Pilots

Joe Weber, best-selling novelist of such techno-thrillers as Defcon One, Rules of Engagement, and Primary Target, remembers well the visceral excitement of being a Marine aviator.

A great imagination coupled to a seemingly bottomless well of interesting flying experiences from those days fuels his writing, and has proven an irresistible formula for legions of addicted readers.

In his novels, bad things sometimes happen to the good guys. This, he points out, is perfectly in keeping with the reality of military aviation. There was the time, for instance, when he was completing aircraft carrier qualifications in a Rockwell International T-2C Buckeye jet.

"On my second or third catapult shot the right engine caught fire." Trailing smoke and flames, Weber shut down the engine and brought the crippled aircraft around for a single-engine trap aboard the USS Lexington, which Weber says had "the smallest deck in the Navy." He then stopped for lunch, borrowed an airplane, and completed carrier qualifications that same day. He graduated first in his class.

On another occasion, while carrier qualifying in the McDonnell Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, an overinflated main tire blew during a catapult launch. The aircraft slewed sideways, damaging the landing gear, but it got airborne. "The air boss called immediately and said, 'Don't raise your gear.'" The gear was unusable, so the best option was to head to Kingsville Naval Air Station, the closest field, for landing. But the drag of the gear caused the fighter to suck down fuel at an alarming rate. When Weber made the emergency landing, "I had about six minutes of fuel left in the tanks."

Fuel figured prominently in still another emergency later in Weber's career, while he was flying a Lockheed C-130 Hercules. A fitting in a huge fuel tank carried in the cargo area broke loose. The interior of the aircraft was quickly awash in fuel. That tense situation ended in an otherwise uneventful landing.

Weber hung up his military flight suit in 1975. He landed a class with United Airlines, but another business opportunity presented itself, and in the first week he reluctantly told United that he had changed his mind. "They must have breathed a sigh of relief to see me leave, thinking I was obviously crazy," muses Weber. He and his wife, Jeannie, then moved to Weber's hometown of Enid, Oklahoma, where they started an oil and gas business. Fortunately the business required an airplane, so Weber bought and piloted a Cessna 340.

The company prospered, and the couple cashed out in 1980. They moved to Colorado Springs, where Weber took a corporate flying job piloting a Rockwell Sabreliner. During a three-day layover in New York City in 1987, Weber conceived the idea for Defcon One, his first novel. He had never thought seriously of authoring a book before. "I started writing it longhand on legal pads, and gave myself a year to finish it." Six chapters into the story, his boss asked to look at the draft. "He gave the manuscript back to me and said, 'You can't keep me hanging like this. Finish the book.'" Weber did, one year and two weeks from the day he started. He sent it off to a number of agents, then left on a two-week vacation. "We didn't know what to expect, but when we got back in town, there were a whole bunch of phone messages and letters from agents waiting for us."

Weber chose an agent who not only landed a publisher for the story, which debuted in 1989, but a contract for three more as well. With this sudden success, he decided to write full time. The couple moved to Pensacola, Florida, where they live today. The rest, as they say, is history. Weber's seventh novel, Dancing With the Dragon, was due to appear on bookshelves last month, and he is hard at work on his eighth.

One of the first things Weber did after becoming a full-time writer was to buy an airplane, a Cessna 182. He had it repainted in Marine Corp colors of red and gold, and secured a new N number, N75SF (for the Marine Corp motto, Semper Fidelis, of course). That aircraft has since been sold and Weber, planeless for the moment, is considering becoming involved with another.

Even with millions of books in print, Weber doesn't relax for too long. What can loyal fans expect in the future? If past is prologue, expect more great thrillers with an aviation bent. His "Novels to Be Written" file contains ideas for his next six books. "I don't often get writer's block," he points out, which is good news for anyone not afraid to risk a sleepless night or two lost in a good read.