His to Fly by Richard Howells Watkins
"His to Fly" opens on a New Jersey airfield where young Jerry Tabor, mechanic and novice pilot, tends a well-worn biplane while awaiting his partner, veteran barnstormer Beak Becket. Beak, once a celebrated aviator who flew before kings and presidents, has grown bitter and querulous with age, drink, and gambling losses. He returns from town in a foul temper, needling Jerry over rigging work and belittling him as a mere "wing walker" despite Jerry having bought half the ship with hard-earned factory wages and having recently soloed. A quarrel over their partnership erupts, with Beak absurdly inflating the value of his own share when Jerry proposes dissolving it. Unable to buy Beak out, and unwilling to abandon the plane he helped restore and finance, Jerry backs down and agrees to fly on with him toward Pittsfield, Massachusetts, late in the day despite worsening weather signs. Aloft, old resentments simmer as Beak recklessly showboats at takeoff and belittles Jerry's navigational help. As they follow the Hudson River northward, mist rises from the valleys and a gray overcast overtakes the sinking sun. Jerry notices Beak drinking from a flask and flinging it away once sober judgment reasserts itself, but by then the two are committed to a course through gathering fog and dusk over the wooded, hazardous Berkshire hills. The motor sputters dry from a misjudged fuel margin, forcing Jerry to refuel the tank by hand from a spare can while leaning out over the wing in flight. Beak, stripped now of bravado, glides blindly through fog searching for any break in the ground below, climbing again in near-panic when the descent grows perilous. With darkness and fog erasing the earth entirely and fuel running out, Beak orders Jerry to jump with their single parachute. Jerry refuses, insisting he will not abandon the ship that is half his. Sensing an opportunity in their shared doom, Jerry proposes a wager: he will hand over the parachute and nearly all his cash, three hundred dollars, in exchange for full ownership of the plane, gambling that he alone will survive and land her. After blustering and cursing at the humiliation, Beak accepts, takes the money and parachute, and bails out into the night, the pale flare of his opening canopy briefly visible before he vanishes. Alone in the cockpit, Jerry masters his fear and takes control. He climbs briefly to give Beak room to descend, then spirals down through blind fog using only a jackknife suspended as an improvised turn indicator to judge the plane's attitude, since he cannot see the ground or sky. Flying by feel, sound, and the wind on his face, he holds the ship in as slow a glide as he dares. The wheels strike unseen ground, the plane bounces and races downhill out of control, and finally crashes through a fence, flipping onto its back. Jerry is knocked unconscious briefly, then frees himself from the wreckage-tangled safety belt and finds himself alive, bruised, with cracked ribs, on solid earth. Inspecting the wreck by flashlight, he discovers the plane badly damaged, propeller shattered, but essentially repairable, with the engine intact. Elation replaces terror: through nerve and a desperate gamble, Jerry has won sole ownership of the airplane and proven himself a genuine pilot in his own right, no longer merely Beak Becket's underling. His last thought is a rueful, almost affectionate judgment on his former partner and mentor: that Beak, who taught him to fly but could not master his own recklessness and pride, "should have stuck." The section closes with the ship "his to fly," a hard-won craft now solely his own, the crash marking not an end but the true beginning of Jerry Tabor's independent career in aviation, built on the same willingness to risk everything that had once seemed like foolishness.
By Richard Howells Watkins · First published 1929 · Genre: Aviation Fiction, Adventure Fiction, Historical Fiction · 7,077 words
First lines
One Parachute and Two Men -- and the / Ship Couldn't Land. What Happened?
A biplane on the further side of five years, but spruce enough, considering her age, stood silent at the edge of a New Jersey meadow, while a thin, sandy-haired young man in dungarees ministered to her numerous wants with a pair of pliers.
Genres
- Aviation Fiction — The entire narrative centers on flying, aircraft mechanics, and early 20th-century aeronautical challenges, with detailed technical descriptions of rigging, controls, and flight operations.
- Adventure Fiction — Features dangerous flying sequences, emergency situations with fuel failure, night navigation in fog, and a crash landing that drive high-stakes action throughout.
- Historical Fiction — Set in early aviation era with period-specific technology, barnstorming culture, references to WWI pilots, and cultural attitudes reflective of 1920s-1930s aviation.
- Coming-of-Age Fiction — Jerry's narrative arc progresses from subordinate mechanic and novice pilot to confident aircraft owner and master of his destiny, marking a clear maturation journey.
Tags
fiction · aviation · pilots · air travel · adventure · drama · romance · coming of age · ambition · courage · risk · freedom
What this Textopian page supports
His to Fly is listed on Textopian as a short story by Richard Howells Watkins, dated 1929 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Short story
- Author: Richard Howells Watkins
- Date: 1929 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Aviation Fiction, Adventure Fiction, Historical Fiction, Coming-of-Age Fiction, Survival Fiction
- Length: 7,077 words
- Structure: 1 section, 168 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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- Work identity for His to Fly by Richard Howells Watkins
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