Chapter Text
As much as the Piston Peak Air Attack team might prefer to say at their home turf, on particularly intense fire years it wasn’t usual for a couple of vehicles get pulled from the park to perform fire suppression duties somewhere else in the state. Dusty just happened to in at Piston Peak completing his annual recertification when the National Interagency Fire Center had pulled part of the team to support fire suppression near Sacramento. After looking at the regional needs, Chief Blade Ranger had loaned Cabbie and Dusty to the Cal Fire team working the Sacramento fire, with the promise that they could tap Windlifter for specialized lifting tasks.
Based on the Cal Fire’s IC reaction when Cabbie and Dusty arrived, he had probably been hoping for support helicopters. Still, the two planes had immediately put to work, sent to a regional hub to pick up a load of critically needed themo-gell mix that was being shipped to them from Arizona. For Dusty, the idea to fly into San Francisco International Airport was particularly stressful. SFX was an airport was purely designed for airplanes a completely different weight class. Under normal circumstances, a tiny plane like him wouldn’t even be allowed anywhere near the flight pattern.
“Are you sure that it is okay for me to be your wingman on this mission…” Dusty asked the larger plane as they made a beeline towards one of the busiest airports on the continent. “I mean I could stick around camp and wait for you to get back.”
Cabbie gave Dusty a good look and gave a slight roll of his eyes. “You are a firefighter on duty the tower isn’t going to think twice about it.”
“Still…”
“Are you this nervous flying into a major airport when you are racing?” Cabbie pushed.
“No, but they stop the long distance traffic when they…”
“And do you make a fuss when you have to make a pit stop at one of the bigger airports when you are flying cross country.”
“No, but I always pick regional airports that have a whole lot of small aircraft traffic and San Francisco International an airport that is exclusively for the big passenger and cargo planes.” Dusty shrugged his wings. “To be honest, I am kind of surprised that they are letting a plan of your size to land.”
Cabbie actually snorted in response to that comment. “Where do you think I pick up and drop off the smokejumpers at the edge of the season?”
“…Um…” The SEAT shifted uncomfortably under the Jump plane’s gaze.
“San Francisco International Airport.” Cabbie finally filled in when it was clear that the smaller plane was tongue tied. “Yes, I could drop them off at one of the smaller regional airports, or even at Fresno, but both Blade and I agree that the best way to keep the gravel munches out of trouble is to get them on a direct flight back to their hometowns.”
“And they are okay with that?”
“Who?”
“The airport?”
“As long as you pay the landing fee, follow the rules, and don’t mess with their traffic patterns too badly I don’t think they care who lands at their airport.” As the older plane spoke, he could tell that Dusty bristled at the word landing fee. “Don’t worry about the fee. They usually wave it for government service planes, and always wave it for aircraft that are currently on a Lifeguard designated mission. The Thermo-gell is mission critical, and no tower jockey is going to make a fuss about us utilizing their airport if it helps to save a few more homes.”
“If you say so…”
“I do.” Cabbie started to warm up his engines, then the old plane smirked. “Oh, and we will review your radio skill when you get in the air because you need to work on receiving ATIS transmissions.”
“But…” Dusty tried to counter, but Cabbie was going to have none of that.
“No buts about it. You need the practice.”
Term- ATIS- Automatic Terminal Information Services, known as ATIS, is a special system used to broadcast information about an airport. The repeating radio message includes information such as the current weather, active runways, NOTAMs, and available approaches. Pilots are usually to listen into the ATIS report before contacting control tower.