September 3, 2012 Short Final

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In view of all the recent hurricane news coverage, I recalled a pertinent exchange from the the Port Columbus, Ohio (CMH) tower. I worked at the "Lane Gate" vehicle check point for several years, regularly monitoring the tower frequency to get a "play by play" description of what was going on around me. I overheard the following exchange the day after the remnants of hurricane Ike came through, causing a lot of downed trees and subsequent power outages. A recently landed ERJ was taxiing to the ramp and called the tower:

ERJ:
"CMH Tower, American Eagle 1234. I hear you guys got a lot of wind yesterday. How much did you get?"

Tower:
"American Eagle 1234, Tower. The highest gust I saw was 68mph, and then the wind thingee blew away."

(78mph gusts were reported by the news media.)

Edwin Esson
via e-mail