On the Air: February 2017

Your recent OTA reminded me of a flight several years ago with my cousins daughter and her husband in the back seat during a scenic flight around the Dallas area. After the flight I asked her if she enjoyed it. Her reply was that the flight was nice and lots of fun, but she was concerned that I had to read the instructions on my kneeboard as I went through checklists during the flight.

Editorial Staff

Wednesday, January 25, 2017 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The article compiles several humorous and sometimes anxious anecdotes from pilots detailing their unique experiences in aviation.
These stories feature a range of pilot-ATC interactions, from amusing radio calls about large insects to misunderstandings with passengers or air traffic control.

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One July, I was flying an Aerostar from Sherbrooke, Quebec to Kitchener, Ontario, passing through Toronto’s airspace when I heard an RV6 pilot with a thick southern drawl make a call that went something like this:

RV6: “Toronto Center, this is RV6 N1234 VFR at niner thousand, five hundred, I’d like to report an insect strike. I mean, we just entered Canadian airspace and this here bug was huge. I mean, it is smeared all over my windscreen, and man, it’s a reeeal mess.”