Sweat and Rubber

"o.....k......kk.kkkk" said jack as the convective air bumped the now light bomber around as Tom and crew approaced england. "landing checklist" called Tom.

"roger landing checklist" returned jack.

"Notifiy Crew" the first step on the landing checklist that would be read and results repeated until they bomber had stopped and all engines shut down.

"hey Boys 5 miles and were straight in" Called Tom over the intercom.

"clear the nose" continued JAck "Everyone out of the nose"

"Aux Hydraulics On", "ON" called Tom in return

"Brakes, check pressure", "925lbs" as tom squinted to see the guage.

"Autopilot off", "autopilot off" Tom said as he checked the switches checked the switches.

"cowl flaps closed", check "closed"

"Mixtures Auto Rich", "check auto rich"

"intercooler shutters open", "check open"

"boost pumps on", "pumps on"

"wing deicer off", "check deice off"

"Landing gear", this procedure called for jack to lift the lever to the up position allow the pump to build pressure to 1,000 psi or so, then move it down. The aircraft also had to be below 155mph. The pilot generally called the airspeed on this step and the copilot worked the lever.

"150 mph jack go ahead" called Tom "roger gear coming down"

"jack moved the lever off its detent upwards towards the up position. "1,000 psi, gear going down" said jack. Jack moved the gear lever down and Tom waited to hear the clunk of the gear doors falling open*** and the gear intransit. Instead,

"Shit!" exclaimed Jack, "pressure just dropped to below 100 psi ***.

"we took some pretty close ones back there, possible a line was cut". "JT check the hydraulic lines over, were not getting any gear movement....and get a move on it, 3 miles and were low on gas". Gear failures were a problem in an aircraft this size. It would land without gear, but it wasnt something anyone was anxious to try. Fuel in the tanks could explode.

"Crap" exclaimed Tom. "JT do we still have the 100lb hung up there?" Tom knew the answer to the question, but was hoping by some miracle he had forgotten. One one hundred pound bomb had hung up on the rack and no matter what the crew did they couldnt shake it off, and nobody was keen on really yanking the thing around.

Jack looked over at Tom with an ashen look. In general crews didnt like returning with ordnance because of the fear of mishaps. In this case the fears were well founded because the crew had done everything to try and get the bomb to drop and and it was wedged in the rack. A belly landind due to inop gear was a pretty dang good idea to get the bomb to drop. And though the crew had put the pin back in the bomb to reduce the chance of accidental explosion, once again and bomb dropping fifteen feet on to concrete as the plane skidded on its belly with sparks flying was not even close to an ideal situation and could be rediculously dangerous.

"oh i cant believe this" jack crooned. Jack was a fellow who liked to show his emotion. Tom was starting to sweat a bit himself.

"alright get the emergency gear checklist out" ordered Tom.

"alright eveyrone, gear is stuck and were working on that. Bigger concern is a hundred pounder stuck in the bomb bay as you all know." Tom said with calm though his heart was racing.

"lets go ahead and pitch the 50 cal amunition". Tom ordered the crew to dump the hundreds of rounds of 50 caliber amunition still on the aircraft. He thought if they did crash land and had a fire to deal with 50 caliber amunition was not necessary.

Concentration

Off the runway headed west. Clouds to the deck. All four engines running fine and his copilot was watching them. Tom was focussed on keeping the heavy bomber level and climbing. Severay guys had put planes of all types in the English channel focussed on something other than flying the plane. If they lived, the air corp was usually worse then death.

Tom was focussed. The instrument scan was important in light training aircraft and these big bombers. Airspeed to attitude to altitude to attitude to direction to attitude to airspeed, and so on. And while doing that you had to pay attention to a few other instruments which made sure the ones you were staring at werent lying to you.

It was intense work in the sense you had plenty to watch. However, once you got in to the routine it was difficult to keep your mind from wandering. Only when one of the primary things started getting off track did you have to jump back to the task versus just staring at the instruments. Tom's mind went often to home during these times. It was a time of focus but not yet the anxiety of the coming combat and the time prior to combat gave him an opportunity to think of many things. Most in the aircraft were more quiet during this time. All having in the back of their minds the events to come. Not too mention the blasted plane was noisy.

It was 9pm on Sunday night in England. So, lets see, 4pm or 5pm in Iowa. Tom's wife would be with friends or family following church. Tom's dear wife was a dedicated church goer and had a faith that Tom often relished, but couldnt quite come to grips with. Tom's mouth watered with the thought of the fried chicken, mashed potato's, sweet corn and the like all of them would be enjoying and the general feeling of fellowship that was present in that setting.

Tom was on again and off again in church. If he had something else to do he would do it. Tom's wife would be disappointed he knew, but wouldnt complain. Tom didnt really have any guilt about not going to church like his Catholic friends would express having been beaten in to going every Sunday. It wasnt that he didnt like it even. He just couldnt see going every Sunday and figured he knew the stories well enough. The pastor was so, so. That added to Tom's frustration sometimes especially if he had something better to do.