Friday, December 01, 2023

Funny Friday : Stranger Things Have Happened 35

I saw this on Facebook Recently and it reminded me of a true story from the 1970's.


My father was hanging out at the local small airport one day, he did this a lot, so there are a lot of stories that start this way.  A local business owner had gassed up that day and flew his small plane to the nearest city to meet a friend for lunch.  Lunch turned into a few drinks, and foolishly he flew home.  The wind was strong and out of the east, so he set up for landing on the short, east-west grass runway.  He miscalculated his approach, and landed short. In the parking lot at the airport, on top of a pick-up truck. The fuselage landed in the truck bed, the propeller shredded the cab, and everything kind of slid forward about 50 feet coming to stop. Fortunately, no one was hurt. 

The owner of the truck called his insurance company to report the accident, and the insurance agent said, "Who has been drinking? Don't move a thing I have to see this and take photos before anything is moved, or they are never going to believe the claim." 

Drinking and flying, is the end of the pilots license, he didn't appeal. The local police gave him a ride home, but couldn't find a law against drinking and flying.  


18 comments:

  1. An airplane doesn't fall under the category "motor vehicle?" LOL

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  2. That old cat on the car roof excuse.

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    1. If you make an exception for him, everyone will try that excuse.

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  3. That is quite possible about the flying and there not being a drink flying law. Cat on a car roof, push it off.

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    1. "push it off" depends on the cat, some of them don't like to be moved.

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  4. The initial message might not have been misinterpreted if the writer had written "Cat" with a capital 'C' and enclosed the name in inverted commas. Also adding the word 'digger' would have helped to clarify the situation.

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    1. Then the joke wouldn't work.

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    2. Except in American English a cat digger would be a machine that digs up cats. 😁

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    3. The photo is actually a crane, or long extension lift.

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  5. We can only hope drinking and flying doesn't become a common thing. That is a scary thought.

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    1. It isn't common. The FAA has a 12 hour rule, and will pull the license of pilots who don't follow it.

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  6. Another argument against the viability of flying cars some day.

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    Replies
    1. It is hard to be two things at once.

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  7. Drunk flying. Oy!
    As for the cat joke, I'd have called out if there was an actual cat napping on the roof of my car.
    I'm THAT guy.

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  8. Oh my, that is quite a story. Drinking and flying turned into a very expensive adventure. He's lucky no one was hurt.

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    Replies
    1. Small airports are interesting places.

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