Short Final: Be Careful What You Wish For

Credit: Oshkosh Truck
Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • An instructor jokingly suggested to a fire truck enthusiast student that they squawk 7700 (emergency code) "to see what happens."
  • Coincidentally, they soon experienced an intermittent avionics failure, leading to a NORDO (no radio) situation.
  • The instructor was then genuinely forced to squawk 7700, and after landing safely with light gun signals, they were greeted by numerous fire trucks.
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From IFR Magazine reader Luca Bencini-Tibo

When I was serving as an instructor during a type-club flight clinic, an owner-pilot student and I were preparing to return to a tower-controlled airport within Class Bravo airspace. The owner had previously mentioned that he is a fire truck enthusiast—he liked the big ones.

Wanting to provide customer-centric service, I said, “Just squawk 7700 and see what happens.” As it turned out, we experienced an intermittent avionics failure en route, and after a couple of on-off cycles, I actually did squawk 7700. We were NORDO, but with some luck, we landed with the light-gun signals and no further issues.

And yes, we were greeted by a half-dozen fire trucks with all lights flashing.

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