Short Final

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With Super Bowl XLIV about to kick off as we prepare this week’s AVweb stories, we can’t resist the temptation to delve into our mailbag and serve up a "Short Final" that’s been holding for over a year:

It was a Friday afternoon in November when we were departing OSU airport in the company King Air for our home base in Grand Rapids. The huge college rivalry between OSU and U of M was to be played tomorrow. Since the OSU fans can be quite literally fanatical about their team, my co-pilot and I were pretty quiet all day about our allegiance to the Michigan football squad.

As we were taxiing out to the busy runway, we changed over to tower, and the pattern was full of OSU students and their instructors. The frequency was busy. It was my leg, so the co-pilot was on the radio. My voice had not been heard yet.

After my copilot responded to our takeoff clearance, I couldn’t help myself and keyed the mike, saying in a deep and serious voice, “Go Blue!”

We enjoyed a takeoff roll in complete radio silence. All communications stopped dead for about ten seconds!

The shocked silence was broken with the words “Who said that?!”

I knew we had gotten away with it when we were handed off to Columbus departure and didn’t have to enter a hold! That ten seconds of silence was almost as good as the beating we gave them in the next day’s game!


Doug Downer
via e-mail

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