I'm sure it was Perry who saw the airplanes at the store and said, "We could wind these up and launch them from the balcony back at the condo!" 

At the time, he was into flying and trying to get his pilot's license. So, anything related to flying would instantly occupy his mind. I'm sure this was why he thought buying these airplanes was the right thing to do and to completely forget about why he wanted to come to Florida in the first place: "TO FIND WOMEN!"

(not that he did, of course)

So we bought these airplanes and went back to the Condo. But I'm sure we first stopped at the little convenience store in Clearwater to pick up a few dozen more frozen pizzas for that night...

We went out onto the balconythat was connected to Roger & Perry's room and wound up the first plane and set it free.

It was a wonderful sight! The plane went straight out over the beach and across the water. Unfortunately, it was dark and being at least 20 floors up from the ground, there wasn't even enough light coming from the pool area to light up the plane once it got over the water. "We can't see it!" cried Perry.

We turned and went in the smaller sliding glass door which opened into the living room. This was a cool condo where the balcony had 2 doors. Really kool!

What wasn't cool was the temperature in the place. The air conditioner barely kept it around 78 or 79. And it stayed humid most of the time. That night the wind was calm so there wasn't a breeze coming through either of the doors to the balcony. The lack of a breeze made conditions perfect for the airplane flights, if only we could see them in the dark!

At that point, one of the three of us suggested setting the next poor little balsa wood plane on fire and letting it go.

Okay! I know what you're thinking. I'm being honest with you! It really, really, really seemed like a good idea at the time!

So the three of us take another plane and some matches onto the balcony. I distinctly remember being the last one through the door! I closed JUST THE SCREEN behind me. I wasn't worried about the temperature in the room. I noticed the wind had picked up a little and figured it would help cool off the room.

Unfortunately, the wind was making the act of lighting the matches kinda difficult. Perry went back in and got a lighter and came back onto the balcony.

Now, I think we must have had a couple of beers that evening because I didn't notice that Perry not only closed the screen behind him but also closed the glass door! So anyway, Perry manages to set this plane on fire and lets it go!

The rubber-band power was sufficient to fight the wind and keep the plane heading out toward the water. The flames weren't what you'd see out of a great Hollywood Special Effects Artist, but at least it was visible. The Balsa was a soft wood that kept burning even tho the wind was blowing past the plane as it headed out.

After a few seconds, the rubber-band ran out and the plane was left to do whatever the wind wanted with it.

OF COURSE! THE STUPID-ASS WIND FELT THAT THE BEST THING FOR THIS NOW HALF-BURNT PLANE WAS TO SEND IT RIGHT BACK WHERE IT CAME FROM!

"Oh Shit!" Or derivatives of that phrase, were immediately spewn by the 3 of us. You see, luckily for us, the plane had lost a little altitude and was going to miss us. Unfortunately, what it was destined to do was to land on the balcony 2 floors below us!

Now, the three of us lean out over the railing and watch this flaming airplane crash land onto the artifical grass-like outdoor carpeting of these poor people's balcony and see that this airplane has the nerve to just lay there and keep burning!

At this point, it was PANIC TIME!!!!!!

I turned to my left and grabbed the handle to the screen door and slid it open and went forward.

The next thing I knew, my head came in contact with a huge sheet of glass at a speed which not only created a great deal of pain to me, but also caused the glass to make this incredibly loud vibrating sound that I was sure could be heard for miles.

I stumble backwards into either Perry or Roger and felt like I was about to pass out. "What the hell did you close the door for?" I asked Perry. "The air conditioning is on and it's not getting any cooler in there!", he said.

The guys managed to get the door open and we all tumbled into the living room and fell onto the floor laughing uncontrollably. What made it even funnier, so funny that we couldn't breathe, was when I said, "Can you imagine if there was someone in the bedroom down there and they were looking out the window, and all of a sudden they see this airplane that is engulfed in massive flames heading right for their window????? The thing crashes on their balcony and sits there flaming!!!"

After awhile, when we were breathing again, we walked out onto the balcony and looked down. The airplane was gone. We couldn't tell if it simply burned up or if someone came out and picked it up. About an hour later, we heard all kinds of sirens and looked outside and saw firetrucks and police cars. Roger quickly checked the balcony below us again but nothing was on fire. We decided to go downstairs and see what was happening, since it looked like the fire or whatever was in the building across the street. We ran down 20 flights of stairs and went across the street and completely forgot about our little airplane and it's demise.

=====>  The Trip Comes to an End  <=====

Copyright 1998 Robert J. Leracz