Collins Big Cat - Tara Binns: High-flying pilot

Tara Binns

Tara Binns

h- flying Pilot g i H

h- flying Pilot g i H TARA BINNS HIGH-FLYING PILOT

When thunder and lightning strike, can new pilot Tara Binns beat the storm and y everyone to safety?

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An adventure story

Lisa Rajan

Alessia Trunfio 18/10/2018 12:05

Tara Binns

High-flying Pilot

Written by Lisa Rajan Illustrated by Alessia Trunfio

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Chapter 1 Tara Binns was in the attic at the top of her house. She was looking for the old costume box. There it was! Tara smiled with excitement. As she pushed open the lid, her hands started to tingle. Something special was about to happen ...

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The box was full of clothes, uniforms, shoes and hats.

It picked out a costume for Tara that she wouldn’t normally have chosen. And with the outfit came an adventure.

The tingling spread up her arms. Tara closed her eyes.

She was tumbling through space and time. She wondered ‌ What will I be today?

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Chapter 2 The world stopped spinning and Tara couldn’t believe her eyes. She was sitting in the cockpit of a jet plane, travelling at 30,000 feet above the ocean. She was in the pilot’s seat!

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And she WAS the pilot! She was wearing navy blue trousers and there were gold wings on the pocket of her smart navy jacket. She pushed back her cap and stared out of the windscreen at the huge storm clouds ahead.

“Help!” she cried. “I don’t know how to fly a plane!”

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“Don’t worry! We’ll teach you,” said the girl in the seat next to her.

“I’m Ayesha, your co-pilot. This is Ortez. He’s the navigator.

He makes sure we don’t get lost.”

“Hi,” said Ortez. “Nice to meet you.” He pointed at a screen with a tiny white plane travelling across it. “That’s our plane. See it moving towards that little green island?

That’s where we’ll be landing very soon.”

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“How do we do that?” Tara spluttered. She scanned the buttons, switches, dials and lights in front of her.

Ayesha gave her a quick flying lesson – how to go left, go right, go up and go down. And most importantly – how to land.

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Chapter 3 All of a sudden, bright light filled the cockpit – lightning!

The crash of thunder that followed made Tara jump.

Raindrops began smacking at the windscreen. Her heart beat faster. They were flying right into a huge storm.

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It was over the island ahead, exactly where they were supposed to land. She could see that buildings were torn down and roads were flooded.

This was very worrying. The storm was strong enough to rip up trees and blow houses down. What would it do to a plane with a new pilot at the controls?

Tara needed help.

She asked Ayesha and Ortez, “What should I do?�

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“Should I try to fly above the storm?” Tara tried to remember how to take the plane higher.

“Or maybe I should fly straight through it?” But the plane was already bouncing about in the strong winds.

Tara gripped the controls.

“Should I steer the plane around the storm?” That felt like the right decision.

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“Most pilots would go above a storm, if it’s small …” started Ortez. “… But this storm is massive. And we were about to land,” finished Ayesha. “We might be flying too low to get above the storm in time.”

Tara thought hard about her choices. She had to get it right.

The crew and the passengers in the cabin were all counting on her.

She made up her mind.

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