We are based at Witham Field, Stuart, Florida. Stuart is a fairly busy airport, located in southeast Florida between Palm Beach and Vero Beach. It is also a port of entry, and there is a large flight school located here. On this particular day, the weather was picture perfect for flying. We had flown to Vero Beach for lunch. On the return flight, we noticed that the Stuart traffic seemed heavier than usual, with continuous departures and arrivals of commercial and private flights. We were sequenced at number 3 for landing. Once we landed and taxied off of the runway, we switched over to ground control. We then heard this exchange:
Flight School: “Stuart Ground, Treasure 12345 requesting to conduct pattern work with touch and go’s, mixed with some stop and go’s.”
Ground Control: “Treasure 12345, Stuart Ground. Your call is very important to us. Please stay on the line and your call will be handled in the order in which it was received.”
I could see the other pilots on the taxiway laughing.
Michael Page
Stuart, FL
The ROLLN 2 arrival into Cleveland- Hopkins International has some notable fixes, such as ROLLN, STOHN, JANYS, JPLIN, plus a few others. Recently I was flying over southwestern Virginia on an Angel Flight mission, and I overheard the following:
Center: “Airliner 123, I’ll clear you direct GEDDY if you can tell me who it’s named after.”
The airliner must’ve answered correctly (I was on a different frequency, and could only hear the controller), as he indeed was cleared direct to GEDDY. A short conversation then ensued about how the controller is a big Rush fan.
Philip Rash
Durham, NC
Returning from Montgomery Field, California, to my home field of Boulder City, Nevada, l was north of Palm Springs when l overheard this exchange:
Los Angeles Center: “Shooter One One, you have an RJ at your 12 o’clock, five miles and a 1000 feet below, opposite direction.”
Shooter One One: “Looking for traffic.”
Center: “RJ123 you have a single F-18 at your 12 o’clock, five miles and a 1000 feet above, opposite direction.”
RJ123: “Roger. Switching to guns.”
No response from Center but l imagined they were having a good laugh like l was.
Darrel Davidson
Boulder City, NV
I was flying an Angel Flight in Bradley International Airport’s airspace when a jump plane contacted the controller:
Jump Plane: “Jump 1. One minute prior.”
Bradley: “Are you Jump 1 or Jump 2?”
Jump Plane: “Sorry, we’re in Jump 2.”
Bradley: “I do jumps at your facility and understand the confusion.”
Me: “I can never understand it. Willingly jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.”
Bradley: “Believe me, if you saw Jump 2, you’d want to jump out of it.”
Richard Jacobs
Dartmouth, MA
On a trip in February from San Diego, California to Caldwell, Idaho I was at FL240 to clear some weather over the Northern Sierra’s. Center called me out to descending traffic and then said, “Really? Wow, that’s some Cirrus.”
I did not know then, but it was -39 degrees C up there on this cold day and I didn’t realize it at the time but the Cirrus airframe (2019 22T) has a temp limitation of -40 degrees C. I also didn’t realize my TKS deicing fluid has a temp limitation of -37 degrees C. I guess I got lucky that day.
A good lesson to know thy limitations before the flight.
Marty Goodman
San Diego, CA
I was departing Laredo International Airport for a flight to Porta Vallarta, Mexico. I taxied up to the runway to announce ready for takeoff:
Me: “Citation 1234 ready in sequence.”
Laredo Tower: “Citation 1234, we are waiting for your release from Mexico.”
Unknown Voice: “That doesn’t sound good.”
Joe Kotowski
Naperville, IL
