My eyes opened. I was in the back of an ambulance, the sirens wailing. There were three doctors in the back alingside me, checking the machinery.
Everybody was being thrown around in the back, as the ambulance swerved around. I caught a glimpse out of the window, remembering where I was. I was in Cairo.
I remembered the horrifying crash in the FA-2. This was going to cost a lot of money, I thought. The Navy isn't going to like me much as well.
Suddenly a sharp, searing pain went up through my leg as a dose of morfein was administered.
I asked "Where am I? Where are we going?"
I was told that we were headed for Cairo Hospital.
****
I awoke to see Mitchell's face. I was in the hospital, and I could see daylight.
"We got the Howard fixed," he said.
"I must say I can't say the same about the Navy's Harrier..." I said. "When did you get here?"
"Yesterday, a day after the crash."
"You mean...I've been 'asleep' for a whole day??"
"Yup, and apparently you've been told that you're free to leave."
"I'm free to go? Wonderful. We can set off now if you like."
"I was thinking," Mitchell said, "Perhaps we ought to go on a short flight so you can get used to flying again."
"Okay," I replied, shall we go on a sightseeing flight?"
"Done!!" Mitchell announced. I got out of the hospital bed and prepared myslef.....
****
It was wonderful to see "Howie" again. I grabbed the yoke, started the engines and began to taxi.
Isn't she just wonderful, I thought, watching her glisten and gleam. No. 1 engine wasn't playing up at all.
Soon we went skyward, did a few laps of the city and then- there. The Great Pyramids Of Giza loomed ahead. Mitchell got his camera ready. This would maje a wonderful photo opportunity.
And there we go. We had got a few snapshots of the Pyramids. It was another experience for me; it had been ages since I last visited this site.
We decided to turn back, but something else caught our eyes. Some other strange pyramids were on the horizon.
We flew over to investigate, and found that they were indeed very real.
However there was more. We flew over to those. It took us a while but we got there, and these were also very real.
By now we were very far out of Cairo, to find that we couldn't see Cairo anymore. We looked for the pyramids and there they were, so we climbed and retraced our steps back and sure enough, there was Cairo Intl.
And there is the airport. We were too high, so we circled the airport and were cleared to land on runway 34 (I think it was 34??)
And touchdown. So after quite a dramatic few weeks, we had arrived in Africa and were headed Eastward. This was an important stop; it indicates that we were properly 'on our way'.
Next stop - Riyadh, Saudi Arabia!!
P.S: I have once again put too much speech in. Sorry!!
