Flying finish / Бурный финиш. Книга для чтения на английском языке

) вас это зацепляло раз и навсегда]. It had happened to him. It had happened to me, one idle day when I passed the gates of the airfield and then turned back and went in, mildly interested in going up for a spin in a baby aircraft just to see what it was like.

I’d been to visit a dying great-aunt, and was depressed.

Certainly Mr…? �Grey,’ I said. Certainly Mr Grey could go up with an instructor, the air people said: and the instructor, who hadn’t been told I only wanted a sight-seeing flip, began as a matter of course to teach me to fly.

The red-head was brought to a full stop by a burly tweed-suited man who said �Excuse me,’ pleasantly but very firmly, and planted himself between us.

�Harry, I’ve been waiting for you to come back.’

�Have a drink?’

�Yes, all right, in a minute.

His name was Tom Wells. He owned and ran a small charter firm which was based on the airfield, and on Sundays, if they weren’t out on jobs, he allowed the flying club to hire his planes. It was one of his that I had flown to Islay.

�Have I done something wrong?’ I asked.

�Wrong? Why should you, for God’s sake? No, I’m in a spot[65 - I’m in a spot – (разг.) у меня трудности] and I thought you might be able to help me out’.

�If I can, of course.

�I’ve overbooked next week-end and I’m going to be a pilot short[66 - I’m going to be a pilot short – (разг.) мне не хватает одного пилота]. Will you do a flight for me next Sunday?’

�Yes,’ I said: I’d done it before, several times.

He laughed. �You never waste words, Harry boy. Well, thanks. When can I ring you to give you a briefing?’

I hesitated. �I’d better ring you, as usual.’

�Saturday morning, then.

�Right.’

We had a drink together, he talking discontentedly about the growing shortage of pilots and how it was now too expensive for a young man to take it up on his own account, it cost at least three thousand pounds to train a multi-engine pilot, and only the air lines could afford it. They trained their own men and kept them, naturally. When the generation who had learned flying in the R.A.F.[67 - the R.A.F. – сокр.