On the Air

This photograph gives new perspective to the adage “A survivable landing is a good landing.” Who says airport planners don’t have a sense of humor? Now where are you supposed to be looking on short final? Imagine the phone call: “Honey, I landed a bit long and ended up in the cemetery!” —Daniel Spitzer, Piermont, […]

I was a new controller and just assigned to my first duty station, Falcon Field in Mesa, Arizona. I had a pretty good working relationship with my crew mate. It was slow and we had the radios on the speaker so we could use handsets instead of wearing headsets. Out of nowhere we got a […]

I was flying IFR north of Toronto a year or so ago on a VFR day and talking on Center frequency when I heard this exchange. Toronto road traffic is known to be bad, particularly during the afternoon rush hour, which this was. ATC: “Air Canada xyz, expect Runway 23.” Air Canada xyz: “Roger, Runway […]

For your August OTA I sent you the photo (repeated here) of the Gulfstream that was towed to parking, but the ground crew neglected to set the chocks. Subsequently, it rolled into the Challenger behind it. I thought you might like to know the outcome. The Gulfstream has been repaired and is flying. The Challenger’s […]

Recently on the Kerrville ramp, there was a Challenger bizjet parked and secured. A Gulfstream was under tow to parking near the Challenger. The line person put the Gulfstream in place, unhooked the tug, but neglected to chock the wheels.  [You know what’s coming, right?] The Gulfstream started rolling and ultimately an engine collided with […]

Quite a few years ago, I was flying my Mooney on the short hop from San Antonio International Airport to Kerrville Municipal Airport. It was a typically hot, humid, and bumpy day in Texas. Back then there was an afternoon airline service from San Antonio to Austin, which was probably just a 15-minute flight at […]

I was flying across Lower Michigan above a solid overcast at 5000 feet. A nearby VFR plane at 5500 asked for lower. Great Lakes approach questioned if he was able maintain VFR during his descent. He claimed that a hole had just opened up and that he was able to spiral down. Great Lakes Approach […]

A couple of years ago I was getting back into IFR procedures after a time away from flying, and had just installed some fancy new avionics. I had been deliberately building the maximum number of procedures into each flight and obviously the local controllers had become familiar with my plans. So returning to my local […]

“What are you doing in Atlanta Class B without authorization?”

Somewhere over the Sierra Nevadas (I was near Lake Tahoe, but it’s a big sector): Delta 123: (Extremely indignant tone) “Oakland Center, Delta 123, we’re getting continuous chop here at 320.” Oakland Center: (Offering the obvious suggestion) “Delta 123, roger. Would you like to try 340?” Delta 123: “No, we’re limited to 320 because of […]