Excellent stories.
I was flying from Houston to Austin one day in a Lear 35. Houston Center kept trying to handoff NASA 972 (A T-38, most likely flown by an astronaut type) to the next sector.
"NASA 972 contact Houston Center 134.45."
-No response
"NASA 972 contact Houston Center 134.45."
-No response
"NASA 972, how do you read Houston Center?" (getting a bit upset)
-No response
This goes on for several minutes when finally, the T-38 responds to the controller's 'how do you read?'
ARTCC: "NASA 972, Houston center, FIFTH CALL, contact center now, ONE THREE FOUR POINT FIVE, that's ONE THREE FOUR POINT FIVE!,..OVER!" (quite a nasty tone)
PILOT: (muffled through the O2 mask) "Roger, twenty three forty five, sorry about that, I was on the landline."
I'm sure our passengers wondered why we were laughing like hyyenas. (SP?)
Another favorite was when center was handing out re-routes to all Chicage bound traffic due to storms over the entire midwestern portion of the US.
"United 462, Memphis Center, I've got a re-route for you too sir, advise when ready to copy."
"Yes ma'am, United 462, any chance of direct XXXX?"
"United 462, are you ah, RNAV equiped?" (sounding hopeful)
"No ma,am, but we are radar vector equiped!"
It occurs to me this forum might present me with the opportunity to thank the gentlemen at London Center who assisted us a few summers ago. We were climbing out of Birmingham on our way to Keflavik when we shed a generator. Having no idea where to get a Learjet 55 worked on in the UK, we asked you. After a bit of checking around, Luton was suggested. They did a great job at Metro, the repair actually cost us less than some places here in the states. Thanks for the help ya'all!
DAN