He remembered to put his right hand back on the throttles, resisting the overpowering desire to hold the yoke with both hands. He felt Eli’s hand on top of his.

“Four hundred . . . Three hundred . . . Two hundred . . .”

Now the runway seemed to be rushing up at them, and Jed felt panic grow in his chest. He unconsciously pulled back on the yoke and the nose came up some.

“Not yet, One. Don’t worry. I have a little extra speed in for you. . . . One hundred feet . . . Ease back a tiny bit on the yoke and keep your hand on the throttles. . . . Give a bit of power now; you have a slight headwind . . .”

Jed complied, working the throttles with Eli’s hand on top of his.

“Get ready to come back off . . . Almost there . . .”

The runway filled the windscreen now, dark black marks on the approach end from all the other airplanes that had landed there before them.

“Nose up . . . nose up . . . That’s it. . . . Throttle back a bit . . .”

Jed pulled back on the throttles as the nose came up and suddenly felt the plane drop.

“That’s okay. . . . That’s ground effect you feel . . .”

Indeed, Jed felt the plane waffle in a sort of cushion for a moment; then the tires hit the pavement, much sooner than he expected, and barked loudly, startling him. He made an embarrassing “nuuuhhhh” sound.

“Keep the nose up and let her roll; keep the nose up. . . . Pull straight back on the throttles now until they stop . . .”

Jed did, and the nose came down.

It hit the ground, not quite gently.

“That’s okay, just a little quick on the throttles. . . . Remember, you’re steering with your feet. . . . Bring the flaps back up, Two, and let’s get heavy to get you stopped.”

Jed didn’t know what that meant. The flashing red lights of the crash trucks on both sides suggested that they had not been completely confident in Jed’s ability.

“There you go. . . . Keep in on the center. . . . Let it roll; you have plenty of runway. . . . Let it roll. Use your feet . . .”

And the next thing Jed knew, they were stopped.

Jed looked out the side and saw he was right of the center on the wide runway and at the very end of the strip of cement, the plane’s nose angled slightly left.

“Great job, fellas, you did fantastic,” the pilot said and then walked them through the shutdown sequence.

Jed realized, as the blue Humvees tore toward them, that his forearms ached as if from a two-hour workout in the gym, and his legs were shaking. For a moment, he sat frozen, not sure he had the energy to crawl out of the seat.

“Awesome job, bro,” Eli said. “You did it, man.”

Jed turned and saw his teammate’s eyes looked wet.