Life with Spitfire

I flew above the snowy sight in my plane. The time was 14:32, and I was in a good mood. The sky above my machine was grey, with the clouds being at the altitude of more than five thousand meters. I was returning from the flight tests, which took place in Cloudsdale. I was desperate to see Spitfire there, but unfortunately, she didn’t have the time to join me – she was busy with her Wonderbolts crew. So, I was coming back to our bureau’s airfield in Canterlot. Just as usual, I contacted the control tower:

“Eagle One, this is Fox Two. Requiring the clearance for landing procedure.”

“Fox Two, this is Eagle One. Can you hold up for a little? What’s your fuel status?”

“One hundred and fifty kilograms. What’s happening out there?” I asked, being confused. Usually I got the clearance pretty quick.

“We’re having guests on the airfield. Very important guests. What’s your course?”

“Nine-two-zero.”

“Roger that, Fox Two. Keep the altitude of two thousand meters, they will pass above you.”

After I’ve heard the control tower’s message, I became confused even more. However, pretty soon I’ve heard a thundering sound behind myself. I saw five airplanes in my rearview mirror that were passing five hundred meters above my course. My eyes became wide as saucers – there were two Il-76’s and three Su-30’s. All of them had Russian Aerospace Military insignias, and unique painted fuselages, and formed a nice diamond, while passing above me.

“Russian Knights! How?!” I shouted, forgetting that my communicator was still on.

“They are staying at our airfield, Fox Two. Let them pass,” the man from the control tower replied. After that, I saw the indication that someone was trying to contact me. So, I pushed the button to enter the chatter.

“Unidentified aircraft, number RA-30616, name yourself!” a loud voice demanded. I assumed that it was a voice of the airgroup commander.

“Hear you loud and clear. Fox Two at your service!”

“Roger that, Fox Two. This is the Russian Knights group commander colonel Ryazanov. We are here for the first time, and you seem familiar to this place, could you please lead us to the Canterlot airfield? We have the contact with the control tower, but we’ve lost our navigation markers,” the harsh voice softened.

“That’s a great honor to meet you, comrade colonel. Follow me, I am heading towards the airfield myself.”

After receiving a positive response, the group slowed down, and I passed below them. I could see the fat bellies of transport aircraft, and sleek air intakes of the jetfighters. I’d never seen them that close before, especially in mid-flight. So, I pushed the engine control rod to its maximum, and engaged the nitrous oxide system, so the group would feel themselves more comfortable at higher speed. As my plane started to accelerate, I started to maneuver, showing the way to the group. They followed me neatly, keeping a stable diamond formation. Pretty soon, as we’d reached the opening in the mountains which lead to the airfield, I contacted the group again.

“Comrade colonel, this is Fox Two, we’re reaching the airfield. I’ll circle around and wait until the runway will be clear.”

“Thanks for the help, Fox Two. We’ll meet on the ground,” colonel Ryazanov replied. After that, I moved out from the glissade, to give some space for the group. As I flew near the mountains, I saw how the heavy cargo planes landed first, and the jetfighters followed after them. As they released the braking parachutes and moved away from the runway, I laid my plane on the landing course, and pretty soon landed myself. As I found out, the group’s hangars stood near mine, so when I parked my plane and got out, I ran to them quickly, being excited.

I saw that the technical personnel was working with the jetfighters already, making sure that they won’t be damaged by anything even while they were in the hangar. Near one of the Su-30’s, I saw a tall and buff man in bomber jacket, heavy boots and leather gloves with white helmet still on him. As he was commanding his crew, I assumed that this was the colonel. At first, I didn’t want to interrupt him, so I just stood near the steering road, not knowing what to do. However, as he noticed me, he shouted:

“Hey, you! You are the pilot of that plane, who helped us out there?”

As he asked me, I ran towards him, and almost instinctively took a stance.

“Fox Two, reporting for duty!” I replied, but then remembered, that I left the army service years ago. I smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, comrade colonel, just reflexes. Name’s Nick.”

“Don’t worry about that. Once a soldier is always a soldier, even if he’s demobilized. You can call me Alexander Vasilievich,” Ryazanov said and extended his hand. As we shared our handshakes, he asked me, “Is there any place where we can smoke?”

“Sure. We have a trash container behind every hangar.”

“Okay, then… Alexeev, Mikoyan! Want to smoke?”

“Of course, comrade colonel,” two pilots peeked out from behind one of the jetfighters.

“Nick, lead the way.”

As we walked behind the hangar, I took out a pack of “Belomorkanal” from my trench coat and offered it to everyone.

“Thanks, but we’re good,” one of the pilots said and took a pack of his own from his bomber jacket. Pretty soon, the air around us became filled with hot smoke.

“So, meet our pilotage team,” Ryazanov started, “Lieutenant Michail Alexeev, and captain Artem Mikoyan.”

“Pleased to meet you all,” I replied with a smile, and shook the officer’s hands. “Name’s Nick. What brought you here?”

“Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are arranging a meeting in their castle. It will include a large amount of Equestrian and Russian military. So, we are performing there,” Alexeev said. “Looks like that our visit was a surprise, wasn’t it?”

“Sure it was. Noone has mentioned that you’d come in the schedule,” I chuckled and released a big cloud of smoke from my mouth.

“Schedule? I thought that you were just passing by,” Mikoyan laughed slightly, and everyone followed after him.

“Yeah, all my flights are scheduled. I’m testing airplanes, you know,” I chuckled.

“Interesting. Do you work at some design bureau?” Ryazanov asked curiously.

“Yes. I’m an engineer and a test pilot of a small local design bureau. Our base is this airfield.”

“And you were piloting one of your bureau’s machines?”

“Of course.”

“Well, it looks quite aerodynamic, if you ask me. What engine does it have?”

“Two Rotax engines, built in a single block with additional nitrous oxide system and two custom superchargers!” I said proudly and received a nod from the colonel.

“Not too bad. What’s the maximum speed?”

“Four hundred and twenty kilometers per hour.”

“That’s something to talk about,” Mikoyan agreed. “Was it a sportsplane?”

“Of some sort. I’ve performed some high pilotage on it, however, my health won’t let me to test it properly – my friend Dimitry has to arrange some test flights up in the Cloudsdale.”

“Oh yes, we passed this city while getting here,” Alexeev said. “Never thought that one day I’ll see a city in the clouds…”

“Or anthropomorphic ponies in general!” Ryazanov laughed loudly, and everyone followed after him, including myself.

“Heh, I actually know a few of them personally. Despite having a strange look and abilities, they are just like us,” I said. After that, my mobile phone rang. “Oh hang on, I’ve got an incoming call.”

As I picked up the phone, I saw that Spitfire was calling. That slightly surprised me – she almost didn’t use her mobile phone, except for something important.

“Hello?”

“Nick! Where the fuck are you?! I’m searching for you for like an eternity! Are you at the airfield?” Spitfire literally shouted into her phone. She sounded angry.

“Of course I’m at the airfield! I’m behind the hangar number three.”

“I’ll come soon,” she replied harshly and hang up the phone. I sighed, and took another cigarette from the pack.

“And now, gentlemen, you’ll see one of my friends,” I said and looked at my wristwatch. “Incoming in four… Three… Two… One…”

“Oh there you are, mister!” I heard a loud and harsh voice behind myself. As I turned around, I received a powerful punch in my face. I didn’t pass out, but it hit me so hard that I fell on the ground. My sight became blurry.

“What… The hell…” I managed to say, trying to stay conscious. After that, Spitfire grabbed me by my trench coat, and lifted back on my feet, so I would face her. She seemed furious.

“How DARE you! To exceed your own limits! You’ve told me yourself about your health state! And what do I see? Pilotage that most certainly would KILL you! Are you insane or what?!” she shouted in my face.

“There was some top pilotage, I know that… But nothing that would exceed my limits,” I replied. However, that angered Spitfire even more.

“Oh yes, I know that “nothing”! The last time we did these figures, you were nearly passing out, and now you do the same at even higher speeds! You may not fucking know, but I care for you, for fuck’s sake! And you did that just after exiting the Cloudsdale!” Spitfire shouted at me again. However, she noticed some men around me who were looking at the scene curiously. “What the fuck are you looking at?”

“Nothing. We were just casually smoking with our new friend,” Ryazanov said, almost bursting with laughter.

“You don’t seem local. Who are you?” Spitfire’s voice softened slightly, and she released me. I backed off slightly, and finally lit up my cigarette, that I was still holding in my hand.

“We are from the Russian Knights aerial performance group. This airfield is our temporary base right now,” Alexeev answered. After that, everyone’s presented themselves, and shook Spitfire’s hand.

“Captain Spitfire, leader of the Wonderbolts aerial performance team,” Spitfire introduced herself. “Sorry about the scene – I was worried about my dear friend. Can you imagine – he was reaching his own limits even without warning me! Even when his plane didn’t pass the full complex of tests!”

“Well, you may didn’t know that, but our engineering works like that,” Mikoyan explained. “Every plane must be tested at its maximum before it could be put into production. So, I think that he was right in this situation.”

“Though, he could use some help from you, too,” Ryazanov interrupted. “Though, you don’t need to exaggerate, too. I don’t think that he didn’t know the risk and his own limits, if he’s an engineer.”

“Exactly. Sorry for not letting you know,” I apologized before Spitfire.

“You know, this is a first time I see a pegasus that close,” Alexeev hummed. “And it’s almost impossible to believe that you can fly as fast as they told me about you with your wings.”

“Well, that’s just me. Magical abilities and stuff,” Spitfire replied casually. “I’ve never heard about your group before. What planes do you have?”

“Two cargo Il-76 cargo planes with technical personnel and equipment, and three Su-30 jetfighters. We can have a closer look, if you want,” colonel Ryazanov offered.

“Of course!” I replied enthusiastically. “Spitfire, do you want to come?”

“Sure thing,” she agreed. After that, we finished our smoking and walked into the hangar, where the planes stood.

“Woah… They look big,” Spitfire said after getting closer to one of the planes.

“Yeah, they are pretty heavy. However, there are a lot of airplane types around our world, so even heavier jetfighters also exist,” Mikoyan said and patted the plane’s hull. “Do you like it?”

“It’s absolutely fascinating,” I said with awe, while looking over the machine. “Two AL-31F engines?”

“Yes. Also, a few custom tweaks, such as controlled exhaust nozzles. It can do a lot of complex figures, such as “cobra” or “bell”. Very, very powerful machine.”

“What’s the “cobra”? Never heard about this trick before,” Spitfire asked. After that, Ryazanov showed her how the plane maneuvers while doing the figure with his hands, which impressed the mare. “Huh, like that? We ponies can’t do that. That must’ve taken a lot of effort from your engineers.”

“Of course. This maneuver was invented by Pugachev during the tests of Su-27,” Ryazanov explained. “It became possible after the invention of fly-by-wire system. As no human being can’t follow the maneuverability of modern airplanes, this system helps to calculate the right maneuvering and stabilize the machine.”

“That’s some technological hard rock…” I responded. I knew what the colonel was talking about, but still felt that all this tech was fascinating.

“Indeed it is. Do you want to have a look at the cabin?”

The colonel gestured to the ladder, that stood near the machine and which lead to its cabin. As I climbed at the plane’s hull, I gave a look to the colonel.

“Can I… Can I have a seat?”

“Sure. Just don’t touch anything without my permission.”

As I sat into the cabin, the colonel sat on the hull on my right side, and Spitfire hovered above. The machine looked fascinating – it had nice LCD and LED displays everywhere. It looked nothing like my machine’s panel, with all its clock-like indicators.

“Alright, as you can see, a panel of a modern jetfighter looks like nothing else. All these displays show the readings of everything that the pilot needs to see – altitude above the sea level, actual altitude, the velocity, the G-forces, fuel level… Pretty much everything. And what is more important, these displays are modular and customizable.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, being confused.

“For example, if one of these displays is damaged, you can switch the readings so another one would show them. And, when you are back home, you just get rid of a damaged display and switch it to a new one. No need to disassemble the whole panel, as you would do in a regular airplane,” Ryazanov chuckled.

“Cool… I like the idea. Maybe we should do the same with our own airplanes,” I replied, being intrigued.

“All this stuff looks geeky, if you ask me. But nonetheless, it allows you to do very complex figures. That’s very stunning,” Spitfire gave an understanding nod.

“By the way… Is the ejection system always online?” I asked the colonel.

“Of course. Why do you ask? Don’t even try to pull the handle,” he warned me, being confused.

“Nah, I just heard a lot of stories about technicians ejecting and hitting the hangar’s roof,” I chuckled, and started to get out from the cabin.

“Ah, now I get it! These stories are myths, however, the situation is quite possible. Once we’ve decided to test this system on a mannequin. It smashed against the hangar’s roof,” Ryazanov laughed.

As I got off the plane’s hull, and Spitfire landed nearby, she asked:

“Comrade colonel, do you have any spare time before the show? Maybe we could drink together and meet my team. Maybe we could’ve exchanged a couple of tricks.”

“Only after the show, comrade captain. However, you can see us here, on the airfield,” Ryazanov answered with a smile. After that, he looked at his wristwatch. “Well, soon we will have another flight. We will see you around.”

And, a bit later, when three jetfighters took off the runway of our small airfield, we with Spitfire watched them with awe. And at that particular moment I thought that even when you just know such awesome people as these pilots, they can encourage you to do something better than you usually did. That evening, I made a note in my notebook, which said:

“Consider installing electronic displays instead of old panels.”