Absolutely priceless tit-bits here - just not enough hours in the day to read em all
Some of em reminded me of a story told to me a couple of years back by an old(ish!) instructor:
He was working a fairly quiet en-route sector with not a whole lot happening for hours on end. Two 747's inbound to land with only separation of 1000', otherwise the targets on the screen were merged. Obviously only one of em could be the number 1, but which one? Said controller knew that one of the i/b's was hauling cargo, but couldn't quite remember which one. So, in the interests of expedition etc. he contacted one of the a/c to find out:
ATC: xxx123, yyyy, are you hauling pax or boxes this evening?
(Not exactly standard phraseology admittedly!)
Pilot (in the mandatory slow Southern drawl): Well sir, ah've got abaht 485 units on board, an' Ah reckin abaht half of 'em of got boxes!!
Cue much mirth in the otherwise sleepy center!!
