Short Final

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Back in the early ’80s, I was making a living flying night-time aerial advertising with a “Skycaster” electronic moving-message sign that spanned the wings under the belly of my Cessna 172.

Flying out of CMH, I would circle local communities with ads. My “low and slow,” combined with horizontal distance, gave the appearance that the moving lights were traveling in an oval pattern. This would invariably produce calls to the airport that a “UFO” was circling overhead.

One night I left the sign running when approaching to land. I called, “N123 short final.” The tower replied, “UFO N123 cleared to land. Please don’t cut any crop circles in our runway.”


Bob Maroldy
via e-mail

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