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On ground, but near aviation

Around the aircraft, on the airfield, things are happening as well.....

building your own aircraft

One day, the pilot of a Cherokee 180 was told by the tower to hold short of the runway while a DC-8 landed. The DC-8 landed, rolled out, turned around, and taxied back past the Cherokee.

Some quick-witted comedian in the DC-8 crew got on the radio and said: "What a cute little plane. Did you make it yourself?"

Our hero the Cherokee pilot, not about to let the insult go by, came back with a real zinger: "I made it out of DC-8 parts. Another landing like that and I'll have enough parts for another one."

Gotcha!

innovation!

During the heat of the space race in the 1960s, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration decided it needed a ball point pen to write with in the zero gravity confines of its space capsules. After considerable research and development, the Astronaut Pen was developed at a cost of about US $1 million. The pen worked and also enjoyed some modest success as a novelty item back here on earth.

The Soviet Union, faced with the same problem, used a pencil.

no spare tire...

The following is excerpted from an actual complaint letter from a doctor to a major airline, regarding a flight from one of its smaller outlying stations. All emphasis is in the original, but identifying details have been deleted:

"On the return flight from Evansville, we were booked on flight 371 to leave at 5:15 p.m. At about 4:45 p.m., when the luggage was about to be loaded, the ground crew noticed the plane had a flat tire. We were told there would be about a one-hour delay. After 30 minutes or so, we were told the plane did not have a spare tire. This is inexusable!!!! Every car in America carries a spare tire. There is NO EXCUSE for a plane not to carry a spare tire!"

Company personnel responding to the complaint were diplomatic enough not to mention the lack of a rear-view mirror as well!

nose gear retraction.

Two airline mechanics were working on a 747 when lunchtime came. Rather than leave what they were doing, they just took their lunch break while sitting in the cockpit. While they were eating lunch, one mechanic bet the other that the landing gear would not retract if he pulled the gear lever up.

He lost the bet.