Captainkirk's Duster project

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Captainkirk said:
For all those of you waiting for me to post the new story, there IS a problem.....
I had the first two chapters done several weeks ago.

Problem is, I'm not happy with them.

There's an old saying; "truth is stranger than fiction".
In this case, it's truth is BETTER than fiction!
Try as I might, the novella I'm working on (to me) lacks the ring of authenticity.
A Tale of Two Dusters reads so well because that's exactly how it happened.
The ring of truth is built-in.
Bear with me; I don't want to just spew out a bunch of crap pulp fiction if it's not going to entertain.
Click to expand...


I am glad you don't spew Captainkirk, your true stories sure has been very entertaining and useful in my life, With that said I thank you for a great read.
I can see the duke in the corner covered up talking to you.:read2:
Thank you again sir:cheers:
 
Thanks, Mike.
The Duke WAS talkin' at me the other day.....I was in the garage getting out spring yard tools and he sez...
(in my best John Wayne drawl)
Well,... whatcha waitin' for pilgrim? The heat of summer? When it's so hot, the..lead melts outta yer bullets?
Nossir, I mumbled. Just a bit warmer, is all.
Warmer. And I s'pose yer gonna get a... schoolmarm to help you. Warmer. HA!
I jumped. I really did.
The HA! was really loud.
I don't like it when cars talk to me. Especially in The Duke's drawling, gravelly voice.
No sir, don't like it at all.
Later that evening, something drew me to wipe down my Ruger Super Blackhawk single action. As I polished and snapped the loading gate closed and spun the cylinder with it's whirring, ratchety sound, I picked up a .44 mag cartridge and rolled it between my thumb and forefinger....
Well,... whatcha waitin' for pilgrim? The heat of summer? When it's so hot, the..lead melts outta yer bullets?
I stared at the copper-clad 240 grain bullet topping the cartridge I'd reloaded last year, and softly spoke aloud....
So, what ARE you waiting for,........pilgrim?:munky2:
 
Well...I am waiting for my dad to finally realize that, YOU CAN STOP AND ASK IF SOMETHING IS FOR SALE!!:mumum::argue:

I plan on building my Demon, and naming it "Werewolf", because I plan on having a street-beaterable engine that will whoop that stupid idiot in the '95 Camaro.:-D
 
This story could only be true, amazing, to say the least, fiction's got nothing against life stories realities.
Your style is a mind magnet, hope to never see the end.
I've got a couple of stories that'l curl your whiskers, but putting them into words,,,,well, you have "the nack" and you also have the down time (Snowed in)
I'll try to wright, and let you know,

LCjeff

OBTW 32,000 views, that says something!
 
.....there are those of you who might possibly be interested in the latest & greatest......not much has happened Duke-wise, although an awful lot has happened life-wise. So I may just have to tell you all about it, if you're interested......?:read2:
 
.....but hey, you asked for it!
Those of you who read the early part of this story know, by now, where I went to school, what I went there for, and how it all ended up. For those readers who skipped the first part, I'll cut to the chase;
a) Tulsa, Oklahoma
b) Airframe and powerplant mechanic (A&P)
c) I've built a 30 year career on it which landed me in shop manager/director of maintenance positions since the early nineties, culminating in a DOM position with a small company that was going quite well.
Brief, yes. To the point? Ditto. If you need more history, go back to the start of the story, but be forewarned; it's not a fast read.

Fast forward to September of 2007......

The company I work for is a Mom & Pop organization (literally), with Pop being Ted* and Mom being Marie*. Ted runs the business end of things while Marie does all the accounting, payroll, bill paying, and handles the medical insurance, ad nauseum.

(*Names changed to respect privacy)

Myself and Sam*, we are the directors; in charge of the actual work being performed in our respective departments, and the employees working under us. We are the ones that talk to, and relate to the customers, assign and approve the work being done, and ultimately, bear the responsibility for it. Ted, on the other hand, OWNS the company, has the final say in all things, and plays a huge part in customer relations and quotes for work to be performed (based, of course, on our recommendations. Ted is not from an aviation background.)

Sunday morning, early September '07.......
I'm awakened early by my wife, who seems extremely upset....crying, in fact. She rousts me from a deep sleep and I groggily open my eyes, trying to assemble the muddled, confusing puzzle laying spread-eagled out in front of me. "What's wrong?" I mumble, squinting out through one bleary, half closed eye.
"Tommy from your work just called.....Ted died yesterday."
I shot bolt-upright, my sleep-laden brain thinking either I'd heard wrong, misunderstood, or I was still dreaming.

d) None of the above.

It was true.....Ted had died of a massive heart attack. Word had filtered down the ranks though Tommy and his wife, who were close friends with Ted and Marie. I was next on the list to be notified.
I sat there, muddled, confused, with a dawning realization that the tower of security and comfort we'd constructed for ourselves at work was slowly sliding off the bank into the sea......with us in it. Right now.
 
May I have more please, sitting on the edge of my bucket seat.

please, please, please

This is an Epic journey, right up there with some of the classics form my past.

If you (the reader) don't think reading this whole thread is worth it, I have to disagree and encourage all of you to do so!

Thanks Captainkirk for taking the time to share.

LCjeff

Ever heard of Tom Swift?
 
Captainkirk said:
.....but hey, you asked for it!
Those of you who read the early part of this story know, by now, where I went to school, what I went there for, and how it all ended up. For those readers who skipped the first part, I'll cut to the chase;
a) Tulsa, Oklahoma
b) Airframe and powerplant mechanic (A&P)
c) I've built a 30 year career on it which landed me in shop manager/director of maintenance positions since the early nineties, culminating in a DOM position with a small company that was going quite well.
Brief, yes. To the point? Ditto. If you need more history, go back to the start of the story, but be forewarned; it's not a fast read.

Fast forward to September of 2007......

The company I work for is a Mom & Pop organization (literally), with Pop being Ted* and Mom being Marie*. Ted runs the business end of things while Marie does all the accounting, payroll, bill paying, and handles the medical insurance, ad nauseum.

(*Names changed to respect privacy)

Myself and Sam*, we are the directors; in charge of the actual work being performed in our respective departments, and the employees working under us. We are the ones that talk to, and relate to the customers, assign and approve the work being done, and ultimately, bear the responsibility for it. Ted, on the other hand, OWNS the company, has the final say in all things, and plays a huge part in customer relations and quotes for work to be performed (based, of course, on our recommendations. Ted is not from an aviation background.)

Sunday morning, early September '07.......
I'm awakened early by my wife, who seems extremely upset....crying, in fact. She rousts me from a deep sleep and I groggily open my eyes, trying to assemble the muddled, confusing puzzle laying spread-eagled out in front of me. "What's wrong?" I mumble, squinting out through one bleary, half closed eye.
"Tommy from your work just called.....Ted died yesterday."
I shot bolt-upright, my sleep-laden brain thinking either I'd heard wrong, misunderstood, or I was still dreaming.

d) None of the above.

It was true.....Ted had died of a massive heart attack. Word had filtered down the ranks though Tommy and his wife, who were close friends with Ted and Marie. I was next on the list to be notified.
I sat there, muddled, confused, with a dawning realization that the tower of security and comfort we'd constructed for ourselves at work was slowly sliding off the bank into the sea......with us in it. Right now.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry to hear about what happened. What kind of AP are you? Maybe I can point you in a direction if your job is gone.
 
The first thing I did was to drag my shell-shocked, sorry *** to a phone and ring up Tommy...he confirmed the news. Ted had died of a massive heart attack while waxing his truck at home.
Now, Ted was one of the most influential people I've ever worked with, without trying to be. He was friendly, outgoing, always had a kind word or a laugh to share, and made each of us feel privileged to work for him. I had a tremendous amount of respect for the man. In retrospect, what he did was astounding. We found out (after his untimely death) that when he and Marie had purchased the company, it was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, due to poor financial decisions, too many employees (9, when I started) and over-extension of credit cards and open vendor accounts, not to mention non-collection of numerous customer accounts that were seriously past due. Ted and Marie fixed all that; in 5 short years, they took us from almost 100k in debt to being finally in the black, with a skeleton crew of the vital people to keep the company furnace stoked. It was no secret that Ted was entertaining thoughts of selling the place; he openly discussed it. In fact, he'd considered several offers, but refused them, because.....get this.....he didn't think they would take care of his people.
Several of us employees had, in fact, discussed the option of purchasing the business from him, and although he'd made us an offer almost too good to be true (fully HALF the going price) it was still more than we felt we could manage. Remember; at this point in time the business had gotten to a 'break-even" point. You can't make much of a living on "break even" no matter how much improved the situation was. We would have had to borrow money to purchase the business, and then pay that back out of the profits. Sounds good on paper, but.....In the end, we agreed to hope that Ted would find a potential buyer with a rosy outlook, a great work ethic, and deep pockets.
We all worked well together. Each of us felt secure (even if underpaid) in our respective positions, and Ted gave us the authority to make our own decisions, and consequently backed them up.
Case in point; Once, a customer brought in his plane for an annual inspection, during the course of which I discovered a quarter inch of prop tip missing. When I pointed this out to the owner, he got defensive, stating that he had struck a chunk of ice while taxiing several months prior. Well, the manufacturer makes no concessions for what they consider a "prop strike", and brother, this fit the bill. According to the engine manufacturer, the only proper action was to send the prop in for overhaul and do an engine teardown inspection. 20 grand would've been the cheap side of that estimate. The owner wanted me to dress the prop blade out and paint it, and look the other way. I flat-out refused and told him in no uncertain terms I didn't work that way, and if he pushed me, I'd notify the FAA. This apparently ticked him off, so he stormed into Ted's office with the intent of getting Ted on his side, to force my hand. I'll never forget it; Ted told him that he trusted his people implicitly, and that he stood behind our decisions. The guy threatened to sue; threatened non-payment, threatened to call the Better Business Bureau.....Ted stood his ground, and stood behind us. The customer took his plane without the benefit of an airworthy sign-off that day, and Ted lost a wealthy customer who would have been willing to spend money on other toys, avionics, mostly...deliberately, because he believed in his people, and he knew we were right, and damn the torpedos! He earned my undying respect that day, and I'll never forget it.
 
My sincerest condolences to his family and to you and yours, he sounds like a great guy to work for, and all too rare these days.
Hope you wind up OK, it's been a rotten year for a lot of people, myself included.
Here's to hoping things will improve. Keep us updated.
Alan627b
 
Ted’'s funeral was a trip. Really. It was more like a funeral for a family member, because I knew Marie and his kids. And Ted was more like a father-figure than a boss. Many of our customers came, all as shell-shocked as us. Ted had made many friends in a few short years. Emotions ran high, as you might guess.
62 years old; strong as an ox……...WTF? It just didn'’t make sense. Nothing made sense. We had worked so hard to construct our little bullet-proof castles in which we could be Kings in our own little fiefdom, and here it was collapsing around us. I felt as if I were drowning. And then, like a dark storm cloud looming over our heads, was this Sword of Damocles of impending unemployment; what would become of the business?
We just kept showing up at work, booking ever more jobs and carrying on. Sam and I continued to do the things we knew how, and for the things we didn'’t; we would simply wing it. After a week, Marie started coming in and paying bills and payroll. She told us later that she was planning on just closing up shop, but she was amazed at the fact that things were hopping and money was rolling in the door! And so it continued……. Jobs cranking, money rolling in, Sam and I running the place with no direction required, and Marie stopping in for a couple hours a week to keep the bills, payroll and taxes paid. Still, we knew this had been Ted'’s baby, and she wanted to get shed of it, but the dire emergency was over and she felt she had some breathing room, so as not to just dump the place, or shut it down.
Saved by the bell, as they say.
We strengthened up the bulwarks and dug in.
Sam and I again had discussions. She offered us the company for the same deal Ted had made. Still, too much. Simply out of reach. Yeah, we could'’ve gone out on a limb…. WAY out. We spoke with bankers, but we didn'’t have enough collateral even if we liquidated our 401k’s. Which, in itself would be a stupid thing to do, or mortgage our houses, which would be even more stupid. Bear in mind this is a business that, while I loved it, was barely breaking even. Sort of like playing Russian Roulette with TWO bullets in the cylinder. One banker, after viewing the books, asked us why we even would WANT the business.
We plodded on, through October, November, and into December. Marie spoke with several interested parties; some she turned down, some WE turned down. Most of them were well-heeled pilots with lots of money and little understanding of how an aviation business operates. A few looked at the books and walked away scratching their heads as to why Ted had labored so hard for a few measly bucks a year. In aviation, we have a saying;

“The best way to make a small fortune in aviation, is to start out with a large one.”

That holds relatively true. So, why do we do it? Because we love it, and it is what we do. Why does a baker bake? Because he’'s fat and has an insatiable sweet tooth? No...…because he bakes…. He HAS to. It’'s what he does.
By December, Marie had narrowed it down to two players. One was a trusted customer, the other just popped out of the wood work. He was a student pilot, close to completion of his Private Pilot certificate, who had just sold a business for a rather large sum of money, and with a partner, wanted to build this business up to be a major contender. We talked, we did lunch, we heard their plans. Sounded pretty good. And really…..did we have much of a choice? Which is kinda the way we played it…….
 
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34,141 views, wow.

Far as I can surmise, you have lots of followers.

Please continue, some of your experiances are amazingly familiar.

LCjeff

P.S. I feel as though I have known you for some time (though we've never met), thanks for including us on your wild ride!
 
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