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November 25, 2003
Ground speed?
A kind reader emailed me an aircraft joke (in response to the post on the Wright brothers). It was sitting in my inbox until I got a chance to deal with it and then I noticed this link to this page which appears to be a possible source of the joke. Check out that link because there are more jokes there.
In his book," Sled Driver," SR- 71/ Blackbird pilot Brian Shul writes:"I'll always remember a certain radio exchange that occurred one day as Walt (his backseater) and I were screaming across Southern California 13 miles high. We were monitoring various radio transmissions from other aircraft as we entered Los Angeles airspace."
"Though they didn't really control us, they did monitor our movement across their scope. I heard a Cessna ask for a readout of its groundspeed. "90 knots" Center replied.
Moments later, a Twin Beech required the same. "120 knots," Center answered.
"We weren't the only ones proud of our groundspeed that day.. as almost instantly an F-18 smugly transmitted, "Ah, Center, Dusty 52 requests groundspeed readout." "There was a slight pause, then the response, 525 knots on the ground, Dusty".
"Another silent pause. As I was thinking to myself how ripe a situation this was, I heard a familiar click of a radio transmission coming from my backseater. It was at that precise moment I realized Walt and I had become a real crew, for we were both thinking in unison. "Center, Aspen 20, you got a groundspeed readout for us? " There was a longer than normal pause....
"Aspen, I show 1,742 knots"
"No further inquiries were heard on that frequency"
Hope you enjoyed that story ....
Posted by Peskie at November 25, 2003 12:00 PM
