Free Hidden Courage (Atlantis) by Christopher David Petersen Page B

instantly reacted by adding power and banking into the wind to steer away from the deadly rock face. With his eyes glued to the ridgeline, he nervously watched as the tiny plane turned and began to distance itself from the impending crash.
     
    “Damn, that was close,” Jack called out as he breathed a moment of relief.
     
    Jack’s relief was short-lived. Refocusing on his task at hand, he quickly looked out his window to monitor his progress. He was now a hundred and fifty feet above the ground and still descending. As the tiny plane flew away from the ridgeline, he stopped his turn and now lined up, heading directly across the snowfield.
     
    With the great mountain on his right side, he now stared out his windshield at the other ridgeline directly in front of him. Lined up in the center of the snowfield, he estimated the ridgeline to be only five hundred feet away. He cut the power completely, rapidly accelerating his descent.
     
    Jack looked out his side window, down at the snow below. He could tell by the ski that he was close; about twenty feet from the ground now. Then it dawned on him. He hadn’t lowered the skis below the tires yet. Quickly, he grabbed a lever and lowered them, while he watched the skis instantly drop below the tires and lock in place. In the time it took him to do this, he had dropped a few more feet. He could see the skis casting a shadow on the snow below. He was close.
     
    Looking up across the field, there was now only 300 feet left between him and the other ridge. It was going to be close.
     
    Jack reached down and turned off the key, cutting the power to the engine.
     
    “This is it. No turning back now,” Jack cried out to himself.
     
    Jack was now committed to land. With the engine off, flaps lowered and the skis fully extended, there was nothing else he could do but wait and watch the end of the field race toward him. Looking down at the skis again, he was now inches above the ground. The speed was now rapidly bleeding off as he started to flare the nose.
     
    Forty knots, thirty-five knots, thirty knots…
     
    Jack felt it first as a tiny vibration – then the whole plane started to shake. He immediately glanced out his side window. He was now touching down and skidding across the field.
     
    With his speed falling below twenty-five knots, the far end of the field was no longer far. It was a mere one hundred feet away and closing. He pulled hard back on the stick, trying to raise the nose of the plane as high as he could, using the bottom surface for aerodynamic braking.
     
    Without warning, the tiny plane slid down into a small depression, then back up the other side, slowing it further, but launching it into the air several feet. Instantly, Jack held the stick back as far as he could to soften the drop. It was the only thing he could do on short notice.
     
    The tiny plane hit the soft snow with a loud, jarring thud that scared Jack. He was sure something must have broken on the hard landing. Holding back the stick through the series of bounces, the tiny plane shuddered and creaked as the speed began to bleed off.
     
    Slowing to a stop, Jack flung opened his door and leaped out of the plane to inspect for damage. To his surprise, he immediately sunk up to his knees in soft snow.
    He looked back at the struts the skis were attached to. Relieved, he saw no damage. Stepping back, he reached up and grabbed a wing. Pushing it up and down, he rocked the wings and listened for anything unusual. A slow smile spread across his face as he realized he came through the landing unscathed.
     
    “Phew, dodged another bullet,” Jack joked to himself out loud. “Just a walk in the park.”
     
    He looked up at the mountain in front of him, then over to the ridges that cradled the snowfield. As he listened to the wind whistling past him, he suddenly realized just how alone he really was.
     
    “Six thousand miles from home, no one around for a hundred miles and buried deep in the heart