A Pilot's Story

[kkeenan 14]

A Pilot's Story

One fine hot summers afternoon there was a Cessna 150 flying in the
pattern at a quiet country airfield. The Instructor was getting quite
bothered with the student's inability to maintain altitude in the
thermals and was getting impatient at sometimes having to take over
the controls. Just then he saw a twin-engine Cessna 421 about 5,000 ft.
above him and thought, "Another 1,000 hrs of this and I qualify for
that twin charter job! Aaahh.. to be a real pilot going somewhere!"

The 421 was already late and the boss told him "this charter was for
one of the Company's premier clients." He'd already set MCT and the
cylinders didn't like it in the heat of this summer's day. He was at
6,000 ft. and the winds were now a 20kt headwind. Today was the 6th
day straight and he was pretty dang tired of fighting these engines.
Maybe if he got 10,000 ft. out of them the wind might die off... geez
those cylinder temps! He looked out momentarily and saw a B737 leaving
a contrail at 33,000 ft. in the serene blue sky. "Oh man," he thought,
"My interview is next month. I hope I just don't blow it! Outta G/A,
nice jet job, above the weather... no snotty passengers to wait for
.... "

The 737 bucked and weaved in the heavy CAT at FL330 and ATC advised
that lower levels were not available due to traffic. The Captain, who
was only recently advised that his destination was below RVR minimums,
had slowed to LRC to try and hold off a possible inflight diversion,
and arrange an ETA that would helpfully ensure the fog had lifted to
CATII minima. The Company negotiations broke down yesterday and looked
as if everyone was going to take a huge pay cut. The F/O's will be
particularly hard hit as their pay wasn't anything to speak of anyway.
Finally deciding on a speed compromise between LRC and turbulence
penetration, the Captain looked up and saw Concorde at Mach 2+.
Tapping his F/O's shoulder as the 737 took another bashing, he said
"Now THAT'S what we should be on... huge pay ... super fast... not too
many routes...not too many legs... above the CAT... yep! What a
life...!"

FL590 was not what he wanted anyway and he considered FL570. Already
the TAT was creeping up again and either they would have to descend or
slow down. That dang rear fuel transfer pump was becoming unreliable
and the F/E had said moments ago that the radiation meter was not
reading numbers that he'd like to see. Concorde descended to FL570 but
the radiation was still quite high even though the NOTAM indicated
hunky dory below FL610. Fuel flow was up and the transfer pump was
intermittent. Evening turned into night as they passed over the
Atlantic. Looking up, the F/O could see a tiny white dot moving
against the backdrop of a myriad of stars. "Hey Captain" he called as
he pointed. "Must be the Shuttle. "The Captain looked for a moment and
agreed. Quietly he thought how a Shuttle mission, while complicated,
must be the-be-all-and-end-all in aviation. Above the crap, no
radiation problems, no dang fuel transfer problems...aaah. Must be a
great way to earn a buck."

Discovery was into its 27th orbit and perigee was 200ft out from
nominated rendezvous altitude with the commsat. The robot arm was
virtually U/S and a walk may become necessary. The 200ft predicted
error would necessitate a corrective burn and Discovery needed that
fuel if a walk was to be required. Houston continually asked what the
Commander wanted to do but the advice they proffered wasn't much help.
The Commander had already been 12 hours on station sorting out the
problem and just wanted 10 minutes to himself to take a leak. Just
then a mission specialist, who had tilted the telescope down to the
surface for a minute or two, called the Commander to the scope. "Have
a look at this Sir, isn't this the kinda flying you said you wanted to
do after you finish up with NASA?" The Commander peered through the
telescope and cried Ooooohhhhh yeah! Now THAT'S flying! Man, that's
what its all about! Geez I'd give my left nut just to be doing THAT
down there!"

What the Discovery Commander was looking at was a Cessna 150 in the
pattern at a quiet country airfield on a nice bright sunny afternoon.

_____________________________________
Dude, you are so awesome...
Can I be on your ash jump ?

[JohnMitchell 16]

[Tiger6513 0]

Grass is always greener on the other side.

Travis Roy Foundation. At very least its a tax write off

[wayneflorida 0]

[Beerlight 0]

I just bumped in a Shuttle pilot a few minutes ago. I'll ask him!

[fluidynamic 0]

The shuttle pilot's name was Felix Baumgartner, he then put on a space suit and a rig and stepped outside of the shuttle. With no further thought he jumped into the atmosphere, exceeding mach one he blazed down from over 120K ft. 6 minutes later the 150 pilot spotted him under canopy making his approach at the airport, and the 150 pilot thought woah woah woah... NOW that's flying

Don't worry... I'll stay out of the incident reports

[JohnMitchell 16]

That's right. In their hearts, they all wanna be skydivers.

[diablopilot 2]

Right now I'd be overjoyed to be that flight instructor. Or better yet, solo in a plane spraying crops....

----------------------------------------------
You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[Belgian_Draft 0]

Quote

That's right. In their hearts, they all wanna be skydivers.

But only by choice, not through necessity.

HAMMER:
Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a
kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the
object we are trying to hit.