CFB Edmonton (Namao) is a military field just outside of Edmonton. All aircraft touching down at Namao require a PPR (Prior Permission Request) number, and have to recite it to the controller at first contact.
One day, a Tomahawk from a local flight school announced inbound for circuits. The controllers asked for the PPR #, and the pilot said they didn’t know about one. The controller cleared them right-base for 29.
Tomahawk: “F-XAA is final 29, touch and go.”
Tower: “XAA is cleared touch and go, 29”.
Tomahawk: “F-XAA is final 29, touch and go”
Tower: “F-XAA is cleared touch and go, 29. How many more circuits were you planning on making?”
Tomahawk: “We though we’d make one or two more.”
Tower: “Roger. I just wondered because we were calculating your landing fees, and you’re up to $13,000 now.”
Tomahawk: “THAT WAS OUR LAST ONE!!!!!”
Tower: “Just kidding. Next time, read your flight supplement.”
Back when I flew for Goodyear, we brought the blimp into Boston-Logan for a week at the request of the airport authority to promote some new feature at the airport. After a couple of days, a rep from the airport managers office came out to ask what our landing weight was because they “had to calculate our landing fee bill” for the week. At that point, our Chief Pilot ordered that all airship take-offs were to to be done “light” or at positive buoyancy so we would float up and have to force the ship down to land. He then… Read more »