Once he had my attention he tried to slow down to match my speed. He couldn’t go that slow, but he signaled that I was to follow him.
That was the last thing I was about to do. I remembered what that poor guy at the checkpoint looked like.
I slowed to just above stall speed and took a good look around. I was buffeted around again. This guy was serious.
Looking down I saw a huge forest below me. There was a narrow road heading due west so I decided to go for it and landed.
Chapter 24
Mr. McGarry would have been proud of that landing. I dove straight down and flared out and landed in about half the distance I would normally take. There was an old logging trail to the right of the road which looked wide enough for my plane.
I turned a quick right and taxied as far into the woods as I could. From the air, it would be hard to see the plane. From the ground, it would still be obvious.
Shutting it down I grabbed my go-bag and exited the plane. The jet was trying to loiter over me but its turning radius was so great that it had to leave my sight. That meant he couldn’t see me.
As soon as he was out of sight I ran back across the road and into the woods on the other side.
I barely got under cover when two things happened. One the jet came back, and two, I realized I didn’t have a map. It was in my Jeppesen case.
I had to wait for another round of the jet then ran back across the road and got the map of the local area from my case and also took my flight log. That would be a bear to recreate.
Again heart in hand, I waited for the jet to pass over and crossed the road. As I did I heard a vehicle or vehicles coming near.
West Germany was exactly due west from where I was. That would be the first direction they would search. I headed south. I remembered from the maps that the area I was in bulged into West Germany. If I headed south I would cross into West Germany, but it was maybe twice the distance.
My go bag was really a knapsack which I could wear. After tightening the straps I was ready to go. I took off towards the south at a good running pace. I didn’t push it because I had a long way to go and didn’t want to twist an ankle.
I got my first luck of the day when I came across another logging road that headed south. I was able to pick up the pace following this road.
What I was hoping was that they would have no idea which direction I went. They would have to start a search radius. If they underestimated the distance I could cover I could keep ahead of them.
It hadn’t rained for a while but there wasn’t a lot of dust for me to leave tracks in. Maybe all those miles I had run the last several years would pay off.
After an hour I felt like I had created enough of a head start to take a break. I didn’t stop, I just slowed to a walk for ten minutes. I drank from my canteen. The water tasted metallic because I hadn’t changed it out recently but it was good.
I didn’t make the full ten minutes when my nerves gave out and I started running again.
I did take the opportunity to check the compass from my go bag to confirm I was really heading south.
I had some trail mix in my bag. I regretted not having my pistol but it was too much of a hassle to carry one in the UK so I didn’t bother. I did have a hunting knife with a six-inch blade, not a Bowie knife but it could do the job.
Along with a change of socks and underwear I had a small first aid kit. Those were the contents of my bag.
As I walked I threaded the scabbard through my belt. I heard a sound approaching from behind. It seemed like a heavy truck. I got off the road. The sound stopped.
I went deeper into the woods and waited. The truck had stopped so I crept back through the woods. I could see the road that I had just traveled. Around a bend, there was a military truck still unloading troops.
They were sent into the wood in a wide search line, going back towards the plane. I had gotten out of the first search zone. Staying in the woods I headed south for another mile. I then went back to the road and started to run at a steady pace.
I think in the first hour I had gone five miles, every hour from here on would make their search pattern more than four times as large, or was that eight times. Geometry was never my strong suit.
It didn’t matter I kept going. It wasn’t yet noon, so I could get some serious miles in if nothing went wrong. As soon as I thought that I wanted to kick myself, talk about asking Murphy to show up.
He must have been busy elsewhere that day because I was able to keep going for another six hours. I estimated I had covered thirty-five miles.
As dusk settled quickly in the deep forest I started to look for a place to spend the night.
I saw a deadfall that hadn't fallen completely to the ground. It was a dead tree leaning against
