data of the coordinates, except for the leader of the team.