Veronica Paul was a pretty widowed woman of 31 living in Daytona, Florida. She had twin sons from her husband who was an army man killed in Afghanistan. That was six months ago and Veronica was still in grief.
Friends urged her to start looking for a job and a man. But she took to alcohol drinking instead to alleviate her loneliness. There were times she would really get smashed and would neglect attending to her two sons. So one day her mother called and invited her to stay with her and the kids for awhile so she could have time to look for a job and do something worthwhile rather than getting drunk.
She brought the kids to her mom but after a few days she went back to her little apartment in Daytona all alone by herself and started drinking again.
One night Veronica met a guy named Guy Spears in a bar. Guy was a chopper pilot. He was good-looking, single and unattached. So the two got along pretty well together and soon Guy invited Veronica to ride with him in the chopper since she told him that she hadn't experienced riding one before.
"I've been living my life with fear of heights but I'll take the ride. I think it's about time that I battle the fear," she had told him.
"It's wonderful and beautiful up there to view the world and at the same time fly like a bird without the wings," Guy said.
This was the reason why Guy took piloting a chopper just to rid off the fear he also once had. Guy was the same age as Veronica and he'd been piloting choppers for seven years and never had any serious mishap in the air.
The following day Veronica found herself in a happy mood and for the first time left all her troubles and loneliness behind. She climbed Guy's chopper wearing a gingham shirt, a cotton safari vest with pockets stacked with films (she loved photography), a pair of baggy jeans shorts and hiking boots. Guy was so pleased she took his invitation. Veronica could be mistaken for a movie star with her tall lithe figure, a stunningly pretty face accentuated by large dark glasses. On her swept back hair was a newsboy cap. She carried two cameras including a Polaroid and a lean insulated cooler bag, which she stashed on with some lunch goodies and drinks. Guy wore a distressed bomber jacket over an olive cotton shirt and khaki pants and his happy face was obscured by his aviator sunglasses. He was happy that at last he found a witty and beautiful woman in Veronica.
"I love khakis on men," she said looking at his thighs and demonstrating a flirty facile grin. "Now I know why they call it Banana Republic."
"I love shorts on women especially if they have legs like yours," he retorted amusingly. "Now I know why they call this Gap."
For almost two hours, Guy and Veronica crisscrossed mountains, forests, lakes, everglades and both were exhilarated and comfortable with each other. It was a new chapter in Veronica's life and her spirit soared high.
When Veronica was about to take Guy's picture with her Polaroid, suddenly Guy's smile quickly faded. He felt in his hand that the collective-pitch lever had gotten limp under his grip. No matter how he jiggled it up and down there was no response. Sensing trouble, Veronica wasn't able to press the shutter of her camera. She looked at Guy but he appeared cool. She hoped that there was just some minor problem that Guy could be able to cope with.
However, there was a major problem. A 20-inch linkage rod was disconnected from the rotor shaft and was swinging freely. This was observed by Guy through the bubble of the cabin aircraft.
The aircraft was now lifting totally on its own.
"We have a problem," he said forcing himself to sound calm. "The disconnected rod would not enable me to have the power to control the flight of this whirlybird."
"What's gonna happen to us? Are we gonna crash?" Veronica said in a frantic tone.
"Not if we could do something to fix that disconnected rod up there."
"But how?" Veronica asked.
"I think you've got to step out of the chopper and fix it up there and I'll direct you. Will you do it?"
"If I won't be able to do it?"
"Either that, or we're going to sink like shit. Forgive me for telling like it is so."
The chopper had been flying for two hours. Guy figured, they had about 30 minutes left before it would run out of fuel.
With nary a knowledge in aircraft at all and the reality that she had to do the unthinkable risk of trying to save their lives with the only available chance, she sat frozen for a moment thinking of death, leaving her two small sons, and taking the chance of saving their lives at all cost. She had to try or die. She had to fix the pitch within 30 minutes.
Veronica stepped out through the door of the chopper and planted both feet in a 20-inch wide wire-mesh cargo basket that ran under the aircraft. The cold wind was bitter. She had wrapped her seat belt around her waist.
"What now?" Veronica asked into her headset, fitted tightly over her capped head. The howl of the engine and the din of the rotor blades were almost deafening.
Veronica tried everything she could do to restore the disconnected linkage to the rotor shaft. She strained her full five feet seven inches body to push back into place the swinging 20 inch disconnected rod. Her sunglasses were whipped off by the wind. "Guy I couldn't reach it," she yelled.
Guy tilted the helicopter a little to the left. "Push up on the arm!" "Push...just a little bit. No Veronica, the other way!" But then it pushed too much causing the chopper to descend violently. For excruciating minutes Veronica held on to a support strut on the chopper's engine. Every time she made a clumsy mistake the aircraft would ascend or fall violently down. She fought for every breath and held on enduring the bitter wind and her fear of heights.
Six minutes were left before the aircraft would run out of fuel. Veronica made the remarkable thing of assembling back the disconnected linkage by merely using her hairpin. But she did more than 20 attempts to thread the hairpin through the holes taking great risks of being flung into the blades. Soon the tension was back to the collective pitch lever and Guy pushed it down slowly.
"You did it Veronica!" Guy howled with joy as he was able to land the chopper safely.
When they got down for refueling Veronica couldn't believe the heroic deed she had done to save their lives. "It's my hairpin for a hair-raising experience of our life." She said hugging Guy so tightly feeling that it was so great to be alive.
The hugs were followed by loving kisses and then passion engulfed them. They wanted to make love right there and then but they controlled their desires. They had to refuel and get home and make it out somewhere either in his place or hers. Guy fixed the disconnected rod properly and then flew the chopper homeward.
Veronica and Guy were now closer than ever. They longed to reach home and fuck like minks. There was a surge of adrenaline and lust in their bodies that had to be unleashed. Both were in cloud nine and literally so up there in the clouded sky as they indulged in heavy kissing and petting in the chopper.