Short Final

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • An air traffic controller recounted a humorous exchange from the mid-1980s at Worcester airport.
  • A Piedmont Airlines crew, speaking with a thick Southern drawl, requested their IFR clearance be repeated more slowly.
  • The crew humorously informed the controller that they listen at the same speed they talk, implying the initial delivery was too fast.
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Back in the mid-’80s, Piedmont Airlines began flying out of Worcester airport (ORH) in Massachusetts to Baltimore/Washington International airport (BWI). A flight crew requested their IFR clearance, and I dutifully rattled it off to them in typical New England air traffic control fashion. As I concluded, the response I received in a thick Southern drawl was priceless:

Airplane 1234:
“Woostasure clearance – do yuh hear how fayust I’muh tawkin’? Well, that’s how fayust I listen. You wanna run that by me – one – moe – tawm – ?”


Dave Khanoyan
via e-mail

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