Joke
 

Why a BA 747 is in FRA I have no idea.

Enjoy,

Chris Moss


Joke for Thursday, February 8th

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLL

-Submitted by Mr. Biggles
____________________________________________
The German air controllers at Frankfurt Airport are a short-tempered lot.
They not only expect one to know one's gate parking location but how to get
there without any assistance from them. So it was with some amusement that
we (a PanAm 747) listened to the following exchange between Frankfurt ground
control and a British Airways 747 (call sign "Speedbird 206") after landing:

Speedbird 206: "Top of the morning Frankfurt, Speedbird 206 clear of the
active runway."

Ground: "Guten morgen! You will taxi to your gate!"

The big British Airways 747 pulled onto the main taxi way and slowed to a
stop.

Ground: "Speedbird, do you not know where you are going?"

Speedbird 206: "Stand by a moment ground, I'm looking up our gate location
now."

Ground: "Speedbird 206, have you never flown to Frankfurt before?!?"

Speedbird 206 (cooly): "Yes, I have, in 1944. In another type of Boeing, but
I didn't stop."

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http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif !

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

But, wouldn't this make the purported pilot somewhere around 80 years old?

Well, the joke is at least 10 years old (Pan Am 747), maybe more.

When I first read this, I was afraid that it might not play too well to an international audience . . . I am glad that no one has posted as offended . . . and I am sure that Chris meant no harm in his humor http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

having met prof. chris, i know he strictly sees this as a joke.... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Heard the same joke a while back about the first BA 707 flight to FRA. At least in that version the pilot could have been pre-retirement age at the time.

However, did the RAF fly Boeing bombers? I thought they flew mostly their own Lancasters and such. Does anyone know? (I know, it's a joke, jokes don't have to be accurate, just wondering.)

Of course, BA could have hired an American pilot.

EFrem,

Actually, I think that this and a huge number of other stories fall into the "urban legend" range. They circulate for decades, often with just slight variations to keep them up to date. Psych speaking, this is supposed to stem from our ingrained desire to tell stories to warn of danger and amuse; from millenium of sitting around the campfire. The story about the "little boy" or "old man who no one would listen to" and letting the airs out of the semi-trailer tires (which was stuck under a bridge!) has been kicking around since the 1950s and if I hear it one more time from another "eye witness" I think that I will scream.

As for the bomber issue; re: did the British fly B-17s? The 8th AF (technically Army Air Corps until 1947) flew our beloved B-17s by day, while the Brits struck at German cities by night in their Halifaxes, Sterlings, Lancasters, and Blenheims (early on), etc. Prior to 1942, there were a few test 17s, which the British did fly. Actually, the Luftwaffe even had three captured B-17s too!!! The early tests helped to point out the need for twin 50's in the nose (which showed up in the G and H models) to avoid the frontal, barrel-roll tactics employed by the Luftwaffe.

However, past the initial stage of the air war, the British did not fly our Boeings. Definitely not by 1944 as indicated in the "story". So, the story is critically flawed, anyway. On a sidenote, I have heard this one from ~ 1980 on, and yes it used to be a Boeing 707 and at least they referenced an American pilot who used to fly for the 8th AF. Ah well, the urban legends roll on; albeit in a faster form now.

P.S. "Butcher Bird" was the 8th AF slang term for the Focke-Wolf 190A, arguably the best piston-engine fighter (esp. below 25,000 feet) which the Luftwaffe had. I.e., it was called that for the way that it hacked through the bomber stream.

Scream on http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

I didn't even know this was an urban legend, but it did happen to me. We were on a school outing in a bus. Late at night the drive decided to take a different route back, and had to pass a railroad under crossing. Needless to say, the bus got stuck and he tried every piece of metal bar he had to pry it loose. The class clown quietly said from the middle of the bus: "Why not let a little air out of the front tires and back away?" The driver did, and we got out of that bind a couple of hours late.

Scream as much as you want, but this on IS true.

/Pete

Some science fiction writers I know always answer the question: "where do you get your ideas from?" (they get asked that A LOT) by saying: "from a Post Office Box in Schenectady."

Besides testing whether the interviewer can spell Schenecti--, Schanekta-- Skanechta-- that city, they make a good point. Many ideas are within us, and just have to be teased out.

Butcher: How many times a year does a large vehicle get barely caught under a bridge or overpass? How many of those situations are resolved with a decrease of the vehicle's height of a half inch or so?

I'm sure it has happened repeatedly. Is it only an urban legend because someone repeats it who wasn't there?

I offer this, with no pretense that it is true:

An air traffic controller in Chicago was really busy, and because of static didn't hear the ID of the flight asking for a time check. So he decided to answer all the flights he was following at the time:

PanAm 100, it's 22:00 hours.

American Flight 288, it's 10 PM.

Allegheny 345, the big hand is on the twelve; the little hand is on the ten.

North Central 281, it's, ah, Tuesday.

It doesn't make it any funnier to swear I was there.