| Way (to go) point |
| Your uncle thought he was about to tap a hitherto unexploited and rich vein of humour when he gleefully heard of a routeing in Australia – ZZ929 from Townsville to Mt Gordon – to be exact, which used the following waypoints: TL ITORT EYSAW APUSS ECATT DCT However, it now seems there are other fans of the Sylvester and Tweety Bird cartoon out there in route-planning land. Scott McCartney of the Wall Street Journal has been staking a few claims in this territory already and among the nuggets he unearthed are the approach to Portsmouth, New Hampshire that takes a pilot from ITAWT to ITAWA to PUDYE to TTATT. “If a pilot can’t land,he is told to hold by way of IDEED,” says McCartney. Other gems include: “Airplanes approaching Newark International Airport in New Jersey toward the northeast will cross either HOWYA or DOOIN. Louisiana has RYTHM,Kentucky has BRBON and Massachusetts has BOSOX. Kansas City,Missouri, has SPICY, BARBQ and RIBBS. To pilots, Montpelier, Vermont, is known for its HAMMM, BURGR and FRYYS. Andrews AFB near Washington has a Republican bent these days, with an approach from the south that goes from FORRD to RREGN, and one from the north that moves from DUBYA to BUUSH.” On one of the arrival routeings to Cincinnati, pilots are likely to be instructed to “cross DRESR at 18,000ft”. The US Federal Aviation Administration also allowed BUXOM, which is in Oregon, and JUGGS, which is in Idaho. In Phoenix, Arizona, one arrival route to the airport moves from SLAMN to DUNKK to BBALL to SUNSS to HOOPS. American football-crazed Houston, Texas, has an arrival with the following fi xes: GOALL, PPUNT,DRPPD, FTBAL, COACH, QTRBK, TAKKL, RECVR, FMBLE and, seven miles west of Hobby Airport, TCHDN.” |
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| VTOL Herc? |
| From recent US Department of Defense contract notice: “This acquisition is to obtain a two-year (basic year and one 12-month option)firm fixed-price contract for repair of Infrared Window applicable to the MC-130H/P Helicopter.” Spotted by nephew Mark Reynolds. |
| Back to the future |
| Overheard in Budgie News offi ce: Jodrell Blank (Budgie News’s very own space watcher): “I just called NASA about this amazingly weird contract they’re talking about: ‘NASA/KSC plans to issue a price performance trade-off request for proposal for the following commercial item/services: repair Mecury/Redstone rocket located on SR 405 at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida’.” Rex Stocks: “And what did they say?” Blank: “‘When we said ‘return to the Moon’ we actually meant ‘return to the beginning’’.” |
 Read Flight from 1956 or read Uncle Roger's web log. |
Source: Flight International
