Short Final

It was Saturday afternoon some years ago at our mid-sized, midwestern airport. Things were hopping; Air Guard jets were shooting landings on the long runway, airliners were arriving and departing, two or three aircraft were in the pattern practicing, transients were coming and going, and then there was my friend and me in a 1945 […]

The fall at Juneau Airport, where I’m a controller, generally sees pretty gross days, rain and lots of wind. One day we had six miles of visibility and winds of more than 25 knots and gusts more than 30. I was working a Coast Guard helicopter out and it occurred to me that I never […]

On Tower frequency at a rural class Delta: Cessna: Uh, tower caution some sort of otter or marmot just went right in front of my plane. Tower: It was a groundhog. That is our airport groundhog. Cessna: Ok regardless of type he just crossed Alpha without clearance tell him to check his frequency. Tower: We’ll […]

I heard the aircraft part of this conversation to Grand Forks FSS at 21:05 local time recently. I was too far away to hear the controller but they wanted to know the time off for the aircraft. Cessna 1234: “I was airborne at 9:05, pause, err, ahh, make that 26:05” No further calls were made. […]

I was in the lineup to depart LAX. A Delta jet was ahead of me and a Short Bros. 360 was ahead of Delta. Delta (strong southern accent): “Ah, ground control, could you tell us what kind of aircraft is that ahead of us?” Short Bros. Pilot: “Ah, we are a Short Bros 360.” Long […]

Heard on Denver departure. N1234: “Just off Centennial” Center: “Squawk 6666” Center: “Umm, do you want another? We could give you a different one.” Silence N1234: No, it’s okay, we’ll keep that one.” John C. Lamb

Controller: Cessna 123, traffic, opposition direction, five miles, at 4,000 feet Cessna 123: Looking for traffic, Cessna 123 Controller: Cessna 123, Love Field, six miles, 12 o’clock. Cessna 123: Cessna 123 looking for Love. Pause Cessna123: That didn’t come out right, did it. Controller: No but we hope you find Love, … and the airport. […]

While flying back to my home airport, KAVQ, I heard this exchange from two pilots entering the non-towered airport airspace: Cherokee: Cherokee 1234 entering left downwind for runway 12, full stop. A Grumman Tiger pilot was also entering left downwind making a similar call. Cherokee pilot: Grumman aircraft, we will swing wide since you are […]

My daughter and I flew back from AirVenture on the last day of the show. While flying over Eastern Iowa and monitoring 122.80 we heard the following conversation that we assumed was between a couple of crop dusters: Pilot 1: “Hey XXX did you make it to Oshkosh this year?” Pilot 2: “Yeah, we got […]

I landed at KCMA, Camarillo, CA on a windy day and checked in with ground. Ground: “18 Sierra Romeo, taxi to the ramp via Foxtrot, caution, tumbleweed all quadrants, not my control” He wasn’t kidding either; huge tumbleweed balls were passing over the taxiways and runway heading downwind like a scene from an old Western […]