Short Final: ‘After You!’
In the early 1980s, when I was an admissions recruiter for East Coast Aero Technical School (now part of the National Aviation Academy network)...
Short Final: Windy
I fly in the High Desert of Southern California. We often get very strong, gusty winds. While practicing approaches, I heard this interaction between...
Short Final: The Easy Way
I was flying a Lear with a callsign of Coyote going into Midland, Texas. Me: “Fort Worth Center, Coyote 123, request EASYY for the straight‑in...
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...