On the Air

A while back we were transitioning Omaha’s airspace, and heard the following: Omaha: “American 123, climb and maintain 10,000, one zero thousand.” American 123: “One-zero thousand. Your timing was stupendous, I was just picking up the mic to ask for higher.” Omaha: “Actually, the clearance just came in from Center.” After several unrelated calls, Omaha: […]

The weather was good in Houston, but traffic was heavy. My traffic display was a solid mass of aircraft that was so dense even on smaller scales that most targets were indistinguishable from one another. I’d just checked on with TRACON and overheard a controller giving vector and restriction after vector and restriction to one […]

Years ago before GPS, when we only had two VORs, we were westbound against an extraordinarily strong headwind in a Cherokee, talking to St. Louis Approach. Through breaks in the clouds I could see that the big trucks on the Interstate below were making better time than we were. It was obvious we weren’t going […]

Heard while transitioning NorCal Approach airspace near Sacramento: Cessna 12345: (Broken, garbled transmission) NorCal: “I believe that was Cessna 12345; you’re coming in unreadable. Do you have another radio you can try?” (Pause) Cessna 12345: “NorCal approach, how do you read Cessna 12345 now?” NorCal: “Loud and clear now, your other radio was just static.” […]

On one flight, with only a crew of three (no passengers) on-board the Global Express and light on fuel, I requested a climb to FL510 (max certified altitude) as none of us had ever been that high. We usually cruise at FL450 or lower. With masks on, of course, we inched on up slowly as […]

There are many stories about the horrible freeze we had in Texas this year, but I think this one of the funniest. I planned a flight to McAllen, TX, from the Lago Vista Rusty Allen Airport in the Austin area, and the runway was frozen over and covered with snow. Having grown up in North […]

In my Air Force, then airline career I have dealt with many accents speaking English. Most are fairly easy to “decode” but one day flying into Boston, I was defeated. With my copilot flying, I was handling the radio. Handed off to Boston Approach, I was greeted by a female voice with a pronounced Boston […]

We were flying in our Cessna Cardinal RG from Poughkeepsie, NY, to Norwood, MA. On board were my wife, me, and our cat, Amie. The weather was clear but windy. The local forecast for the Boston (Norwood) area was winds 30 blowing to 60 mph. Approaching Norwood, I tuned in the tower and checked in. […]

I rarely clog the radio frequency with unimportant chatter, but this was a very special day. It was March 19, 2015 when I completed my IFR checkride successfully. I was filled with excitement and gratitude as I reflected on hours of study and flight training with a fantastic instructor who, in the process, became a […]

Controllers at New York TRACON are known for being all business and taking no prisoners. Likewise, “unable, remain on the airway,” is the typical reply to a request for a shortcut. I was about 80 miles from my destination, on the preferred routing, which involves a couple of victor routes and passage through two more […]