Back In the day

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The art is in knowing how to cleanly tear the flight attendant section off using the can.

LOL. AA still uses those (at least in Cargo).
 
Does anybody still use FSS airborne for weather updates? I tried it a few months ago because I was really pretty bored and there was some pretty intense pop-ups that I wanted to know about in all of my possible terminal areas. I wanted to talk terminal weather and some radar summaries. I ended up with standard briefings for everything between Abilene and Cincinnati. He talked. And talked. He never unkeyed so I could ask a more targeted question. I switched off the frequency once to talk to my wingman, and when I switched back he was still talking. I'm positive he was a fine American, just maybe not my speed.
 
Does anybody still use FSS airborne for weather updates? I tried it a few months ago because I was really pretty bored and there was some pretty intense pop-ups that I wanted to know about in all of my possible terminal areas. I wanted to talk terminal weather and some radar summaries. I ended up with standard briefings for everything between Abilene and Cincinnati. He talked. And talked. He never unkeyed so I could ask a more targeted question. I switched off the frequency once to talk to my wingman, and when I switched back he was still talking. I'm positive he was a fine American, just maybe not my speed.
All the time. Juneau, and Kenai FSS are both top notch. They'll look at weather cams, give you surface analysis, most everything and they know the area well. Most of em fly to.
 
Back when men were men, you didn’t have to look at that stuff before flight, because it didn’t matter, you were launching anyway.

#getoffmylawn
#snowflakes
I vaguely pine for those good ol' days. Less heartburn. You didn't get worried until you needed to, and by then you didn't need to because you were already committed. ;)
That, and some of those FSS dudes were real characters.
 
Does anybody still use FSS airborne for weather updates? I tried it a few months ago because I was really pretty bored and there was some pretty intense pop-ups that I wanted to know about in all of my possible terminal areas. I wanted to talk terminal weather and some radar summaries. I ended up with standard briefings for everything between Abilene and Cincinnati. He talked. And talked. He never unkeyed so I could ask a more targeted question. I switched off the frequency once to talk to my wingman, and when I switched back he was still talking. I'm positive he was a fine American, just maybe not my speed.

Even though the legal requirements are met with our flight plan packet (NOTAMS, TAF, etc) they still come in handy. I give PIREPs and report things like report fires when needed. Also come in handy when doing a VFR border crossing and need to file or change your flight plan.
 
I miss dimly lit radar rooms , round monochromatic radar displays ,TPX 42 , ARTS II, ARTS III, NAS Stage A, BRIGHT 2 , paper strips, the chatter of the old IBM FDEP strip printers, teleautowriters, putting out the ATIS, sun set and sun rise in the tower, The voices of the many pilots over the years , radar vector SIDs and a time when everyone didnt have a stick stuck up their asses !!!!!!
 
Though I was a wash out from an ATC career I will never forget the six months or so doing the arrival ATIS at LAX and ripping strips off the FDEP machine as a GS-7 ATA at LA TRACON. All the controllers I worked with said get back into flying, boy, this job sucks. I owe them a great deal....
 
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I miss dimly lit radar rooms , round monochromatic radar displays ,TPX 42 , ARTS II, ARTS III, NAS Stage A, BRIGHT 2 , paper strips, the chatter of the old IBM FDEP strip printers, teleautowriters, putting out the ATIS, sun set and sun rise in the tower, The voices of the many pilots over the years , radar vector SIDs and a time when everyone didnt have a stick stuck up their asses !!!!!!
I was a RADAR tech in Yuma, most fun I ever had was sitting in the bat cave watching those crazy MFers controlling planes on that stuff. More fun when I had to crawl between there legs to try an fix something. More funny when I reached over and turned up a knob to fix something.
 
I miss dimly lit radar rooms , round monochromatic radar displays ,TPX 42 , ARTS II, ARTS III, NAS Stage A, BRIGHT 2 , paper strips, the chatter of the old IBM FDEP strip printers, teleautowriters, putting out the ATIS, sun set and sun rise in the tower, The voices of the many pilots over the years , radar vector SIDs and a time when everyone didnt have a stick stuck up their asses !!!!!!

I miss 5 day, 40 hour work weeks.
 
Vfr flight not recommended
Vfr flight not recommended
Vfr flight not recommended
Vfr flight not recommended
Vfr flight not recommended
Vfr flight not recommended
Vfr flight not recommended
Vfr flight not recommended
 
Okay. I was 14 and we had an on field FSS in Wenatchee, WA (KEAT). I was a total aviation kid and my grandfather takes me up to the FSS on a Sunday and we walk in and ask the specialist if he has any books or information on flying. He gives me the 1975 copy of the AIM, which I'm sure isn't much changed from the 2017 version. I'm not sure how I overcame that but the force must have been strong with this one. Bless the FSS guy for trying to help but the AIM is about the worst buzz kill possible for a 14 year old aviation enthusiast. Guess it all worked out in the end.....
Haha, I must be the complete opposite. I loved reading the FAR/AIM when I was bored.
 
Ok, story time kids....

Back in *the day*..I was a young, newly minted B757 f/o (Circa1989). In a world of old analog dinosaur airplanes the 757 was the new Starship Enterprise. It was affectionately called the Atari Farrari and it lived up to the hype. VOR’s, NDB’s, enroute nav with paper maps...Meh!

While the DC-8’s navigated by Loran’s, Omega’s or whatever else Christopher Columbus had while sailing the ocean blue, the 757 had IRS’s (eventually also GPS’s), moving maps, magenta lines and LNAV/VNAV.

You could always tell someone was on the 75 versus the DC8, classic whale or 727. UPS only had about 10 757’s when I first got on it so we were a small group of pilots at the time. We were the nerds. Usually huddled together in the corner of the ops room with polished tasseled shoes, nicely coiffed haircuts, creased shirts adorned with a pocket protector and at least one gold Cross pen.

The larger DC8 group of pilots were, ah....shall we say, a little less *civilized* in comparison. They had a more disheveled appearance with oil stained shirts that were probably white at some time in their life and a cross between hiking boots and motorcycle foot gear. They grunted when they ate and could usually form a complete sentence just using the *F* word. They were basically, ahhhh... “animals”!
I say this in jest as there was always a friendly rivalry between the two groups. But suffice to say, they were *old school* and we were the new *new school* in aviation technology.

Fast forward to me coming out of KONT one night heading back to Hooterville (Louisville). My Capt was a great guy (ex original Braniff) who had basically treated me like a son the whole time I knew him. He taught me how to fly a jet (the Braniff way) and I couldn’t have asked for a better mentor. He started out as a 23 yr old FE on Braniff’s 707’s and was one of their youngest 727 Capt’s when they folded.

This night, an old FAA inspector shows up to *observe* us (yep, we all know the feeling, right? ugh!). This guy must’ve been straight out of the DC7/Connie era. Takeoff and climb-out were normal. About the time we level at cruise ATC gives us “cleared direct ENL (Centralia)” which is a point just west of Louisville. Like a good f/o I punch ENL into the magic black box, the Capt selects LNAV and off we go...(cue the Wizard of Oz music..“follow the magenta brick road!”).

Several minutes go by and all of a sudden I get a *tap* on my left shoulder from Mr. Fed who was clearly 15-20+ years past retirement. The conversation went like this:

Him: “Where y’all going?”
Me: “Direct Centralia”
Long awkward pause...
Him: “Yea, I heard the clearance but how are you receiving it this far out?”
Me: Well, umm....I punch ENL into the FMC and hit direct.
Him: But if you can’t *receive* a good signal this far out and you didn’t ask for an initial heading, how are you navigating to it.

Are you seeing what we’re dealing with here? The Capt is keeping mum watching this *kid* fumble and squirm with the old fed.

Me: “Ummm....well, the FMC has a nav database and I typed in the identifier *ENL* here in the scratchpad and then line selected it into the *direct to* prompt, push button, light comes on, magenta line, monkey, banana...blah, blah”

The Capt, having had enough of this and probably felt a little sorry for me while watching me sweat, turns around in his seat, looks the fed in the eyes, points at him and says, “Look, we are flying this aircraft the way *YOU* (the FAA) certified it. Any issues with that take it up with the company and the chief pilot. The fed sat back and stared out the window for the next couple of hours.

Nearing our descent point ATC gives us a crossing constraint at ENL. I type the altitude in the FMC and dial the crossing altitude into the MCP. We continue cruising at FL370 for about 10-20 miles. Yep, a few minutes later...tap, tap on my shoulder from the fed.

Him: “What altitude are you suppose to be at?”
Me: “FL370 to cross ENL at 15000’ (or whatever it was).
Him: “Well, when are you gonna start down?”
Me: pointing at the T/D....”When the airplane gets here”
Him: “ Ummmm, ahhhh.....well, ahhhh....ok”

The T/D point is reached, the aircraft pitches over and the autothrottles come back and the airplane nails the crossing constraint. Just to top it off the Capt does a full coupled approach to an autoland.

I’m pretty sure that Fed went into the office the next day and filed his retirement papers!

Ah, yes....the good ole’ days!
 
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