On The Airbands

Geoff Westbury of Bar Beach, Newcastle was kind enough to share his experience of 8th April, 1975, when he set a FAlrecognised Australian light aircraft altitude record in a Piper PA28/180, registered VH-RNP. The altitude attained was 18,300 feet and would have gone a little higher had not the oxygen supply run out ahead of the expected time frame.

Geoff departed Maitland for Scone and Quirindi on climb to FL 200, then returning to Royal Newcastle Aero Club at Maitland. Approaching 10,000 feet, Sydney (121. 6) asked him to call Control ori 130. 1 for onwards clearance. Between Scone and Murrurundi, climbing through FL 177, the following occurred:

EAST WEST F27: “Sydney, this is Echo Whiskey Delta, flight number 136, requesting clearance via flight-planned route at FL 160”

SYDNEY FIS: “Echo Whiskey Delta, Sydney, you’re cleared,

climb to and maintain flight level 160, report at time 26” (nothing follows for one minute, then . . . )

SYDNEY FIS: “Echo Whiskey Delta, Sydney; traffic. Romeo November Papa, aircraft type PA28 oblique 180 at present on climb through flight level 177 for flight level 200, one o’clock to you, five miles”

ECHO WHISKEY DELTA: “Sydney, Echo Whiskey Delta, say again aircraft type!” (unbelieving)

SYDNEY: “Echo Whiskey Delta, Sydney, it’s . a Piper PA28/180” ECHO WHISKEY DELTA: “Sydney, confirm you did say a PA28/ 180?”

SYDNEY: (slightly detectable mirth) “Affirmative!” (thirty seconds now pass, then . . . )

ECHO WHISKEY DELTA: “Sydney, . Echo Whiskey Delta, are you saying . . . er . . . confirming that the traffic at flight level 177 is a Piper Cherokee?”

SYDNEY: (suppressed mirth) “Affirmative, separation more than adequate”

ECHO WHISKEY DELTA: “Sydney, Jesus . . . er . . . well now I’ve heard everything! The altitude record was mentioned that afternoon . in the Sydney press, and the next edition of ACPA. Our hero Geoff would have loved to have heard the replay of the CVR on the flightdeck of the F. 27!

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Getting back ‘Stateside, James Dowell Hovic of St Croix in the Virgin Islands relates an incident the day before Thanksgiving, which is the busiest flying day of the year in the USA. James was on the flightdeck of a Delta Airlines L-1011 from Chicago O’Hare bound for Dallas.

An American Airlines DC-10 was due to depart exactly one minute later on the same route as the L-1011. Freezing rain earlier in the day had jammed O’Hare (ORD) and all flights were at least 30 minutes behind schedule. Ground Control were certainly not bored and were understandably not in particularly good humour. The following conversation was heard right through Delta’s passenger headphone system:

DELTA 416 (in southern drawl): “Ground, Delta 416, holding short, Bravo 6 intersection, taxiway Echo”

AMERICAN 672 (clipped Brooklyn accent): “Ground, American 672, also holding short, Bravo 6; taxiway Echo Echo”

ORD GROUND (hurried voice): “Delta 416. and American 672, which of you is scheduled to depart earlier and who is in front of who at Bravo 6?”

BROOKLYN ACCENT: “Ground, Delta 416, American is in front of me, he can go on ahead!”

ORD GROUND (in upset tone): “Delta 416 Ground, cleared to taxi runway 32 right, hold short, tower 118. 1. Break break, American 672 Ground, cleared to ‘penalty. box’, for holding via taxiway Echo. Expect engine start time in 90 minutes, or when you grow up, whichever later! By that time, you will have explained to your 300 souls on board why they’ll spend Thanksgiving at Dallas-Fort Worth, and not with their families, over”

That was probably the last time that American Airlines pilot ever tried to do an impersonation!

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Just a parting shot, some HF frequencies. These belong to Air New Zealand and the entire list was provided by Auckland Flight Service – 3007 KHz, 6637 KHz, 10072 KHz, 13333 KHz, and 17940 KHz. Auckland Radio also has point-to-point HF, to Chatham Island and Norfolk Island.

Those frequencies are 4940 KHz, 7740 KHz, 9080 KHz, and 12087. 5 KHz. An added bonus is US Deep Freeze frequencies for McMurdo. They’re 8997 KHz, and 13251 KHz.

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VH-DIK inbound to Karratha Tower with Dick Smith on board talking to Karratha Tower.

DIK: “Karratha Tower, this is Delta India Kilo . . . request clearance”

KARRATHA TOWER: “Delta India Kilo this is Karratha Tower clearance . . . ”

DIK: “Delta India Kilo . . . by the way our call sign is Delta India Kilo”.

KARRATHA TOWER: “Why, what did I say?”

DIK: “It sounds as though everyone is calling me Delta Victor Kilo”

KARRATHA TOWER: “It’s probably the quality of your electronic gear”

DIK: “You could be right, I did buy it from Tandy!”

Karratha Tower controller believes he could be a millionaire if he had such a quick wit.

Sent anonymously from Port Hedland Tower.

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I’ll tell you more about Auckland and other HF stations in later issues. Write to me with any contributions to Bob Bell, cyberspace Publications P/L, PO Box 105, Weston Creek, ACT 2611. Good listening!