She had been all ready to land the Jenny when the rudder pedals had started jumping. They rattled so, she feared they would jump right out of the plane. Were the planes wheels up or down?
Barbara remembered. George had told her that if the retractable landing gear was not down and properly locked, the rudder pedals would warn her by vibrating crazily.
"Don't land until they stop jumping!" he had cautioned.
But as Barbara circled the airfield, she wondered how she could lock the landing gear. She became more afraid of crashing the plane than she was of dying in it.
She decided to go for it. She flew the Jenny low over the field, as slow as she dared without stalling the plane. George could signal and tell her whether the wheels were up or down.
George waved to her, but through no fault of his own, he could not convey to her what she wanted to know. They had never practiced a pantomime for the perilous situation.
Barbara circled the airfield so many times, she was in danger of running out of fuel. She had to chance it. Slowly, she began to bring the plane down. She pulled back and pushed its tail down first, hoping the maneuver would put some pressure on the landing gear, to lock it.
Here goes nothing. Or everything! Slowly, easily, as close to gliding as she had ever flown with the engine on, Barbara began the Jenny's descent. She held her breath in the seconds before she would feel the plane touching the airstrip. If the wheels were down, she was okay. If not, the plane would belly-flop. It would skid along the landing field, and more than likely not stop until the bottom was split open and caught fire.
And that would be if she was lucky. The Jenny could also tumble nose over tail and explode, with her in it.
But before Barbara knew it, the Jenny's wheels touched ground and locked, as they had been all along. What had caused the rudder pedals to shake so, she had no idea.
George did not make a big thing of it, although he nearly had a heart attack watching the landing. It would not be a good idea to add to Barbara's anxieties. She had brought the plane down safely; that was all that mattered.
"What happened?" Leila asked as Barbara climbed out of the Jenny.
"Just wondered if the wheels were down. They were. No big deal."
"I'll check it all out right now," George said.
As always, he was as good as his word. Within an hour, he popped his head into Barbara's office and said he gave the plane's rudder bolts a squirt of oil and a turn with a wrench. It seemed to be the way he solved most of the mysteries of the two ancient planes that Barbara prayed would make her airport and her a success.