pjbooks Chapter 135 Falling from the Sky, Accidentally Injuring Friendly Forces
Chapter 135 Falling from the Sky, Accidentally Injuring Friendly Forces
Chapter 135 Falling from the Sky, Accidentally Injuring Friendly Forces
"Dude, do I look like I can come up with that much money?"
"So that's 100,000?" Seeing him still shaking his head, Trevor's expression became exaggerated: "80,000? Unless you put a gun to the seller's head, no one would do a losing deal like that."
"Okay, here's the answer." Ma Jie paused for a moment, then said with a grin, "Thirteen thousand dollars, from opening a blind box in the hangar."
"Fuck!" Trevor couldn't help but swear upon hearing this rock-bottom price. "This kind of windfall will never fall into my lap!"
With a thud, the propeller began to spin under his skillful operation, and the powerful air blasts it produced were enough to knock over a person who was too light.
"Have you decided where to go, bro?" After slowly taking off, Trevor boldly turned off the crash lights and switched to a no-light flight mode.
This is an operation that can only be carried out in military operations, mainly to evade ground reconnaissance, but it was obviously not difficult for him.
"I don't know." Ma Jie spread his hands, looking at the hazy night view outside the window. "But I want to take a flight over the city first, to experience what it's like to look down on Los Angeles."
"Yes, sir." Trevor gave a playful salute, lightly pressed the tail rotor pedal with his foot, turned the nose to the right, and pushed the pitch control stick to the right, nimbly completing a 360-degree turn in mid-air.
Next, the helicopter tilted forward and flew at a constant speed toward the city.
As any frequent pilot knows, this set of operations may seem simple, but it is actually extremely difficult to master.
Overall, pilots need to control three parts.
First, the master lever, located next to the left seat, can be pulled up and down; going up raises the position, and going down lowers it.
Second, the cyclic pitch control stick, usually located between the pilot's legs, is mainly used to control the main propeller, thereby enabling forward flight, backward flight, leftward movement, rightward movement, and fuselage tilt.
Third, the foot pedals, located under your feet, one on each side. Stepping on one side will cause the nose of the aircraft to turn in that direction, which is responsible for changing direction and maintaining course stability in the air.
But this is only in theory. In actual driving, as long as the wind blows, the originally preset operations will become useless.
Because it cannot automatically maintain its balance like a fixed-wing aircraft, any deviation, however slight, requires active intervention.
Even more critically, all operations are in a strongly coupled state.
What does that mean? Let's take hovering in the air as an example.
Hovering is not like a car where you can just step on the brake and be done with it.
Instead, you need to use the collective pitch lever to control the height, the period lever to adjust the balance, and the pedals to stabilize the direction, similar to "solving a math problem while riding a bicycle".
After all, even in the game, it is very difficult to make a helicopter come to a complete stop in the air.
About ten minutes later, Ma Jie arrived in the airspace above the city center by helicopter.
Looking down from above, the two most prominent buildings are the IAA headquarters building and the Federal Bank building.
The former has the iconic IAA giant red lettering sign, while the latter's roof looks like a blooming lotus flower.
In addition, there are about 26 skyscrapers of varying heights, below which are all ordinary buildings.
This is the most bustling time in the entire city of Los Angeles, with endless lights stretching outwards from the city and only stopping at the towering mountains in the distance.
This is part of Los Santos' charm; due to its thriving tourism industry, the government allows helicopters to fly freely within the city, except for the airspace above the airport.
"How's it going, bro?" Trevor yawned listlessly as he hovered the plane 300 meters above the ground.
After all, he was an air force pilot; this was child's play for him.
"Not bad." Overlooking the entire city of Los Angeles, Ma Jieke looked on with a satisfied expression. "It's just a little regrettable."
"What's the little regret?"
"It would be even better if I drove it myself."
"What, you want to learn how to fly a plane?" Hearing this, Trevor perked up: "I can teach you. Want me to be your instructor? It'll be totally worth it."
Upon hearing "great value for money," Ma Jieke knew he was up to no good. Flying a plane and teaching someone else to fly a plane are two completely different things.
This is the same reason why coaches don't play on the field themselves.
Seeing that he didn't speak, Trevor put his hand on his shoulder, looking very serious: "Trust me, bro, don't go to flight school and get ripped off. The standard fee for a PPL (Private Pilot License) is $20,000 now, and Asians like you are forced to have bilingual (English and Chinese) instruction, a full set of flight training plus theory, plus some additional fees. By the time you get your license, you'll have been robbed of at least $35,000."
"So expensive?" Jack Ma was stunned when he heard the price. He only spent 13,000 to buy a plane, but it costs 35,000 to get a driver's license?
"What do you think?" Trevor revealed his stained teeth. "Besides, those coaches are so bad you can't even watch them. I could beat them by leaps and bounds if I were driving Dick."
Damn...you're exaggerating a bit, aren't you? Do you think you're Lao Ai?
"Think about it, would you like to become my apprentice?"
"How much?" Out of respect for money, Ma Jie was instantly tempted.
Anyway, this warehouse treasure hunt, combined with the money I earned from the boxing match and picking up bargains, has brought me to a total of over ten thousand.
With over ten thousand US dollars in cash savings, plus passive income from the poor streets, there's no need to worry about food, clothing, housing, or transportation anymore.
So there's no need to sell the plane; it's much cooler to keep it and fly it yourself.
Driving a sports car is nothing; a real man has to fly a plane.
If I remember correctly, when the full class skill library was opened before, the skill "Aircraft Piloting" was included.
However, this skill is different from [Car Driving]; it is an advanced skill that cannot be obtained by completing low-star missions.
However, the high-star missions that can be completed now are quite luck-based. Even if you can actually get them, the priority of other skills will probably be higher than flying.
Then we might as well save our strength for when we need it most, and get Trevor's pilot's license first.
Driving cars, shooting guns, and flying planes are the three essential skills for any player in Los Angeles. Master these three skills, and financial freedom will be just around the corner.
When he heard Majerke ask about coaching fees, Trevor laughed: "Haha, what are you talking about, bro? I was just kidding. Would I take your money? You saved my life."
Damn, are you saying I'm supposed to get this for free?
Sigh, it seems I've been thinking about this world too pragmatically.
Although this guy has a bad temper and even serious violent tendencies, he is absolutely devoted to his brothers.
"Thanks, brother."
After Trevor expressed his gratitude, Majesty had a new question: "But the question is, where do we train?"
"You can't train anywhere, just find an open area far from the city," Trevor said, then continued, "I do have a hangar in the suburbs that you can park for free, but that would be too far. So the best solution is for you to park your plane at a nearby airport. I think Long Beach Airport is a good option; renting a parking space there would only cost $3000 a month."
All you need is... Dude, do you know what $3000 means? It's equivalent to a month's salary for most entry-level workers.
However, parking in a good location in Los Angeles costs about $20 a day, and parking a plane costs $100, which is acceptable.
Having devised this plan, Majerke decided to go all out, directly handing over the money for renting the helipad to Trevor and then having him land the plane near the camp.
Since I don't have a pilot's license anyway, even if I went with him, I would still be registered under his name, so I might as well just parachute home.
Helicopters are incredibly noisy vehicles. When the families in the camp heard the commotion, they were so frightened that they quickly packed their bags and ran away.
Unfortunately, most of them are illegal immigrants; only a minority, like Jimmy, can produce an ID card.
Otherwise, it's hard not to think of the immigration bureau when a plane suddenly lands late at night. Those bastards are being pressured by their superiors lately, and they'll do anything for the sake of performance.
When Ma Jie entered the camp, it was in an uproar. Everyone was running out like refugees, carrying large and small bags.
When Max saw him come in, and then saw the helicopter that had already taken off, he was dumbfounded. He was thinking about how to cover for everyone.
"What's going on?" Ma Jie was clearly out of the loop and had no idea what had happened.
"What do you mean, 'what happened'?" Seeing his innocent look, Max was furious. "You came back, fine, but why did you have to fly back? Showing off like that!"
"No..." She was a little speechless after being retorted: "What's wrong with me flying? What's wrong with showing off? Which great federal or state law did I violate?"
"Nobody said you broke the law, but you should at least have informed everyone!"
After saying that, he shouted to the homeless people running around him, "Hey, stop running, the alarm is off."
The crowd stopped, gathered around, and looked at each other, each more bewildered than the last.
Max had to explain, "I'm sure everyone watched today's live stream. Your most beloved boss filmed a helicopter, and on a whim, he took it back to camp. Have you ever seen a homeless person living in a tent take a plane home? I haven't."
At this point, she changed the subject: "Given someone's ostentatious display of wealth, I propose that he treat everyone in the camp to dinner tonight."
Upon learning the truth, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and joined Max in the commotion.
There was no other way but to take out a few hundred dollars and have Jimmy take two quick-handed guys to drive to a nearby convenience store to buy supplies.
While we're at it, let's call a short meeting for the core members in the RV. The topic of the meeting is simple—moving.
If I live in a tent when I have no money, and I still live in a tent when I have money, then what's the point of having money?
"Leave this to me," Fiona volunteered before they could even exchange a few words. "I used to invest in apartments in Chicago and deal with tenants every day. Nobody knows more about renting than me."