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rlkitterman — Descending to FL600
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Published: 2015-05-01 15:27:13 +0000 UTC; Views: 5032; Favourites: 27; Downloads: 18
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Description
I recently read a funny (and possibly apocryphal) story about the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, and found one of my pictures of the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center to accompany it. An air-traffic controller (American, British, Japanese, etc.) is monitoring traffic and gets a call from an aircraft. The conversation goes something like this:Aircraft: Control*, Aspen 21** requesting FL600.*
Control: Roger, if you can climb that high, you can have FL600.
Aircraft: Roger, descending to FL600.
Control: !?
Since the Blackbird could exceed 85,000 feet, descending to FL600 could have required as much of a descent as what many commercial aircraft perform to land. As with many other aviation anecdotes such as the maintenance-request lists, it may be a combination of several pilots' and controllers' experiences. If anyone in the aviation community knows any variants on this classic, feel free to post them here.
* Insert London, Shannon, Okinawa, Tokyo, Los Angeles, or other ATC center.
** The Blackbird always uses a generic-sounding call sign in this story.
***FL600 = 60,000 feet, as flight levels are announced as multiples of 100.
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Comments: 9
I always love reading this excerpt as I find it to be completely hilarious.
In his book, Sled Driver, SR-71 Blackbird pilot Brian Shul writes: "I'll always remember a certain radio exchange that occurred one day as Walt (my backseater) and I were screaming across Southern California, 13 miles high. We were monitoring various radio transmissions from other aircraft as we entered Los Angeles airspace. Though they didn't really control us, they did monitor our movement across their scope. I heard a Cessna ask for a readout of its groundspeed."
"90 knots" Center replied.
"Moments later, a Twin Beech required the same."
"120 knots," Center answered.
"We weren't the only ones proud of our groundspeed that day as almost instantly an F-18 smugly transmitted, 'Ah, Center, Dusty 52 requests groundspeed readout.'
"There was a slight pause, then the response, 525 knots on the ground, Dusty".
"Another silent pause. As I was thinking to myself how ripe a situation this was, I heard a familiar click of a radio transmission coming from my backseater. It was at that precise moment I realized Walt and I had become a real crew, for we were both thinking in unison." "Center, Aspen 20, you got a groundspeed readout for us?"
There was a longer than normal pause.... "Aspen, I show 1,742 knots"
"No further inquiries were heard on that frequency"
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- My ancestors have been here for centuries. My father was a wheel! The first wheel! And do you know what he transformed into? Nothing!! But he did it with honor! Dignity, damn it!
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I spy a V-1 Buzz Bomb/JB-2 Loon. I'm going to guess that it is a US JB-2 Loon as I see a star on the side.
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Good eyes! That is a Loon behind the Blackbird, as well as a Messerschmitt Komet rocket plane.
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Didn't see the Me 163 tell you said something about it. It blended it quite well.
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This baby is for sure does fly like a bat out of hell.
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