Now that was pretty cool!

[Ticker]

Man!!! They keep getting better!

 

[NuGuy]

Sitting in my MSP one day, as I watched the the airport cops come and arrest a obnoxious dude, hog tie him, and drag him down the jetway steps, where they tossed him into the back of the waiting squad car.

I was like "damn, that looked REAL uncomfortable".

Nu

 

[Long Time Gone]

Being on the ground in Aberdeen, Scotland on Summer Solstice and walking out of a pub at about 230am with it still dusk out, then waking up at 400am to expel said pub issues and having the same amount of light as if it were still 230am. Too bad I didn't stay up all night. I could've seen if it ever got dark.

 

[JustaNumber]

Circling the Statue of Liberty at 500', then flying up the Hudson and being buffeted by wake turbulence from the twin towers.

Seeing a meteor that looked like a HUGE flaming ball of fire.

Being above a white stratus undercast at sunrise; clear dark blue above, flaming red from below peeking through holes in the layer--it looked like we were flying over a lava field. I took some awesome photos, but even they didn't do the scene justice. I'll never forget it.

Kicking the autopilot off and handflying "turns around a cumulonimbus" to keep VMC. Still love that.

Listening to the car radio one day for only a couple of minutes; the talkshow host gave a brief description of a comet that should have been visible that night, but unfortunately for us it probably wouldn't be visible in ATL due to our southern latitude and rain that day. Later that day I was drafted for a trip to Canada. On the way back at sunset, I was confused by what looked like a large aircraft's contrail, but it hadn't moved in it's relative position for hundreds of miles. Finally my small brain put two and two together, and we both enjoyed the view of the comet for a couple of hours.

I could go on and on... best damn job in the world!

 

[~~~^~~~]

• First leg of the day at dawn.
• Parallel visual approach with Air Force One.
• Watching the Concorde depart Kennedy.
• First leg on any new aircraft type, particularly the 757 and 767 with the Pratt 4060's.
• Getting served breakfast while you watch the sun come up.
• That "paint it on landing" that only seems to happen about once every other month.
• Being the Captain.
• First visit to Oshkosh during EAA's annual show.
• When your #1 airline choice hands you a letter that begins, "Congratulations, welcome aboard..."

 

[Turtlesfly]

(don't ask how I got this opportunity)

Flying on a 777 delivery flight from the Boeing factory to Texas with only 5 souls on board. Flight was fully catered for a small army - spent the whole time taking pictures of us hand-flying in cruise and then going back in the first class galley and cooking yourself dinner and then picking your first class seat to eat. The new-777-aircraft smell was better than the smell of the dinner.

 

[Charlie Brown]

I saw the best hoots once when I got flashed in the cockpit...truly amazing!

 

[Colonel Savage]

Not visually related but something I heard on the radio...

I was returning to EWR from YYT a few years back. We were in the flow of aircraft returning to the States from Europe. There was a "Reach" Air Force transport on frequency with us all morning. When Moncton handed us off to Boston Center, the Reach pilot asked the controller if his name was "Steve" (or something similar). He replied yes and the pilots asked him to standby. The next voice on the radio was a young female who replied, "Hi Dad!" They talked for a few minutes and apparently she was returning home from a tour in Iraq. Before he was relieved (he was obviously pretty choked up), everyone on frequency thanked that girl and her family for their sacrifice.

Thinking about that story still gives me goose bumps...did I mention it was Christmas?

That's really cool. Made his year, I'll bet.

 

[Colonel Savage]

Being on the ground in Aberdeen, Scotland on Summer Solstice and walking out of a pub at about 230am with it still dusk out, then waking up at 400am to expel said pub issues and having the same amount of light as if it were still 230am. Too bad I didn't stay up all night. I could've seen if it ever got dark.

Take my word for it, it didn't!

 

[chuckthepilot]

I used to fly jumpers and worked with some really great people. The last load of the day would put me over 1000 flight hours, so the boss grabbed another pilot and off we went. I got to fly up, turn the plane over, then tandem out. All set to a beautiful San Diego sunset.

 

[clickclickboom]

1. Shot an NBD approach to some smaller airport in Oregon or Washington Right on the Coast ( Have to look in my log book )

2. Circling Approach was right to mins touched down, buckets out here comes a moose I stop the plane he walks right out in front of us takes a look and walks away.


3. Trying to catch the shuttle launch we did a frantic quick turn in SJU was headed back to MCO and was able to see the whole show from about 250 miles out while over the turks....


4. Scuba diving in the bahamas 2 years ago on a nice wall dive ascended from 140 ft up to 70 ft on the reef there was a real nice swim through where i had seen a few nice large moray eels ( tunnel through the reef ) went through it came out the other side and the sunlight faded out for a moment. I rotated my head and a 10-12 foot hammerhead was less than 5 feet above me. I went on my back looked at him and he looked at me. I stopped breathing so here I was completely motionless at arms length with a truly misunderstood and magnificent creature. The divemaster said in 20 years of diving he has never seen a hammerhead willing to let a diver get that close.

5. Coming up from Brazil 4 A4's pulled up on our wing another about 300 feet above rolled inverted and took some pictures they saluted and broke off..

6. Flying a Grob Motorglider over the swiss alps near the matterhorn at 18,000 feet.. 2 pc-7's came by circled back around and pulled alongside with gear and flaps down right near a stall and still passed us like we were standing still.

7. Saw a pod of killer whales with the babies near seattle.

8. Saw a volcano erupting in South America while enroute had to go check it out saw lava running down the mountain side into a small village.. Climbed back up and continued on our way.

9. All you can eat King Crab in Ketchikan and took a dehavilland Beaver to the lodge for $20 from the dock right outside the FBO ate so much we nearly exploded best meal of my life crab legs were like baseball bats..


10. Handed Dan Quayle his catering during our pre departure briefing his meal was " Southwest Omelette with Potatoes " Yes it was spelled wrong, yes we made eye contact as we both read the label, yer sir we will be airborne in 5 mins.. Still laugh about that 7 years later..

11. Landed one night at a small airport in PA while closing the hangar door here comes 4 cop cars mp5's shotguns and hk's pointing at me my ass on the ground in handcuffs.. Seems as though they were tracking a possible drug plane in the NY area I was flying back from Orange County and climbing out right about the same time this plane dissappeared from radar around poughkeepsie..


12. Landed in Laredo DEA doing drug dog training they ask to use our plane as a training site for the pooch.. They put a little weed under the sofa and let the dog in.. Fido proceeds to destroy the cushion and go completely bezerk inside the jet... My chief pilot thought I was full of it when i called him.

 

[PBRstreetgang]

Late evening flight DEN-MEM, F/A(female) 23ish. Very hot young lady, she was so appreciative that we would allow her to hang in the cockpit, she decided we needed to see her "girls". Made my day, nay month.
PBR

 

[PBRstreetgang]

Late evening flight DEN-MEM, F/A(female) 23ish. Very hot young lady, she was so appreciative that we would allow her to hang in the cockpit, she decided we needed to see her "girls". Made my day, nay month.
PBR

 

[Way2Broke]

- Meeting my fiance' for the first time while she when she hopped out of a Seneca with a load of bank checks, clothes and plane covered in oil, looking like she hadn't slept in a month, and yet smiling. Asked her out after letting her know that I was staying in a tent at the state park, because I was flying bank checks for a different company. She said yes, and I knew I had finally met a woman that would put up with my crap.

She met my dad for the first time when he happened to be in that town with his work and he dropped of a heater for me to take back with me to put in my tent because it has snowed the night before.

- Later moving to the Virgin Islands with the same woman without either of us ever having been there, because someone needed planes flown there.

- Finally making a paycheck that allowed me to pay my bills and eat at the same time. Oh wait, that hasn't happened yet.

- Meeting all the incredible unique people that sacrifice so much to get the job done and put a little grub on the table.

- Shooting 20 approaches, with 24 landings in one day flying between HYA and ACK.

- Eating at Taco Palenque for the first time.

- Getting typed in a plane almost twice my age.

- Meeting Evelyn Johnson

 

[Superpilot92]

Flying over west Texas in the evening and got to see a NASA space balloon that was at 120,000 ft up. We were at 37,000 ft. The only reason we could see it was because of the sun setting in the west and the light reflecting off of the balloon. I asked ATC about it because i had no idea what it was other than it was Very High up.

I also had a B2 join up underneath us between MCI and EWR. It was a 1000-2000 ft below and in front of us. That was neat.

 

[TOGA]

Man, what a great thread! It's so easy to get distracted by all the BS & forget why we've endured in this pursuit. Thanks for the opportunity for introspection. Here's mine, in no particular order:

• That 'holy sh!t, I'm alone' moment on the first solo over Traverse City, MI.

• Flying a Starship into Kayenta, AZ.

• Lying on my back in my yard with my 2 ½ yr old daughter & my pregnant wife (under what's normally busy airspace) on 9/12/01 and seeing NO aircraft overhead.

• Flying an unusually long, off-shore arrival into LGA on the night of 9/14/01, through the smoke plume and over the off-shore 'city' of ships anchored outside NY harbor.

• Seeing some of the world with my then-girlfriend & co-worker/now-wife as Flight Attendants for World Airways.

• Sunrise to the north at oh-dark-thirty over the North Atlantic at FL410.

• Confirming Ernest Gann's assertion that 'a properly motivated cow can move pretty fast' while enroute to/from the Grand Canyon in a 402 “full” of stupefied tourists.

• Sunset in my windscreen while seemingly suspended over a blackened Grand Canyon . . . nothing more than an occasional campfire light from below.

• The smell of spent Jet-A or 100LL (yes, it is particularly poignant in the morning, thanks for asking!).

• Watching the sun rise over Lake Mead, painting Mt Charleston and the western sky in countless colors while droning over Las Vegas in a 172.

• Looking down, from miles above, on the 'small world' below . . . wondering why people get so wound up about stuff that just doesn't matter.

• Having set foot in all 50 of the United States and a dozen or so other countries, and counting.

• Enjoying the camaraderie of thousands of fellow flight crew members from countless backgrounds, lifestyles, military assignments, experience levels, proclivities, shortcomings, strengths, locales, personality types, and beverage preferences. For example, I'm in class right now with a recent U2 test pilot, and we were recently instructed by a former Ford Tri-Motor driver . . . one of my last Flight Attendants at my previous job was reading Quantum Physics & working on her Doctorate.

• Transporting a captured ferrel cat from Las Vegas to Kanab, UT by 172 . . . and the adventure that ensued.

• Piloting for EAA's Young Eagles program.

• Learning a jet airliner for the first time.

• Landing a jet airliner for the first time.

• My solo VFR cross country from Traverse City, MI for Christmas in Houston, TX in a Cherokee 140 . . . and the family airplane rides once there.

• Every time I climb out of an overcast layer with the deep blue (or black) sky above . . . especially at sunset or sunrise, especially in a turn.

• Climbing eastbound out of Portland, OR with the sun rising behind Mt. Hood . . . the Columbia River looking like an endless silver snake trailing toward the horizon.

• The feeling of gratification and accomplishment upon safely completing a flight in particularly wicked weather (props to E.B. Jeppesen on this one).

• Meeting E.B. Jeppesen (props to Way2Broke for the prompt on this one).

• Excitedly looking forward to the many adventures to come . . .

 

[Superpilot92]

Oh and the other day from MEM-DFW we switched over to Ft.Worth Center. Right behind us was a World Airways Flight full of troops. ATC asked the World Flight

ATC-"Do you have troops on board?"
World Pilot-"Yes Sir"
ATC-"Cleared direct the airport, Bring our boys home."

I thought that was neat.

 

[727C47]

between Guam,and Manila at 3am, 6000 feet ,rumbling above a coal black pacific in a DC-3,and seeing the Southern Cross for the first time,climbing out of BOS in a lightly loaded 727 on a frigid winters night and pegging the VSI at 6000 fpm on climbout,then level at 340 seeing all of Long Island out the left side,from Montauk to Bay Ridge, in one fell swoop,with the stars and moon around us,seemingly close enough to touch,the kiss of grass on the tires of a Champ after a sunrise ascension, the list goes on,and on,Oh yes,curving out of Aspen in the XL,marveling at the summer ,green Rockies, their beauty,and their proximity. God bless this.

 

[Clacker]

Flying from KIX to HNL one night and our flight path took us right over Midway Island. Turned down the cockpit lights just before we reached Midway and we gave them a call on the radio. They were alarmed at first, thinking that we must be in trouble, but once they understood that it was a social call, they cranked up the runway lights and we gazed down at a tiny airfield thousands of miles from anywhere.

It made me think about how those Air Corps/Navy crews managed to navigate to this little island back in 1942. If you look at a globe, it shows the island, but the scale is wrong. You could blow the globe up to the size of your backyard, and Midway would still be a pinprick.

 

[pilotpm]

Thanks for the memories

Hale-Bop comet so close I could touch it.

Flying across the north Pacific with the aurora borealis on both sides of the A/C dancing like crazy and so bright you could read by it.

Sliding headfirst (right under the sign that said no headfirst sliding) down the water slide at the Tree Bar at the Guam Hilton at 2am.

Sitting on the patio of the Millennium hotel in ANC at midnight getting a sunburn watching the floatplanes T.O. and land on the lake.

A Guiness at my favorite pub in Limerick Ireland.

Having to go to the Embassy in Bangkok to get more pages added to my passport.

Jumpseating on a Helicopter tour in Maui.

A 96 second leg between Friday Harbor and East Sound in a BE-99.

Almost crying when watching a bunch of scared kids getting off my A/C in Kuwait caring thier rifles and some with thier teddy bears or pillows from home.

Almost crying when I got to take them home again.



Thanks for starting this thread. I was starting to get a bit bummed looking for work after my latest airline died. this thread has reminded me why I still want to do this job!