Circumnavigation (99+21) The Grand Feint

[C James]

The Grand Feint is up (or will be, within a minute of this post appearing).

 

There's a link to an interactive map at the top of the chapter (this is chapter AUD87 - it's mostly happening in Australia so we're still using Australian maths for the numbering) .

 

[hh5]

Gosh lots of cliffy ... will Atlantis be a target ... kooleberu go kooboom?

where is the boys n mom going?

will fowler be fowled?

 

will cj keep his word no kills offs?

[C James]

Gosh lots of cliffy ... will Atlantis be a target ... kooleberu go kooboom?

where is the boys n mom going?

will fowler be fowled?

 

will cj keep his word no kills offs?

 

There were no cliffys!!! Just a few... active sequences. And the chapter ends with the word smile.

 

And, now we know what Bridget was carrying that looks sort of like road flares, so no more worries there.

 

When did I say no kill offs?

 

The only thing I've promised is that the story will be utterly and entirely cliffhanger-free, and as we all know, that's a promise I keep.

[jkeeling]

Evil just evil I tell you.

 

 

Goes back to hiding.

[WinStuart]

CJ:

 

It was great to see a chapter posted this morning. It set me up for a fine day. Then I savored the anticipation and delayed making time to read until lunch.

 

Now I feel "just unsatisfied"! The players made many moves. They are more in proximity to each other than ever before in the story. And we hold up at the edge of another, need I say it, cliffhanger. Maybe not a cliffhanger, more like everything stops its motion: Atlantis bobbing in the ocean; Kookaburra tied up at the doc; Travis and company protected in the jail; a firetruck caught with dust flying past its tires pointed to smoke out on the desert, Billy and Blazingstoke sharing a ride and Brigit touring the sidewalk. I guess that will have to hold me for a week.

 

Thanks for a great story, CJ.

[Daddydavek]

[Benji]

...............Aha, I was right, Mr. B ditched his plane!! My next guess? Bridget plans on killing Mr. B via a trash can with dynamite stick. With him out of the picture, the cops will assume the danger is over and relax some. Then Bridget and Billy will resume the hunt for Trevor. Sanchez will be informed of the tragic accident of Mr. B and Bridget will tell him she is going to handle it herself minus the head trophy, after all she just wants the evidence gone, Trevor is just an annoyance to her at this time. It may be a ploy by Bridget to replace Sanchez via the promised missing head to shame him with the cartel, insuring his demise from within. Great chapter revealing somewhat of the next one!

[C James]

Evil just evil I tell you.

 

Goes back to hiding.

 

What's evil? It's just a... fun day in Geraldton.

 

CJ:

 

It was great to see a chapter posted this morning. It set me up for a fine day. Then I savored the anticipation and delayed making time to read until lunch.

 

Now I feel "just unsatisfied"! The players made many moves. They are more in proximity to each other than ever before in the story. And we hold up at the edge of another, need I say it, cliffhanger. Maybe not a cliffhanger, more like everything stops its motion: Atlantis bobbing in the ocean; Kookaburra tied up at the doc; Travis and company protected in the jail; a firetruck caught with dust flying past its tires pointed to smoke out on the desert, Billy and Blazingstoke sharing a ride and Brigit touring the sidewalk. I guess that will have to hold me for a week.

 

Thanks for a great story, CJ.

 

I had to end the chapter somewhere, it was already much larger than average. At least it wasn't with the Deboanir still in the air.

 

So, no cliffhangers...

 

 

...............Aha, I was right, Mr. B ditched his plane!! My next guess? Bridget plans on killing Mr. B via a trash can with dynamite stick. With him out of the picture, the cops will assume the danger is over and relax some. Then Bridget and Billy will resume the hunt for Trevor. Sanchez will be informed of the tragic accident of Mr. B and Bridget will tell him she is going to handle it herself minus the head trophy, after all she just wants the evidence gone, Trevor is just an annoyance to her at this time. It may be a ploy by Bridget to replace Sanchez via the promised missing head to shame him with the cartel, insuring his demise from within. Great chapter revealing somewhat of the next one!

 

Things do heat up a tad in the next chapter.

 

How many sticks of dynamite did Basingstoke give Bridget? Three. How many did Billy deposit next to Kookaburra? one.

 

Where might the others be?

 

Also, when Billy picked up Basingstoke, what are they talking about?

 

Trevor and Shane are indeed safely ensconced in the police station. And, Bridget just parked a car outside of a police station.

 

Incidentally, the number of police stations in Geraldton is, at that moment, one. So, same station.

 

And why has Bridget having her picture taken with a remote controlled model boat, which she promptly threw away?

 

No cliffhangers, but plenty of unanswered questions. I think y'all will like the next chapter, Wheels within Wheels.

[Benji]

Things do heat up a tad in the next chapter.

 

How many sticks of dynamite did Basingstoke give Bridget? Three. How many did Billy deposit next to Kookaburra? one.

 

Where might the others be?

 

Also, when Billy picked up Basingstoke, what are they talking about?

 

Trevor and Shane are indeed safely ensconced in the police station. And, Bridget just parked a car outside of a police station.

 

Incidentally, the number of police stations in Geraldton is, at that moment, one. So, same station.

 

And why has Bridget having her picture taken with a remote controlled model boat, which she promptly threw away?

 

No cliffhangers, but plenty of unanswered questions. I think y'all will like the next chapter, Wheels within Wheels.

 

 

................Only need one stick of dynamite to kill a person in front of a trash can! As for the other two sticks I believe Bridget will use them to sink the Kookaburra, and of course to kill Trevor. As for the remote controlled model boat, I think the only reason Bridget had those pictures taken was because she wanted Sanchez to see them, as she is planning to blow the boat up with it's occupants. Perhaps a diver will come into play here and try to plant the propane tanks and dynamite package underneath the hulls of the boat. (Julie?) Perhaps, Trevor hears an unexpected noise from beneath his boat and jumps overboard to search and release the bomb. The failed confrontation will make Bridget move against the Kookaburra in a head long a final meeting. Here I think Billy will meet his demise with a shark powered stick, Bridget will flee. How is that goat???

[Clydee]

CJ, thank you for not leaving us with a cliffhanger, even though it sort of feels just like one...or several! I looked at the map where all of this was taking place...ain't much there from what I can see! You'd have to love isolation to live there...

 

Would someone please eliminate Bridget??? Is there really any reason for her to be alive??? If I were Billy I'd be heading for the hills before she turns on him, which I am sure she will. Maybe Trevor will do it (get Bridget) with that big ole 44 magnum pistol or whatever it was...

[wildone]

Okay, I don't know why, but have we discussed Grundig's role in this

 

I think Greg Fowler kept him out of the loop for a reason

 

There, that is my one prediction

 

Thanks for the chapter CJ :bow:

[Benji]

...................Hmmm Interesting assessment! If Grundig's role in this is with the bad guy's it would make sense that Bidget and Mr. knew that Trevor was on the Kookaburra instead of the Atlantis, even though Mr. B fitted the tracking device on the Kookaburra and it is now on the Atlantis. That would definitely solve the problem of how Mr. B and Bridget zeroed in on the Kookaburra instead of the Atlantis.

[Low Flyer]

Okay, I don't know why, but have we discussed Grundig's role in this

 

I think Greg Fowler kept him out of the loop for a reason

 

There, that is my one prediction

 

Thanks for the chapter CJ :bow:

 

Interesting. It did cross my mind to wonder about Grundig but we've stretched coincidence a long way already when Trevor happened to wash up in the place where his uncle's a customs agent.

 

If it also happens to be a place where the cartel who're after Aries also "just happen" to have an agent, it might be a bit hard to swallow.

 

So, having let it cross my mind, I have now banished the thought.

[RickMD]

Oh, this is SOOO FUN!! The electronics involved in autopiloting Mr. B's Deboanir reminded me of Leaving Club Leo, sounds good but I have no idea what it all means...with that said.... here is our take. BB is too good to kill, she is the ultimate hero villian. She will dispose of either of the other B's (Billy or Basingstoke), cut off a head or two and use her own makeup skills alluded to in the last paragraph of Grand Feint to construct a blond teenage replica of Trevor, take a few pictures and forward them all to her 'Dearest Sanchez' with the apology that this will just have to do... Only then will Trevor be set free and in the process we will learn much more of the relationship that exists between Ms. Bellevue, (what her family ?owns land in WA!?) and Rachel! Oh, and the pictures, (Lisa, Shane etc.), kind on like a rogues gallery of the teenage players for Bridget to remember in her later years as Queen of the Cartel!!!

 

Thanks again CJ, your humble readers can only hope YOUR wheels won't fall off prior to the conclusion...

[TalonRider]

Generally, CJ's villains don't make to the end of the story. There's been one exception tho, The Scar, he was needed for the sequel so instead of dieing, he became disfigured in the first story, but was dead before the end of the second.

[StefanAustria]

Great chapter with absolutely no cliffhangers

Tell me that again and I just might believe it

same as I believe that Uluru/Ayers Rock is not close to Alice Springs. Having driven through half of Oz in a Toyota Corolla some 15 years ago (15K+ km in just under 5 weeks) those 200 miles are nothing compared to other distances down under. You'd drive that in 3 hours, no probs.

[ret2ak]

<p>When we were kids we used to go out to the Ok

[ret2ak]

Sorry about the last post. The internet is really sluggish tonight.

When we were kids we used to go out to the Oklahoma City airport at night and stand at the end of the runway behind airliners as they took off. The prop blast was awesome, even with no airspeed. I also put my hand out the little side window of 2 place Tomahawks and the prop blast made me fear for my hand. So Mr. B is trying to open the passenger door and finds it difficult against a 70 mph or knot airstream. He was also fighting a 75% power prop blast because the simple auto pilot on the Debonair did not have throttle control. I seriously doubt he could have done it. If he did the increasing airspeed and prop blast would have led to serious injury when he hit the stabilizer. I should also confess that on long cross country flights I used to wad up paper and let them out the window. Some of them were half over and half under the stabilizer and did not come off until landing. I got into trouble on the previous post by quoting from Feint. You will have to look for yourself. Prop blast is never mentioned

[C James]

CJ, thank you for not leaving us with a cliffhanger, even though it sort of feels just like one...or several! I looked at the map where all of this was taking place...ain't much there from what I can see! You'd have to love isolation to live there...

 

Would someone please eliminate Bridget??? Is there really any reason for her to be alive??? If I were Billy I'd be heading for the hills before she turns on him, which I am sure she will. Maybe Trevor will do it (get Bridget) with that big ole 44 magnum pistol or whatever it was...

 

I think I'd love the region - I live in a remote part of Arizona by choice, so it looks very inviting to me.

 

And you are very welcome for the chapter being cliffhanger-free! Thank you for noticing!!

 

 

Okay, I don't know why, but have we discussed Grundig's role in this

 

I think Greg Fowler kept him out of the loop for a reason

 

There, that is my one prediction

 

Thanks for the chapter CJ :bow:

 

Thanks, and thanks for acknowledging that it's cliffhanger-free!

...................Hmmm Interesting assessment! If Grundig's role in this is with the bad guy's it would make sense that Bidget and Mr. knew that Trevor was on the Kookaburra instead of the Atlantis, even though Mr. B fitted the tracking device on the Kookaburra and it is now on the Atlantis. That would definitely solve the problem of how Mr. B and Bridget zeroed in on the Kookaburra instead of the Atlantis.

 

Basingstoke already knew that the video security system was being used to set a trap for him, and he has at least expressed concern that the battery on his tracking device would be dead by now.

Oh, this is SOOO FUN!! The electronics involved in autopiloting Mr. B's Deboanir reminded me of Leaving Club Leo, sounds good but I have no idea what it all means...with that said.... here is our take. BB is too good to kill, she is the ultimate hero villian. She will dispose of either of the other B's (Billy or Basingstoke), cut off a head or two and use her own makeup skills alluded to in the last paragraph of Grand Feint to construct a blond teenage replica of Trevor, take a few pictures and forward them all to her 'Dearest Sanchez' with the apology that this will just have to do... Only then will Trevor be set free and in the process we will learn much more of the relationship that exists between Ms. Bellevue, (what her family ?owns land in WA!?) and Rachel! Oh, and the pictures, (Lisa, Shane etc.), kind on like a rogues gallery of the teenage players for Bridget to remember in her later years as Queen of the Cartel!!!

 

Thanks again CJ, your humble readers can only hope YOUR wheels won't fall off prior to the conclusion...

 

Thanks!! I share that hope... Though at the moment the greatest threat to my well-being is frequent threats of goat-roasting around here...

Generally, CJ's villains don't make to the end of the story. There's been one exception tho, The Scar, he was needed for the sequel so instead of dieing, he became disfigured in the first story, but was dead before the end of the second.

 

There was also my first novel, For the Love... Dependent upon who one thinks the real antagonist there was though.

 

Great chapter with absolutely no cliffhangers

Tell me that again and I just might believe it

same as I believe that Uluru/Ayers Rock is not close to Alice Springs. Having driven through half of Oz in a Toyota Corolla some 15 years ago (15K+ km in just under 5 weeks) those 200 miles are nothing compared to other distances down under. You'd drive that in 3 hours, no probs.

 

Absolutely no cliffhangers! There, does that help?

True that compared to the distances involved that 200 miles (it's around 300 by road) is nothing... Oz is indeed vast.

Sorry about the last post. The internet is really sluggish tonight.

When we were kids we used to go out to the Oklahoma City airport at night and stand at the end of the runway behind airliners as they took off. The prop blast was awesome, even with no airspeed. I also put my hand out the little side window of 2 place Tomahawks and the prop blast made me fear for my hand. So Mr. B is trying to open the passenger door and finds it difficult against a 70 mph or knot airstream. He was also fighting a 75% power prop blast because the simple auto pilot on the Debonair did not have throttle control. I seriously doubt he could have done it. If he did the increasing airspeed and prop blast would have led to serious injury when he hit the stabilizer. I should also confess that on long cross country flights I used to wad up paper and let them out the window. Some of them were half over and half under the stabilizer and did not come off until landing. I got into trouble on the previous post by quoting from Feint. You will have to look for yourself. Prop blast is never mentioned

 

True, prop blast is never mentioned, and yes, it should have been.

 

However, one factor that comes into play here is angle of attack. The Deb stalls at about 60 (I'm going from memory here.. I've only flown as pilot in command in a Deb a few times, and it's been years). At 70, pitched well up, the angle of attack becomes significant. (for those unfamilier, the angle of attack is the difference between the way a plane is pointing and its direction of motion). He'd have to lever himself out, but given that the door is well back relative the the wing's leading edge, part of it - the lower back part - would be in partial wind shadow.

 

Here's the best pic I could find on a Deb, though it's not too clear.

 

The closest personal point of referance I can make would be climbing out of a Cessna 155 at around 50mph and standing on the step on the wheel strut. I was at ten thousand feet, so the air is a bit less dense, same for Basingstoke. This was for my jump to learn emergency parachute procedures (basingstoke's choice to learn how to use an emergency chute was actually mine as well) I know the extra 20mph makes a big difference, but I managed it fine at 50 without the angle of attack, BUT, also far less propwash (the pilot had throttled back).

 

CJ

[ret2ak]

True, the stall angle is probably 10-15 degrees and I am sure he does not want to enter a spin which the open door could precipitate. However you said the nose was dropping at the auto pilots command and Mr. B. had to fight the additional airspeed. He would have also have had additional prop blast as the nose dropped. You are a great guy and a world class spinner of tales, but the guy who throttled back the Cessna 155 may have saved your life.

[C James]

True, the stall angle is probably 10-15 degrees and I am sure he does not want to enter a spin which the open door could precipitate. However you said the nose was dropping at the auto pilots command and Mr. B. had to fight the additional airspeed. He would have also have had additional prop blast as the nose dropped. You are a great guy and a world class spinner of tales, but the guy who throttled back the Cessna 155 may have saved your life.

 

The pilot was a skydiver (he was the one teaching me, and was kinda... unorthodox in many ways). Truth be told, had I had more trouble getting out, I'd have used it as an excuse not to do so. Skydiving just isn't my thing. The first time the door wasn't there, so less trouble, but for this jump he wanted to give me what he called "a real bail-out feel". Looking back, I can't say for sure whether he crabbed the Cessna a bit, too. And as they say, the first step is a doozy. Getting outside, to me, was the scary part. Well, that, and letting go. It's one hell of a rush seeing the plane receding into the sky (that's where I got the scene of Basingstoke doing it, and also a couple of scenes in Changing Lanes) but I was 19 and nervous as hell, and at that point, I was seriously questioning my decision to add jump training to my flight training.

 

As for Basingstoke, I freely admit I didn't think through his egress enough. I was encumbered by a backup chute (on my chest) and Basingstoke isn't, but still, the propwash is an issue. Hrmmm.. a better autopilot (one with throttle control) might have been the answer... or jettison the door back at Bellevue Airfield, though that would have impacted his range a bit, plus he didn't have as much time there as he'd planned.

 

He was already out by the time the nose dropped and airspeed picked up;

 

Basingstoke struggled with the door, managing to leverage himself past it, but the delay had cost him; the Debonair’s autopilot, a simple model capable of flying waypoints at a set altitude via controlling the ailerons and elevators – though not the throttle – had commanded it to return to level flight, and the airspeed was already increasing as the aircraft’s nose dropped to level, and then continued into a shallow descent towards its preset altitude.

The propwash would be affected by angle of attack, though not as much as the airflow would be. Hrmmm... Could he get out the door? It pains me to say it, but I'm not sure... and I should be. I wish I knew the square footage of that door. I'm going to take a wild guess as 3X3, though it's narrower at the top. So call it 9 square feet. He's going to need to open it at least 30 degrees to get out. Now for airspeed... take into account angle of attack, 70mph, and then factor in propwash... I have no idea what the prop-wash airspeed would be. That's an airfoil prop, so you're getting your thrust from lift generated by the blade's rotational speed, and small planes have a hell of a lot less backwash than jets, or course... so I'll take a SWAG and say... 140 mph airspeed at the door at 70mph airspeed and at that angle of attack? Let's make it easy and say he has to open the door 33% 1/3. That's roughly the equivalent of 3 square feet exposed to airflow, and we'll assume it's a flat plate (it'd actually be less drag than that.). Now, let's see if I remember wind loading calcs... nope, I don't, even though I did them to calculate Atlantis's speed under jury rig. HAd to look it up...

 

Force, F = A x P x Cd

A = the projected area of the item.

P , Wind pressure (Psf), = .004 x V^2 (V= wind speed in Mph)

This includes the drag coefficient (Cd) for flat plates and a 30% gust factor.

Therefore,

Cd, Drag coefficient, = 1.0 for flat plates, and .67 for cylinders

 

.004 x 140^2 gives us 78.4 pounds, minus 30% gust factor mentioned is 54.88 pounds, x 3 gives us about 162 pounds total. max pressure on the door when open 1/3. I think it's be less than that, because I think the Cd would be less than that. However, that's at sea level. At 10,000 feet, the air is 69% of what one would feel at sea level, so drop the applied pressure by 31%, gives us 111 pounds of pressure, max, needed to get out (and far less than that to get the door open a few inches to start squirming out). That's easy (most moderately fit guys can bench way more than that... usually they can bench their weight or better, and benching freeweights is harder than a fixed hinged item, it's more like benching on a arm-type lift bench) plus he's leveraging himself out, and can get help from his legs, so I'd say getting past the door is totally feasible, BUT, that's a total back of the envelope guess, way too many assumed variables there.

[Low Flyer]

Oh, this is SOOO FUN!! The electronics involved in autopiloting Mr. B's Deboanir reminded me of Leaving Club Leo, sounds good but I have no idea what it all means...with that said.... here is our take. BB is too good to kill, she is the ultimate hero villian. She will dispose of either of the other B's (Billy or Basingstoke), cut off a head or two and use her own makeup skills alluded to in the last paragraph of Grand Feint to construct a blond teenage replica of Trevor, take a few pictures and forward them all to her 'Dearest Sanchez' with the apology that this will just have to do... Only then will Trevor be set free and in the process we will learn much more of the relationship that exists between Ms. Bellevue, (what her family ?owns land in WA!?) and Rachel! Oh, and the pictures, (Lisa, Shane etc.), kind on like a rogues gallery of the teenage players for Bridget to remember in her later years as Queen of the Cartel!!!

 

Thanks again CJ, your humble readers can only hope YOUR wheels won't fall off prior to the conclusion...

 

I had a similar thought, RickMD, but there are problems with it.

 

As you say, it doesn't have to be Trevor's head that reaches Sanchez (I think an actual head does, though - he wants his big dramatic gesture). I wondered whether any blond-haired head (perhaps stolen from a morgue or something like that - still not pleasant but better than beheading our hero) wouldn't do - after all, the act of removing it from the body and then the natural decomposition during its trip to the cartel would make it hard to be certain just whose head it is. The cartel members have never met Trevor anyway.

 

BUT, with all the press interest, I think it will be impossible for Trevor to stay below the radar and it would only take a single article to reach the cartel and the whole thing would unravel.

 

It's possible that if whatever's on Kookaburra is sufficiently incriminating, the other cartel members will turn on Sanchez, grant him early retirement, and cancel the contract since they'd have no further interest in Trevor.

 

I think it's actually possible that Bridget will, if not switch sides, at least show that her primary loyalty is to herself. She still has plenty of cash and I can imagine her double-crossing the cartel and just going into hiding somewhere to live out her days under an alias. She can't be all that thrilled at her change of status vis-à-vis the cartel - from needed and respected equal to employee. So I wouldn't be too surprised if she ends up showing some leniency.

 

She's already said that she has no personal interest in seeing Shane, Lisa or Joel dead, after all.

 

As for the Bellevue land in WA - it's in the narration that it's pure coincidence. However, we also know that, coincidental it might be, but there will be ramifications.

[ret2ak]

Roughly the airspeed indicator in the Debonair is a measure of the impact of the air on the pitot tube and airframe. The ground speed is much higher at 10000 feet. It is incorrect to reduce the impact by 31%. A second problem is that at high angles of attack the indicated airspeed is lower as less and less frontal area of the pitot tube is exposed to the airstream. Bernoulli would probably kick in and at 90 dgrees you could use the pitot tube to create a vacuum. I am glad you did the flat plate calculation. I did the same thing to try and convince the contractor to bolt my new shed to the slab. We get high winds here at the base of the Chugach Mountains in the fall.

[TalonRider]

I'm still not certain what Bridget is looking for is aboard Kookaburra. Don't forget Ned did some major repair and remodeling work soon after Rachael got to Aussie.

[Winemaker]

Yep the bows were taken off Aries and by the looks of it they were put onto Atlantis by Ned, who said he had disposed of them....