You know you’re a pilot when…

(As originally posted on Plastic Pilot)

• you say “correction” instead of “eehhhh”, “affrim” and “negative” instead of “yes” and “no”, answer requests with “roger” or “wilco” and say “stand-by” if you need some time to find an answer and “say again” if you don’t understand the request
• you spell everything using the ICAO alphabet
• you pull back on the steering wheel in your car when the road is climbing, pull the handbrake thinking you extend flaps to slow down or brake / accelerate while trying to drive a coordinated turn, or use both feet to brake at a red light
• you call “Airspeed is alive, engine instruments normal” when accelerating with your car
• you see a UFO and think, “What a beautiful standing lenticular cloud!”

• the first thing you do in the morning is to check local METARs and TAFs, and repeat them when someone asks you how weather is in your area
• you’ve had either an accident or an incident with a lamp post or another obstruction because you were looking at a plane in the sky
• you have aviation charts assembled together covering your wall like if it was one big chart
• you know the airway system in your area better than the highway system
• your non-aviation friends don’t want to sit at the same table if there is another pilot with you and are confused because your watch is set to zulu time but call you each time there’s an aviation accident because they think you know all about it
• you call all cities by the ICAO code of their airport
• have the phone number of local airports and ATIS programmed in your phone’s memory
• you know the frequency and location of all AM transmitters and tune NDBs on your car radio receiver
• you have a license plate frame that says “My Other Vehicle Is An Airplane”
• when buying a house a nearby airport is a must
• your headset is in the top three most expensive things you own
• your camera is full of airplanes; many of which are several shots of the same aircraft, just different angles and your desktop background is a picture form airliners.net
• when you sign a document, you add your license number and expiration date
• you know what a $100 hamburger is and have had them on many occasions
• you notice that all the ships on Star Trek actually have Nav Lights on them and get upset during TV shows and movies showing airplane scenes because they just can’t do it right
• the back seat of your car is littered with weight and balance sheets, aviation charts, flight computers, and other flying stuff and you write your shopping list on old approach plates