We got a great note from ANN Reader, Roy, who sent us the following humorous missive because, "It seems like everything is so serious these days, (so) I thought you might like to hear about the following exchange that occurred a few days ago."

The pertinent details have been changed to protect the guilty, from those bereft of a funny bone...

I was flying a call in a Eurocopter A-Star about 0200 hours. I was circling a neighborhood in the Class B airspace of 'Funkheimer' Int'l Airport when I heard a landing airliner advise that the VASI lights of runway 36 left had gone out. The tower operator responded that he would look into it but it wasn't long before another aircraft reported some other lights out.

This happened a couple more times and I finally couldn't resist anymore so I keyed my mike and said "Tower, is Ted Striker coming in for a landing or what?".

He said, "Say again."

And I responded, "Ted Striker, the hard luck pilot from the movie, 'Airplane'".

Another pilot came on and said, "I don't know about that but I see a dump truck full of lights driving out to the runway".

The tower controller finally caught on and said, "should I check the Radar range?"

It was a fun moment in the middle of the night and I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Thanks Roy, neither would we... wish we had been there.

FMI: www.aero-news.net