On the Air: July 2020

IFR Staff

Monday, June 22, 2020 at 09:05 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

An Army National Guard helicopter pilot carrying a Jeep successfully requested an emergency landing to secure its loose hood mid-flight, demonstrating ATC's ability to handle unusual circumstances.
A pilot's wife, accustomed to controlled airspace, was perplexed when no one responded to her husband's self-announcements at a non-towered airport.
ATC courteously denied a general aviation pilot's request for a touch-and-go at Orlando International but offered an exciting alternative: a low approach over the NASA Shuttle Landing Strip.

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In the early 1970s, I was a captain in the Kansas Army National Guard flying a CH-54 Sky Crane helicopter IFR north bound off of Forbes Field, Topeka, Kansas. We were headed to annual training with Jeep on a four point load hung under the CH-54 for ground transportation upon arrival. We were level at 4000 in the clouds on a Victor airway when over the intercom, our flight engineer advised that the hood was loose on our Jeep. We had entered the clouds at about 3000 feet. I had the following exchange with Kansas City Center:

Me: “Kansas City Center, Guard 435, request.”