the weather in scotland

[ewein2412]

I wimped out of flying again today. The weather was marginal all morning (raining and misty) but around noon it started clearing up a little; Fiona who manages reception at the flying club was very encouraging on the phone and said to come do some circuits (of the airfield, i.e., landing practice; the clouds are so low at the moment that it would be rather pointless to try to go anywhere). So I headed on out to the airfield and on the way it started raining. Then it started pouring. Then it started to hail. I got to the airport, parked, considered going in to say hi (but it was still raining)... so I called Fiona from the parking lot and said, in the immortal words of Tim, sod this for a game of marbles. Fiona said, "but Ari's just taken off, and so-and-so's about to go up." OH--what a wimp I felt like! But it rained all the way home, too.

EVEN THOUGH I would have been landing in a crosswind, and it was raining, I WOULD have gone, if it hadn't been for the HAIL.

rrrrhhhnnn

Comments

[katranides.livejournal.com]

My understanding is that they do. One of my classmates comes from Hungary and is a military airtraffic controller; she married a German guy last summer. If I understand correctly, she has to learn German to get citizenship, which she needs in order to direct German fighters, but English is still the language of the skies.

Hmmm....

It sort of seems unlikely that the German air force would be speaking in English, doesn't it? Maybe I'll ask for clarification.

[ewein2412]

English *is* the official language of the skies; I just wasn't sure it was put into practice at, say, local airfields.

One of my favorite apocryphal stories on this topic (quoted from http://www.businessballs.com/airtrafficcontrollersfunnyquotes.htm ):

Allegedly, a Pan Am 727 flight waiting for start clearance in Munich overheard the following:

Lufthansa (in German): "Ground, what is our start clearance time?"
Ground (in English): "If you want an answer you must speak in English."
Lufthansa (in English): "I am a German, flying a German airplane, in Germany. Why must I speak English?"
Unknown voice from another plane (in a beautiful British accent): "Because you lost the bloody war."

[katranides.livejournal.com]

LOL! And because you let McDonald's, Burger King, and Walmart in.

[katranides.livejournal.com]

OMG, these quotations are hiLArious! Thanks, Beanie!