Flying Words of Wisdom (part 4)
Feb. 16th, 2007 01:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jjmaccrimmonPilot To Ground Control
In his book, "Sled Driver," SR-71 Blackbird pilot Brian Shul writes:
I'll always remember a certain radio exchange that occurred one day as Walt (my back-seater) and I were screaming across Southern California 13 miles high. We were monitoring various radio transmissions from other aircraft as we entered Los Angeles airspace. Though they didn't really control us, they did monitor our movement across their scope.
I heard a Cessna ask for a readout of its ground speed.
"90 knots" Center replied.
Moments later,a Twin Beech required the same.
"120 knots" Center answered.
We weren't the only ones proud of our ground speed that day...as almost instantly an F-18 smugly transmitted,
"Ah, Center, Dusty 52 requests ground speed readout."
There was a slight pause, then the response, "525 knots on the ground, Dusty."
Another silent pause. As I was thinking to myself how ripe a situation this was, I heard a familiar click of a radio transmission coming from my back-seater. It was at that precise moment I realized Walt and I had become a real crew, for we were both thinking in unison.
"Center, Aspen 20, you got a ground speed readout for us?"
There was a longer than normal pause ... "Aspen, I show 1,742 knots."
No further inquiries were heard on that frequency.
Pilot To Ground Control
This other SR-71 story is famous and has made the rounds too. What's different is that I was there for it.
In 1990, I was a young 2nd Lt, and was learning to be a navigator in the USAF. Late one evening we were returning on a training route that drove up the US Pacific coast and briefly entered Canada before heading back to the south to Mather AFB (near Sacramento, CA). Night sorties were usually scheduled after 9pm in those days to avoid conflicts with red eye flights out of San Francisco Intl. and Sacramento Intl., so the radio was usually pretty quiet. At about 1:45am, while our training flight was over northern Oregon returning home, I got to listen to what is considered one of the funniest exchanges ever on the radio.
Night time was also the time of day when the younger air traffic controllers were on shift in order to learn and get experience without a heavy traffic load. Seattle Center was thusly manned when Aspen 44 called Center with a request for clearance to Flight Level 600 (60,000 ft).
The incredulous controller, asked, "44, If you can get to FL600, you can have it” with a tone of disbelief and amusement.
The SR-71 pilot, responded casually, "Aspen 44 – descending to FL600.” The radio went completely silent for probably the next five minutes because of how hard everyone on frequency was probably laughing.
In his book, "Sled Driver," SR-71 Blackbird pilot Brian Shul writes:
I'll always remember a certain radio exchange that occurred one day as Walt (my back-seater) and I were screaming across Southern California 13 miles high. We were monitoring various radio transmissions from other aircraft as we entered Los Angeles airspace. Though they didn't really control us, they did monitor our movement across their scope.
I heard a Cessna ask for a readout of its ground speed.
"90 knots" Center replied.
Moments later,a Twin Beech required the same.
"120 knots" Center answered.
We weren't the only ones proud of our ground speed that day...as almost instantly an F-18 smugly transmitted,
"Ah, Center, Dusty 52 requests ground speed readout."
There was a slight pause, then the response, "525 knots on the ground, Dusty."
Another silent pause. As I was thinking to myself how ripe a situation this was, I heard a familiar click of a radio transmission coming from my back-seater. It was at that precise moment I realized Walt and I had become a real crew, for we were both thinking in unison.
"Center, Aspen 20, you got a ground speed readout for us?"
There was a longer than normal pause ... "Aspen, I show 1,742 knots."
No further inquiries were heard on that frequency.
Pilot To Ground Control
This other SR-71 story is famous and has made the rounds too. What's different is that I was there for it.
In 1990, I was a young 2nd Lt, and was learning to be a navigator in the USAF. Late one evening we were returning on a training route that drove up the US Pacific coast and briefly entered Canada before heading back to the south to Mather AFB (near Sacramento, CA). Night sorties were usually scheduled after 9pm in those days to avoid conflicts with red eye flights out of San Francisco Intl. and Sacramento Intl., so the radio was usually pretty quiet. At about 1:45am, while our training flight was over northern Oregon returning home, I got to listen to what is considered one of the funniest exchanges ever on the radio.
Night time was also the time of day when the younger air traffic controllers were on shift in order to learn and get experience without a heavy traffic load. Seattle Center was thusly manned when Aspen 44 called Center with a request for clearance to Flight Level 600 (60,000 ft).
The incredulous controller, asked, "44, If you can get to FL600, you can have it” with a tone of disbelief and amusement.
The SR-71 pilot, responded casually, "Aspen 44 – descending to FL600.” The radio went completely silent for probably the next five minutes because of how hard everyone on frequency was probably laughing.
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Date: 2007-02-16 10:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-16 10:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-16 10:54 pm (UTC)Watching an 'hog stop in mid-air as the cannon fires or the roar of a 2 ship of Phantoms leaving for patrol. Aw heck, I don't have to tell you, you understand.
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Date: 2007-02-16 10:44 pm (UTC)A lot of family history in that bird. My maternal grandfather was an electrical engineer in the Skunk Works for the A-12, YF-12A, and SR-71 projects, my brother worked on the engines during his tour of duty in the Air Force, and both the SR-71 and I went operational at Beale AFB in the same year - 1966