the question is did you ever fly over
commercial airport airports that was the
question from my wife yes I think it was
the 1982 or 83 Toronto airshow I was a
participant and we took an sr-71 there
and it was three crew members went one
crew flew it in one crew flew the second
day air show and the third crew which
was myself flew just a couple of flybys
that the third day of the air show and
then actually flew the aircraft back to
Beale Air Force Base and the Toronto air
show is over the what does it Labor Day
weekend is it the Labor Day weekend in
September what's the first that's Monday
yeah that that's when they always have
it and when we end it's a holiday
weekend so when I came back into the
Sacramento area and I was descending
down to land at Beale and we had a lot
of fuel and we had to work on the
holiday and I said yeah I asked the
backseater I said you want to make an
approach at sac Metro and he said can we
do that and I said why not you can do
anything once yeah exactly
so so so I on approach control I when we
got over to approach control I asked if
sac Metro was available for a an
approach and they said they'd switch
this over to sac Metro and they cleared
us for an approach so as we were coming
down final and we had configured the
airplane with the gear down and we're
about two miles out on final I asked the
controller they switch this over to
tower and I asked the tower I said would
you like a flyby down the runway or down
the ramp
and the guy said down the ramp when I
said okay I sucked the gear up and I
pushed the power up and we started
heading towards the ramp towards the
tower and as we were approaching it I
rolled the plane up away from the tower
and lit the afterburners and we went
around and made a pass and the tower
controller said beautiful beautiful come
back and do another one and I said I
better not I'm gonna go to Beal so we
went back to Beal and we landed and as I
mentioned holiday weekend and Colonel
Lonni list was the deal he was the
director of flight operations the do
sorry
straight blah knee straight Lonnie yeah
anyhow so he met us when we pulled in
the hangar after we landed as I
mentioned that was the normal procedure
and I thought well that's nice that he
came out as I came down the ladder from
the aircraft he looked at me he said
Morrie and I said yes sir
he said 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 now there's a continuation to
this story I retired in 87 and flew with
United Airlines when I went I had
previously flown for United I had a
break in service when I went back to
United I was a 760 copilot 760 yeah
Boeing 767 copilot and one of my that
first year in 87 I think it was either
the fall of 87 or the winter of 88 right
after the new year
I was flying a 767 from Washington DC to
San Francisco
and an air traffic controller wanted to
know if they could ride in the cockpit
and the captain of the plane signed it
off they have that privilege or if they
want to do that and the aircraft
normally when they do that if there's an
empty seat somewhere the captain allows
one of the flight attendants to come in
an empty seat in the back of the plane
the plane was full so this young lady
the air traffic controller she came in
she's quite attractive young lady and
the captain I was falling with was I
don't know if he was married or not but
I know he's a big flirt I hadn't flown
with him before so I was flying it was
my leg from DC to San Francisco you
would trade off flying legs in the
airlines and we're flying and he's just
talking to her halfway across the
country and at some point he asked her
how long she'd worked at San Francisco
Airport and she hadn't been there that
long she said I used to work sac Metro
so this is nine I think was 1988 and I
looked over my shoulder at this young
lady and I said were you working sac
Metro in 1982 or whatever it was 82 or
83 and she looked at me and she said
yeah I was why do you ask and I said
were you working tower when the sr-71
buzzed it and she said oh yeah I was how
do you know that and I told her it was
me and she started laughing and she said
you scared the hell out of people she
said there she said there were people in
the terminal that dived to the ground
they thought the airplane was going to
hit the door
we go