Social Flight

Short Final »

Your recent "Short Final" reminded me of a funny story I got to participate in about two and a half years ago: ... XXX GND: "Delta 1234, cleared to Yadda via depart heading 320, radar vectors YADDA, then as filed. Maintain 5,000; expect FL260 ten minutes after departure. Departure 123.45; squawk 2108." ... DAL1234: "Roger. Cleared to Yadda via heading 320 on departure, radar vectors YADDA, then as filed. Maintain 5,000; expect FL260 ten minutes after departure. Departure 123.45; squawk 2108." ... XXX GND: "Delta 1234, readback correct. Call when ready to taxi, with Echo." ... I sat and waited. And waited. And waited, figuring at least one of them would figure it out, and then I finally couldn't help myself. ... Me: "Ground, you sure you want to give him that squawk code?" ... XXX GND: "I'm not sure what you're talking about, but his code is fine." ... So I waited about another ten seconds to see if either the controller or the pilot would figure it out. Nope. ... Me: "O.K., sorry about that. I must have some old equipment in this old bird and not one of them newfangled transponders. The digits in my old transponder only go up to 7." ... After about a six-second pause: ... XXX GND [laughing]: "Oh, boy. It's been a long night! DAL1234, how about a squawk of something a little different, like how about maybe 2110?" -- Don Desfosse, via e-mail More

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