I have not read all the posts in this thread, so I don’t know if it is appropriate to tell on one’s self or not. However I shall anyway.
Many years ago, when I was a Boeing 727 Captain for the United States Marshal Service, I had a little run in with a arrogant US Airways “BIG AIRPLANE” pilot flying a 737, yes a 737. At the time we were only using “N” and the aircraft number, we had been using Boeing XXX, but a new boss and new rules resulted in us using just the NXXX call sign. (Using the aircraft type in front of the number is standard in the US.)
Anyway, on with the story:
We were driving down some J-route on the East Coast at FL310 and the ATC conversation went like this.
ATC; “NXXX say mach.”
Little ole us; “Mach .81.”
ATC; “US Air XXX say mach.”
US Air XXX; “.74”
ATC; “US Air XXX can you increase to .80?”
US Air XXX; “Negative.”
ATC; “Can increase speed any?”
US Air XXX; “Negative.”
Having no luck with US Air ATC calls us and asked; “NXXX can you reduce to .74?”
Little ole us; “Well, yes we can if we have to.”
ATC; “Thanks, maintain .74.”
We agree to fly .74 and the 72 does not like to fly at .74, we are wallowing around and damn near using the same amount of at .74 as we were at .81. Anyway a few minutes pass and ATC calls us again.
ATC; “NXXX are you at .74?”
Little ole us; “Yup.”
ATC; “US Air XXX say mach.”
US Air; “.74”
ATC; “NXXX you are still catching the US Air, can you reduce any more?”
My buddy in the right seat allows that we really don’t want to slow down anymore and asks if we can be vectored around the US Air flight. The controller thinks about this for a minute or two and makes a great decision.
ATC; “NXXX you can wrong way 330 and normal speed for a while until you pass the 737.”
Little ole us; “Yes sir we can do that.”
ATC; “NXXX maintain current speed until reaching FL330 and then resume normal speed, cleared to FL330.”
My buddy in the right seat reads back the clearance and I wake up the FE and get max. continuous EPR and off we go. Never being one to let sleeping dogs lie my buddy in the right seat calls ATC when we level at 330 (about a minute after we read back the climb clearance) and lets everybody on frequency know that we are accelerating to normal cruise speed. And our friend in the 73 decides that he just has to say something. (He does not know that we are in a 72.)
US Air XXX; “Sorry to inconvenience the little guy there.” (Said with a very condescending attitude.)
At this time I decide to exert some of that command stuff and tell my buddy in the right seat that I will handle this call.
Little ole us: (me) “Oh that’s ok, you don’t have to apologize for flying a ‘Baby Boeing Speed Bump.”
Anyway we passed him doing about .87 mach (I was still at max. continuous) and a few minutes later ATC calls us.
ATC; “NXXX you are passed the flying speed bump and you can go back down to 310 now.”
Well, we had a good laugh over it. Don’t know about the ‘Big Airplane Pilot’.