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From Magic City Morning Star Entertainment
Airport Control Towers Tower: "Delta 351, you have traffic at 10 o'clock, 6 miles!" Tower: "TWA 2341, for noise abatement turn right 45 Degrees." From an unknown aircraft waiting in a very long takeoff queue: "I'm bored!" O'Hare Approach Control to a 747: "United 329 heavy, your traffic is a Fokker, one o'clock, three miles, Eastbound." A student became lost during a solo cross-country flight. While attempting to locate the aircraft on radar, An American Airlines DC-10 had come in a little hot and thus had an exceedingly long roll out after touching down. A Pan Am 727 flight, waiting for start clearance in Munich, overheard the following: Tower: "Eastern 702, cleared for takeoff, contact Departure on frequency 124.7" One day the pilot of a Cherokee 180 was told by the tower to hold short of the active runway while a DC-8 landed. The DC-8 landed, rolled out, turned around, and taxied back past the Cherokee. Some quick-witted comedian in the DC-8 crew got on the radio and said, "What a cute little plane. Did you make it all by yourself?" The Cherokee pilot, not about to let the insult go by, came back with a real zinger: "I made it out of DC-8 parts. Another landing like yours and I'll have enough parts for another one." The German air controllers at Frankfurt Airport are renowned as a short-tempered lot. They not only expect one to know one's gate parking location, but how to get there without any assistance from them. So it was with some amusement that we (a Pan Am 747) listened to the following exchange between Frankfurt ground control and a British Airways Concorde, call sign Speedbird 206. Speedbird 206: "Frankfurt, Speedbird 206! Clear of active runway..." While taxiing at London's Gatwick Airport, the crew of a US Air flight departing for Ft. Lauderdale made a wrong turn and came nose to nose with a United Airlines 727. An irate female ground controller lashed out at the US Air crew, screaming: "US Air 2771, where the hell are you going? I told you to turn right onto Charlie taxiway! You turned right on Delta! Stop right there. I know it's difficult for you to tell the difference between C and D, but get it right!" Continuing her rage to the embarrassed crew, she was now shouting hysterically: "God! Now you've screwed everything up! It'll take forever to sort this lot out! You stay right there and don't move till I tell you to! You can expect progressive taxi instructions in about half an hour, and I want you to go exactly where I tell you, when I tell you, and how I tell you! You got that, US Air 2771?" "Yes, ma'am," the humbled crew responded. Naturally, the ground control communications frequency fell terribly silent after the verbal bashing of US Air 2771. Nobody wanted to chance engaging the irate ground controller in her current state of mind. Tension in every cockpit out around Gatwick was definitely running high. Just then an unknown pilot broke the silence and keyed his microphone, asking: "Wasn't I married to you once?" Flying Safe and Secure Remember it takes a college degree to fly a plane, but only a high school diploma to fix one (reassurance for those of us who fly routinely in our jobs). After every flight, Qantas (Australia's major airline) pilots fill out a form, called a "gripe sheet," which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The mechanics correct the problems, document their repairs on the form, and then pilots review the gripe sheets before the next flight. Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humor. Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by Qantas' pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance engineers. P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement. P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough. P: Something loose in cockpit. P: Dead bugs on windshield. P: Auto-pilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent. P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear. P: DME volume unbelievably loud. P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick. P: IFF inoperative in OFF mode. P: Suspected crack in windshield. P: Aircraft handles funny. P: Target radar hums. P: Mouse in cockpit. P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer. And the best one..... Posted by R.P. Bendedek Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com © Copyright 2002-2008 by Magic City Morning Star |