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In another famous SR-71 story, Los Angeles Center reported receiving a request for clearance to FL 600 (60,000ft). The incredulous controller, with some disdain in his voice, asked: "How do you plan to get up to 60,000 feet?”
The pilot (obviously a sled driver), responded: "We don’t plan to go up to it; we plan to go down to it."
He was cleared.
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Matthew Stibbe is CEO of Articulate Marketing and Turbine, the easy, online way to deal with office paperwork. He writes the Bad Language blog and the Forbes Aviator column. He has a CPL/IR and flies a Cirrus SR-22.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Brilliant quote.
Very clever – hah!
The way I heard it (from memory – this is a legend) was:
“Control this is , Request FL600″
” XXX, FL600 is all yours if you can get up there…”
“Roger, DECENDING FL600……”
It always seemed strange to me that a controler would not know the current level of traffic he was monitoring… It would be interesting to actually know this origins of this Myth, and if its Busted or not!