On the Air

Air traffic control at the Armys busiest airfield can be unique at times.ATC: Stingray 54, traffic a little bit taller than you out your right door, a Creek, report traffic in sight.ATC: Bandit 45, follow the Chinook out your front door, cleared for takeoff.

We were flying from Oakland down to San Luis Obispo for lunch. On Oakland Center frequency, the controller was quizzing a Skylane every minute or so: Oakland Center: Cessna Two Three Quebec, thats a 78 182?

Returning to Winston-Salem from the coast, I heard the following exchange as I was trying to find some smooth air and had requested a number of altitude changes:Cherokee 37J: Greensboro Approach. Three Seven Juliet, request.Greensboro Approach: Go ahead Three Seven Juliet.Cherokee 37J: Request 6000.Approach (a bit exasperated): 6000 approved. Do you think this will be your final altitude?

Heard on the Glendale, Ariz., Tower frequency one Saturday morning:Cessna 21KL: Glendale Tower, Cessna Two One Kilo Lima, over I-10. I have information Juliet.Glendale Tower: Cessna Two One Kilo Lima, I-10 runs all the way from California to Florida. Could you be a little more specific?

The much-heralded promise of GPS/WAAS is ILS-like guidance at nearly every airport without the need for a million dollars worth of ILS equipment. The hero of this effort is the LPV approach-thats localizer performance with vertical guidance for those of you just coming up to speed.

Flow of actions verified by checklist is a common system even in the airline cockpit, but its possibly even more useful in single-pilot IFR. Advantage one is that the flow gets critical tasks done quickly, in an efficient path and with a low error rate. Verification by checklist is to drop that error rate to near zero. But in the real world of rushed approaches or changing plans, a flow means that even if you run out of time to verify, you still probably got it covered.

Several of you have sent in the image to the left or the link proving that Jeppesen has a sense of humor. For anyone who hasnt seen the Hudson River Visual, here it is. (We particularly like the Crooked Goose transition.)

Here are some more eccentric airport names in New Yorks Hudson Valley.Axinn-located about two miles north of Middlebury, Vt.Ass-Pirin- about 10 nm further west, and likely what you will take shortly after visiting;Bonebender-13 nm southwest of Burlington, Vt.

At the U.S. Army Aviation Center for Excellence (at Fort Rucker, Alabama), U.S. Army flight students perform their supervised solo flight at 20.2 hours of (helicopter) flight time, consisting of three traffic patterns to a hover with the students stick-buddy in the left seat. When winds picked up, the tower safety officer placed all of the solo students on a ground hold. Some of the students got a little impatient while waiting for winds to die down.

We live in an airport community in Florida, 64FA, called Naked Lady Ranch.One of our pilots asked Jacksonville Center (JAX) for direct to Naked Lady Ranch. The controller responded, Affirmative, you are cleared direct to Naked Lady Ranch.This was followed a few seconds later by, JAX, this is American 123, wed like a clearance to Naked Lady Ranch and Cactus 456, requesting direct Naked Lady.