Aviation Quirks

[pkbridges77]

In my relative short time on MOC, it is apparent that there are quite a few with aviation backgrounds. I had 18 years in Air Traffic Control - 6 as a controller and 12 as a Supervisor.

Back in the day when we wrote checks, there were companies that flew canceled checks between cities at night. There was an operator who showed up every night like clockwork at 9:00 pm 30 miles north in a Beech Baron with the call sign, "Arkansas 1777". Every night at 9:00 pm, "Fort Smith Approach, Arkansas one-triple seven, 30 miles north inbound for landing with the numbers."

"Arkansas one triple seven, Fort Smith Approach, radar contact, make straight in Runway 19."

So one night he calls up, "Fort Smith Approach, Guess Who?"

The controller reached over and turned all the airport lights off, and answered, "Guess Where?"

Fun memories.

[CORattler]

That's a funny story.

[MikenAngie]

I used to fly into CHI MDW every night for Airborne and always met up with the guys and gals that flew the "check" and mail in their twin beech's. I was in a Cessna 402.
That is a good story. I could see the guys at the Moline airport pulling a stunt like that.

[Phil P]

Hi

Here’s one for you.

One night many years ago I was on my way to Addis Ababa Ethiopia from Wichita Kansas in a Cessna crop duster (I delivered 21 Cessna singles to Addis some 172 and some C188). It was early in the morning somewhere around 2AM between Valencia Spain and Malta when I notice 2 airliners reporting to Italian control going opposite directions on the same airway Amber7 to be exact at the same altitude.

When TWA contacted control to be sure they understood this the response from control was “Yes you better watcha out”.

Phil P

[pkbridges77]

Phil, In ATC language that's called the Big Sky Concept. Big sky, little airplane.
I remember once working non radar procedures with a radar outage. If I recall, the minimum distance separation with an aircraft flying an arc around a VOR was 7 miles - you could clear a plane to fly a 10-mile arc and have another plane flying a 17-mile arc. We were doing that when the radar came back on and the planes were about 1 1/2 miles away from each other. I'll take a radar environment any day.

Bet you have some war stories of flying a single engine half way across the world. What an experience!

[Phil P]

I delivered a total of 350 single engine aircraft to 5 continents in 45 years of doing aircraft deliveries. I haven’t kept a detailed record of the multi engine aircraft.

The smallest aircraft was a Piper Warrior to England the largest aircraft was a Douglas DC6 to Africa.

Phil P