6 Miles With Courage (2 page)

When Ryan’s dad heard the bang he knew instantly that it was a major malfunction of the engine. There was no sputtering, no popping, nor any sign of what was to come. The engine locked up and no amount of trying to start it would help.

Ryan’s father was no stranger to quick thinking.
Making quick decisions is a trait you must possess if you’re going to make it as a land surveyor in the Florida wilderness. He quickly and methodically assessed the situation.

The engine is out of commission
and our altitude is six hundred feet. We are low-and-slow. In sixty seconds we will no longer be
airborne
. We are going to have to make an emergency landing! We need to find a field fast!

Glancing out
his window he sees nothing but cypress trees. Looking past Ryan and out the right window, he sees nothing but more cypress trees. Straight ahead is much of the same. A field landing is out of the question. The emergency landing procedures for
this
situation runs through his mind. Turn off all electrical switches to prevent a fire. There is only one option left. Fly it into the trees!              

Sounds kind of crazy does it not? Fly it into the trees. But that is exactly what
he is supposed to do in this situation. The idea behind this kind of thinking is that beyond anything else you want to keep the cockpit intact, thereby keeping you and your passengers safe. While you still have airspeed you still have control. So you fly it into the trees and knock the wings
off
. The rest of the plane becomes a twenty-five foot canoe, spearing through the woods and coming to rest somewhere on the forest floor with the cockpit intact.

On the other hand
, if you try to stay airborne as long as you can, the airspeed will drop-off to a point that is too slow to sustain flight. The plane then falls out of the sky, nose down destroying the cockpit and you along with it. If he expects to survive the crash Rob knows what he must do. There was no time for a “May-Day” as all attention must be given to flying the airplane. They will be in the trees in less than 60 seconds.

“Ryan I want you to
listen to me very carefully,” he said, as one hand quickly began flipping all the electrical switches to the off position, and the other hand kept a tight grip on the yoke. His eyes were watching the horizon for a gap in the cypress trees. “Tighten your seat belt and put your head between your knees. I need you to brace yourself for an impact. We are going to have to put her down son.”

Ryan d
oes not question his dad. He tightens his seat belt and takes one last look outside before lowering his head. He notices that they are so close to the tops of the trees that he feels as though he were an eagle, looking for a place to land. He notices something else. There seems to be a lot of cargo-netting strung out across the treetops like giant hammocks, but in reality, it was only vines. He lowers his head.

Ryan
felt his father’s hand land gently on his back. He turns his head and looks up to hear his father say, “When we come to a stop we need to move away from the plane as quickly as possible, ok son?” Ryan smiled and nodded his head. His father nodded back. There was no need for “I love you” they both knew it. There was no time for it either. Ryan’s dad withdrew his hand and went back to the job he had to do.
Crash an airplane the best way he knew how!

Thirty seconds until impact and
Ryan’s dad has his eyes set on a small separation of cypress trees dead-ahead. His mind was made up; this was to be their best hope. Only one thing left to decide, should he put the flaps down or not. Lowering the flaps would lower the airspeed but then he could run the risk of
falling
to the forest floor and crushing the cockpit. He left the flaps up and decided that he would enter the trees at fifty knots. He pulled back on the yoke one last time to bleed-off a little airspeed. He then pushed it forward aiming the little craft towards the target. He did everything by the book. It was all up to fate now.

The last
that Ryan remembers is a big bang and a violent jolt, and then the sound of metal
ripping
apart. Everything goes dark and silent as Ryan is knocked unconscious.

At first thought Ryan had no idea how long he was knocked out, but later he determined that it was about ten minutes. When he at last awoke he looked out his window. It is covered on the outside with leaves, twigs, and splotches of mud.

His eyes beg
in to focus through the window at the scenery. It is a scene Ryan remembers from movies, Tarzan movies.

There
are long vines hanging down from ghastly looking trees. They look like sleepy hollow type trees. They have the long spindly scary looking branches. There is an occasional spot of dry ground but for the most part it is swampy with ferns. There is a mist in the air, and it is dark under the canopy of cypress and gum trees. Ryan rubbed his face to make it all go away, but it does
not
go away. He looks at his watch. It is two o’clock in the afternoon. Apprehensively he turns to look towards his dad. He is afraid for what he might see.

Looking to where his father was seated
he sees a tangled mess of pilot seat, yoke, and instrument panel. Wedged between it all is his dad!

His heart
sank
.

“Dad,”
he whispers softly as his eyes lock onto his dad’s dark head of hair. He cries out louder, “Dad!” His hand is reaching out to touch the back of his father’s head. It was the only recognizable part of his father amidst that side of the mangled cockpit.

“I’m
here son. I’m alright for now I think anyway. I can’t see anything and I can’t move.”

It was the
sweetest words Ryan had ever heard. He breathes a sigh of relief, and sits back into his seat to let his pounding heart settle. He’s alive! I’m alive! For the moment that’s all that mattered.

R
emembering what his dad told him about moving away from the plane. He put his hand on the door handle but stops short of pulling it open.

On
his dad’s side of the cockpit Ryan sees a large cypress tree pressing up against the left side of the airplane. Or what
remains
of the airplane.

The
cypress tree covers the left side from the back passenger seat, past the cockpit, almost to the propeller. It is a huge tree. It looks like his father’s face could be pressed up against it but he cannot tell for sure. If there is any room at all, it couldn’t be much. The left wing and left door are gone. He thought to himself, there would be no extracting his father from the left side of the airplane.

Ryan’s wing
is also gone, but his side of the cockpit was in good-shape with the exception that his door is slightly ajar. The fuselage (minus the wings) is intact and sitting on a tuft of dry ground slightly above the level of the swamp. There is a slight smell of fuel but nothing to be alarmed about. The fuel tanks are in the wings which are now somewhere in the swamp behind them. For all intents and purposes Ryan’s father had made a textbook, into-the-trees crash landing.

Ryan’s father may have done everything by the book but unfortunately for him
, his side of the cockpit was severely damaged. Ryan wanted so desperately to see his father’s face that he pulled the handle on his door and hopped out.                

He briskly
walks around the rear of the airplane to the left side, where he is greeted by the cypress tree pressing against the fuselage. He continues around the tree which takes him to the nose of the airplane. He stops there momentarily putting both hands on top of his head before lowering them to his mouth in disbelief. There is no way to reach or even
see
his father! He walks around the front and then climbs back inside shutting the door.

“Dad
,” he says, “we are in deep trouble.”

“Ants! Ants! They’re biting my neck! Get them off me!” Ryan’s dad screamed. “They’re crawling all over me, hurry get them off me!” Ryan reaches over to brush them off but he doesn’t see any ants. Ryan is thinking that his dad must be hallucinating.

“Dad calm down
, there is nothing on your neck.”

“It hurts like
crazy son, get them off!”

He looked again
, “Dad I’m telling you I don’t see anything.”

Rob
calmed down.

Ryan
sees what looks like blood coming out of his dad’s ear. This worries him but he does not tell his father.

“Ryan you need to listen to me very carefully. I’m in a bad way
and I’m going to need medical treatment very soon.”

“I figured that dad. I am hoping they get here
in a hurry.”

“Get here? Son nobody will even miss us until s
even o’clock and by then it will be dark! They won’t even start looking until tomorrow and they will never spot us down here under the canopy.”

“
What do we do?”

“There is only one thing we can do
. You’re going to have to go for help and bring them back here!”

“Dad
, what you’re saying doesn’t make sense. First of all, I don’t know where
here
is and secondly I don’t know in which direction to go for help. You may not know it, but I can tell you we are in a deep dark swamp in the middle nowhere! That’s just
crazy
talk dad!
Crazy
talk that’s all it is, God! I wish you could see, and move!” Ryan, cupping his brow with his hand, lowered his head and gently sobbed.

“Ryan I have a very good idea where we are. Remember I told you I just finished a survey of this area? ”

Ryan is listening but not giving much thought to what his father is saying. He gives a half-hearted answer in a low somber voice, “yes dad I do.”

“Not
only do I know where we are, but I know with certainty that I can tell you which way to go.”

Ryan rubb
ing the tears from his eyes asks, “And how is that?” Expecting his dad was about to make another delusional statement just like he did about the imaginary
ants
on his neck—thinking he’s in shock.

“All you need is the right equipment
, and to know how to use it and I can teach you what you need to know!”

“
What
equipment dad?”

His father replied
“Son, everything you need, is in that duffel bag behind you on the rear seat.”

It took a few seconds for those words to sink
in but when they did, he raised himself up and spun around to take a look. At first he thought his father was mistaken, he did not see anything. Then he felt something like canvas tucked in tightly behind his seat. Could it be that maybe the force of the crash jammed it back there? He grasped whatever it was with a tight grip, and pulling it free, spun around falling
back into his seat. In his lap was a heavy duffel bag. He looked at his dad.

“I see you found it
,” his dad said. Then without a word they both chuckled. His father couldn’t “see” anything.

“Son with what’s in that duffel
bag, you’re going to get us out of here!”

Ryan anxiously opened the bag. Inside
he found what his father would use to estimate a job, and if needed get him through a night in the woods. But for Ryan it is
survival
gear.

There
are two unopened plastic water bottles, matches in a water proof container, some beef jerky, and a couple of granola bars. There is also a machete and sheath, some bug spray, a roll of survey ribbon—brightly colored—and a map of the area with survey lines marked on it. There were socks, and a t-shirt, and pants, and a first aid kit. He also found a handheld GPS unit with a wrist strap, a digital camera, and there was a compass.

“
What the heck dad, did you
know
we were going to crash?” Ryan said jokingly as he was feeling much better now.

“No
son, it’s what I carry when I go off into the woods to estimate a job. Lucky for us I threw it in the plane like I do in my truck. Kind of a habit I guess.”

“
Son, you must do as I tell you, first take the GPS unit into your hand and put your wrist through the strap. Always use the wrist strap. You don’t want to drop it. It’s our lifeline to the world!”

“I got it
dad,” and after eagerly putting his hand through the wrist strap Ryan asks, “What does GPS stand for again?”

“It stands for
G
lobal
P
ositioning
S
ystem.”

“You should see a power button
. Press it and hold it
in
to turn it on son.”

“Ok
, I did and now there is a bar coming up on the left, it shows full.”

“
Great! That means the batteries are good. There should be several small bars filling in, that’s the satellites, it tracks twelve and works great under tree cover. Go ahead and set it on the dashboard, up by the windshield.”

Ryan’s
heart swelled with excitement as he set the little instrument on the dashboard and waited for it to lock-on to their position. When it did, two numbers showed up on the screen. The numbers were Latitude and Longitude.

“Dad
, I believe it has our position.”

“That’s great son! Now push the button that says
mark
to store it.”

“
It’s done!”

“
Awesome son, you just stored our position! Now if you were to get that into the hands of a forest ranger he could find his way to us, but first let’s mark our position on the map. You should find a couple of pencils in the duffel bag, grab one.”

“Say dad, this sounds a lot like what my f
riends do—they call it Geo-Caching.”

“That’s right Ryan; only you’re going to be doing
reverse
Geo-Caching. You’re going from a place where you have never been—our crash site—to a place that I have been before—a road.”

Ryan f
inds a pencil and with his dad’s instructions he places a dot on the map at their position.

His heart s
inks.

He
holds his breath and shakes his head in disbelief. He does not want to tell his father, but according to the map there is no nearby civilization. But then Ryan’s dad already knew that.

“Don’t let our position get you down
son; we have more work to do. I am going to show you how you’re going to walk out of here and get us some help.”

Ryan glanced over at the back of his father’s head
and breathing a sigh said, “Keep talking dad I’m listening.”

Ryan’s dad continue
s at a level pace with his instruction but he knows time is of the essence.

“You should see a button on the GPS unit that says
go-to.
Push it, and then push the
way-point
button son. A list of names should come up. Push the one that says ‘FR77 bend’. That stands for a survey point I have at the bend in Forest Road 77.”

Ryan was thinking
Road? Did my father just say road?

“Ok
, I got it dad.”

“Good
, now what does it show?”

“It shows an arrow and it says to go
S20°W, for 4.1 miles!”

“Good job
! Now look at the map and you should find a
bend
in Forest Road 77, south and west of our position.”

“I
got it.” Ryan said.

“OK, now take the pencil and draw a line between the two points
—one being our position and the other being the bend in the road. This is the path you must take. After the 4 miles to Forest Road 77 you will walk the road for 2 miles for a total of 6 miles!”

Ryan look
s out his window at the swamp and thinks for a moment,
path
? He does not see any
path
but draws the line anyway. The line starts at a point in the middle of the swamp and runs for a mile-and-a-half to “
no-name”
creek. It continues for half-a-mile more through a bay tree swamp to the banks of the
Oklawaha River
. Then it continues another half-a-mile to a creek named
Bear Creek.
Then it continues for one and-a-half
more
miles through the swamp and then through uplands to the bend in Forest Road 77. Ryan looks at the map and then he looks out his window. He turns, and looking at the back of his father’s head says, “Your nuts if you think I’m going to walk that so called
path!”

“Ryan listen to me, it
’s our only hope! I know the extent of my injuries. Don’t ask me how, but I know. My brain is swelling and I have no more than twenty-four hours, maybe twenty-eight hours at the most to live! Ryan—son—
I’m dying!”