airtraffic

Author Topic: SR-71 Blackbird Pilot recalls When He Buzzed the Tower of Sacramento Airport  (Read 7935 times)

Offline KB4TEZ

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I really try to avoid doing any "cross posting" here, but on occasion one jumps out at me, and it's too good not to share.
Most of us have probably heard it before, but always a good re-run !
Enjoy ! Thanks Aviationgeekclub !
John

https://theaviationgeekclub.com/sr-71-blackbird-pilot-recalls-when-he-buzzed-the-tower-of-sacramento-airport-with-the-afterburners-lit/
(youtube story in the link as well)

‘I asked the tower Would you like a flyby down the runway or down the ramp? The guy said Down the ramp! When I said okay, I sucked the gear up, pushed the power up. We started heading towards the ramp, towards the tower. As we were approaching it, I rolled the plane up away from the tower and lit the afterburners. We went around and made a pass. The tower controller said “Beautiful, beautiful, come back and do another one”. I said I better not, I’m gonna go to Beale. So, we went back to Beale and we landed.

‘As I mentioned it was a holiday weekend and Colonel Lonnie met us when we pulled in the hangar after we landed which was the normal procedure. I thought well that’s nice that he came out. As I came down the ladder from the aircraft, he looked at me and he said Maury, do we have any regulations that say we can’t make approaches at Sacramento Airport? I said No sir.
I want one on my desk at seven o’clock tomorrow morning.