I was flying a particularly noisy pusher seaplane back to KPIE one day. These things have the engine right over your head and between the straight-through exhaust and prop swinging by the fuselage. They are super noisy.

On my first radio call to the tower, they came back with:
"Transmission unreadable. Just a loud noise."

I keyed up again, using my loud voice:
"Just a second. Let me shut off the engine."

The tower replied:
"No! Nooo!"

It was then obvious to me that my intention to go to idle power had been misinterpreted ... .

Mike Dwyer
via e-mail