Characters

This is Charlie Piper, a small aeroplane with one engine – a Piper Cherokee PA-28.  He can get a bit excitable, but he’s very loyal and brave.  His best friend is Meena who lives in the spot next to him in the old hangar.

Charlie’s favourite route is across the sea to Green Island, but he also loves doing wide circuits above the airport where he can look down on the countryside and towns nearby – there’s always something different to see from 3,000 feet in the air.  He hates storm clouds.

Meena is one of Charlie’s best friends and had the spot next to him in the old hangar. She loves flying when it’s nice and warm, not so much when it’s rainy and cloudy.

Mr Little is Charlie’s owner.  He used to be in the air force and has been flying for years.  He’s not just a very experienced pilot, he’s also a flying instructor taking students for their first flights and teaching at a flight training school.  There’s only one thing he loves more than flying – his wife Annabella. 

When Mr Little isn’t working or out in Charlie, he’s often found in the crew room chatting to other pilots or tinkering around in the hangar.  

Jess is one of a team of mechanics based in the maintenance hangar but her work takes her around the whole airport checking, fixing and generally helping out. 

Jess has a pilot’s licence and goes out flying whenever she can, often taking Charlie out for an hour or two.  She’s always loved planes – watching them, flying them and reading about them – so being a mechanic in a busy airport is her dream job. 

Mr Smith is the manager of Glossingham Airport.  He’s always busy and his desk looks like it’s been hit by a whirlwind, but he always knows where everything is.  If he’s not in his office, he’s somewhere around the airport; either in a hangar sorting out a problem, in the tower watching the planes come and go, showing very important people round or generally making sure that everything’s running as it should.

Here he is visiting Charlie’s old hangar with its leaking roof and horrid smell.

Dusty doesn’t have his own plane but takes Charlie out for a flight whenever he can. He loves going on long flights and often takes the opportunity to visit friends and family, or explore new places.

He has flown the length and breadth of the country so many times that he now helps plan routes for pilots who are training.