Short Final: Maintain 200 Knots
One beautiful day in Atlanta Center, Smiley, a well‑known character at the TRACON, was the final approach controller and was assigning everyone 180 KIAS...
Short Final: Soaring
My first piloting experience was as an Air Force Academy cadet, soaring at the Academy’s airfield (6576 feet MSL). This great summer program offered...
Short Final: Rather Be Flying
Recently overheard on Washington Center frequency on an afternoon with plenty of thunderstorms in the vicinity: Center: “All you guys going into Raleigh, there will...
Short Final: Four‑Legged Varmint
I have flown Lears for many years for a company whose callsign is Coyote. One day when we had been vectored towards the airport...
Short Final: Information Whiskey
I do flights in my Cessna Cardinal for PALS, Patient Airlift Services, such as flying people with cancer to their medical appointments in another...
Short Final: Information Yankee
I’m from Massachusetts (the North) and in the mid-1960s, flying cross‑country from Daytona Beach to an airport near Tampa Florida (the South), I passed...
Short Final: 1812
Heard somewhere over Kansas: Center: “American 745, contact Kansas City on 118.12.” American 745: “Was that eighteen twelve for American 745?” Center: “American 745, yes, eighteen...
Short Final: Slower Than A Helicopter?
Last summer, I was flying around the western edge of the New York Class B talking to NY Approach. He called out business jet...
Short Final: Final Frontier
During one very long day when I was a full time instructor, I ended up with five students in a row all early in...
Short Final: Be Advised
One flight recently, I had an interesting exchange with Jacksonville Approach, south of Jacksonville at 9000 feet. Approach: “N1234, be advised traffic 11 o’clock 10...