I-Joke

Thanks to nephew Giulio Valdonio whose diligent scouring of the Italian register has produced a few more oddities:

For the weight watchers: I-KILO (Learjet 55), I-BUTY (Piper PA31), I-CLOD (Partenavia P.64B), I-LOOK (Learjet 55), and I-SLIM (Piper Colt).

For those with a flair for the dramatic: I-BURY (Piper PA23), I-CHOC (Falcon 10), I-DIVE (Dornier 27), I-DROP (Piper AP28), I-FEAR (SIAI Marchetti S.205), I-HIGH (Cessna 337), I-MISS (Cessna 172), I-SINK (SIAI Marchetti SF.260) I-SKIM (Cessna 182), I-SPIN (Piper PA28) I-TRIP (Falco F.8L) and I-ZOOM (Learjet 35A).

For the carefree types: I-DRAW (Zlin 50), I-GOLF (Piper PA18), I-GROW (MB.339), I-JOKE (Zlin 526) and I-LOVE (Douglas DC-3).

For the animal lovers: I-CRAB (Cessna 150) and I-TOAD (Cessna Stationair).

And thanks to nephew Tony Mackinnon for recalling the story about four bus loads of "reggie spotters" on an LAAS International extravaganza to Switzerland who turned up to a gliding competition at Aosta in 1976 and saw "a glider, a Uribel EC39/D, which implied 'I am sexually active', but using fewer letters. The glider in question was tucked away in a hangar in the active area, so the airport officials were extremely bemused as they escorted small parties of spotters in turn to the hangar, where all of us pointed, giggled, took photos and went on our way rejoicing."

And for those of you macho enough to handle it, there is a Cessna 421 out there somewhere once registered Golf- Oscar November Alpha Delta.

Sssshhhh..everyone will want one!

Megaplanes: "We made a mistake when we briefed you on that new Fabjet NextGen derivative."

Budgie News: "What sort of mistake?"

Mega: "Well, it's not actually being offered for sale, so please don't mention it any more."

Budgie: "Has our story caused you any problems?"

Mega: "Yes, we've had customers calling wanting to buy it!"

Budgie: "Well....er....why don't you......oh, never mind."

Vanity unfair

A recent press release dropped into the Budgie News newsroom discussed several health concerns found on today's aircraft, including "deep vain thrombosis (sic)". Apparently, says Budgie News former Bombardier employee Nigel Nicejet, this is a well-known problem in the corporate aviation community.

Yuckspeak (series of 1,000,000)

Payload accommodation manager customer affairs = check-in staff.

Source: Flight International