Short Final

One day, while flying over the Rockies with a strong jet stream and many turbulence reports in the Denver airspace, I heard Denver Center ask for ride reports. United 123:“Good day, Denver. United 123 with you at FL 350.” Denver Center:“Roger, United 123. How’s your ride?” United 123:“Well, the captain is having his lunch, and […]

After a local excursion to exercise my C-172 engine, I returned to my local airport. There was a helicopter in the area providing position reports. After I announced downwind, the helicopter came on the radio: Helicopter:“Do you know anything about the airplane crash this morning?” Me:“No. I have been out of the area, haven’t heard […]

Our tower does periodic checks. About mid-day, I heard on the scanner: Salem Tower:“Tower test for tapes. One, two, three. Three, two, one. Test out.” A Local Aircraft:“Salem tower, loud and clear. N12345.” Salem Tower:“Aircraft N12345: Frequency change approved.” Mary Ann Leboldvia e-mail

Realizing that I had not practiced an engine-out approach in too long, I decided to “fail” my Lycoming while doing touch-and-goes at Jacksonville’s Herlong airport. Me:“Cherokee 69T. Simulated engine-out and short approach.” [After a few moments, I saw that I would be seriously short.] Me:“Cherokee 69T again, simulating getting my engine back on!” (The next […]

While working local Control (tower) as a newly minted Air Force controller in the ’60s, I often got requests from local pilots for practice DF steers, [our location] having one of the last DFs in the area. The DF console was located on the opposite side of the tower from Local, and I had a […]

Sad but true. I was en route to Winchester, north of the DC area, when I heard a pilot in a Piper making this request: Piper:“I am low on fuel and need to go direct Martinsburg.” Potomac:“Sir, I cannot give you direct Martinsburg. That route would take you through P40.” Piper:“But I am low on […]

I heard this going into Los Angeles International Airport on SoCal approach frequency: Approach:“Airliner 123, turn right, heading 180, for spacing.” Airliner 123:“Right turn, 180. Airliner 123. What’s up?” Approach:“Well, our computers have the ability to suggest a specific vector to help us get the required spacing. So the computer says you gotta go south […]

I was flying a particularly noisy pusher seaplane back to KPIE one day. These things have the engine right over your head and between the straight-through exhaust and prop swinging by the fuselage. They are super noisy. On my first radio call to the tower, they came back with:“Transmission unreadable. Just a loud noise.” I […]

While ferrying an airplane from Michigan to Florida, we heard a friendly exchange between a male controller and a female pilot. The pilot was not having a great day and was not too happy about flying. Controller:“At least you have a nice view. I’m stuck in a dark room just looking at guys.” Pilot:“It’s not […]

My son and I took advantage of a beautiful October day to fly to Blairstown, New Jersey and catch the fall foliage. Sipping a Coke and watching the arrivals and departures, we saw a bright orange Grumman Tiger taxi in. From it emerged a man and a woman; the woman seemed to be carrying a […]