"the Glass"

[dave mcqueen]

At ZOA Grant was the senior controller in our Area (C). He was a Mormon from Delta, Utah who had been an instructor pilot in World War 2 on the Vultee Vibrator. His phraseology was normally not by the book but the pilots loved him.

I heard this one afternoon at work around 1975. For some reason it remains in long term memory:
PSA365: "Oakland Center, PSA 365 descending to eight thou."
Grant: "PSA 365, Oakeyland Center, roger, turn 5 and 2/3 degrees right, intercept localizer and proceed inbound."
PSA365: "Hi Grant. Could we make that 5 and 1/2 degrees?"
Grant: "Close Enough."
PSA365: "Grant, its been a while since we've heard you on the frequency. Everything, OK?"
Grant: "Roger, wael they have to let me work the Glass once in a while just to humor me"

Another time on a mid-watch he was working a San Francisco arrival and a Travis departure to North Island Logair C130 - Saturn Airways. The departure was held down under the descending arrival to maintain standard separation. At that time visual separation in the enroute environment was quite restrictive and not applicable in this situation. That didn't stop the Saturn pilot from asking anyway:

Saturn 12: "Center Saturn 12 has the three holer in sight. We can maintain visual from him and climb if you'll let us."
Grant: " Wael I expect its all right with you and him too, but I'll go to jail if I let you do it."
Saturn 12: "Oh"
Grant: "You don't want me to go to jail do ya?"
Saturn 12: "Not tonight."

Grant was working the Bay Area to Los Angeles sector one evening. All traffic was routed over the Avenal (AVE) Vortac a couple
hundred miles southeast of San Francisco. It was fairly standard practice to vector aircraft off the SID (Standard Instrument Departure route) and send them to AVE. At this time most aircraft did not have inertial navigation and required a heading toward the NAVAID as it was somewhat beyond reception range.

Air Cal 262: "Center how about a heading for Avenal?"
Grant: "Sure"
Air Cal 262: "Uh, what heading would you like us to fly?"
Grant: "Any heading you want. What ever makes you happy."

Thus was born the "Happy Heading" clearance that many other controllers picked up on, usually saying something like: "Fly the happy heading until receiving Avenal then go direct."

I'm just getting warmed up but more for another time...

[Col7777]

;D Loved it Dave, I could go on reading that stuff.

[Tom/CalClassic]

Great! Looking forward to more...

[dave mcqueen]

Oh all right -- gotta spread this out or I'll run out of material....

In 1974 there was a "gas crisis" and filling stations (thats an old term isn't it?) were jacking up the price for a gallon of gas from around $.40 to $.80 but there was a catch. The supply of gasoline was limited because everyone thought the oil companies had pumped most of the world's supply out of the ground and there was no where to go except back to the horse and buggy or bicycle. Lines at stations were long and red and green flags were flown to tell the public if they even had any gas to sell. Motorists could only buy the stuff on odd or even days depending upon the ending number on their license plate. Thats how it was in the Bay Area anyway. There was no Internet back then so I don't really know how the situation was in Jackson, Mississippi --- but I suspect they were scratching their heads over the whole business.

There is a point to all this.

Control Area Extension 1173 west of San Francisco over water beyond the 3 mile limit was situated between two Warning Areas used by the military. It provided a path for aircraft leaving Northern California to get to the non-radar Oceanic airspace and for aircraft inbound from Hawaii, Japan, etc to get into Domestic airspace. It was also used by airlines to test their airplanes after having been at the maintenance base for overhaul.

That airspace was under the control of Grant one morning. He was working the Western, United, and Pan Am flights to Hawaii, Japan Air Two from Tokyo to KSFO and a few military C141s and C5s, maybe even a T29 "DECAL" , or a Lockheed C121 "ADOLA", or a lone C133.

In the mix too was a Pan American Boeing 707-320 operating in the test area isolated from the other traffic so they could perform their tests without having to get permission for each manouver.

At some point the Clipper called Grant:

N402PA: "Oakland Center, THE Clipper 402 has a request."
Grant: "Go Ahead."
N402PA: "THE Clipper 402 would like to fly west for 10 minutes, descend to 6,000 and dump fuel."
Grant: "What did you say?"
N402PA: "THE Clipper 402 would like to fly west for 10 minutes, descend to 6,000 and dump fuel."
Grant: "Thats what I thought you said. You are cleared as requested but would you wait a few minutes before dumping that gas?"
N402PA: "OK, but why do we need to wait?"
Grant: "I want to go get my car, drive out and catch some of it."

Actually Grant lived only a mile or so from the Center and frequently rode his bicycle to work. I used to see him on the residential streets when driving in to work. He was ALL-OVER the street from the curb to the middle.

I asked him once if he wasn't afraid by riding so erratically that he might be hit by a car? He said actually by riding that way all the drivers think they are seeing a crazy old man on a bike and they go far out of their way to avoid him. I thought it over and decided there was a certain logic to his way of thinking.

[Col7777]

;D
This reminded me of a time I had been shopping in a town called Stockport near Manchester, aircraft on finals have to fly directly over Stockport to land if coming in on '24'
I was on my way back to my car when I saw this man in the car park going mad with rage, as I passed I asked if he was OK, he said, "Look at my car, it's full of fuel."
I said, "What do you mean?" He replied, "It's soaking with fuel, this has come from an aircraft, they fly over here on their way to Manchester."
I looked at the other cars and they were dry as a bone, I assured the man, if an aircraft had dumped fuel he would have to be pretty good to just get your car and not a splash on the others next to you.
He then realised his mistake and I could see he felt stupid, it's still a mystery why his car was soaking in fuel, may be someone didn't like him and was going to set it alight but had second thoughts as to the consequences, I don't know.

[dave mcqueen]

One afternoon Grant was working the "TAC" sector, one of the smallest enroute sectors in the country, if not the smallest. Its main mission was to sequence San Francisco arrivals in trail by a specified miles-in-trail requirement Bay Approach needed to keep things moving with the 3 other SFO traffic flows. It was so small that most aircraft had to be "pointed out" to other sectors so that the TAC controller could descend and turn his airplanes to achieve the in trail spacing requirement outside his delegated airspace. The high altitude sector that "fed" TAC airplanes was in a different area of specialization and tended to "jam" TAC without regard for the relative compact sector and the room within which he had to do his job. That is to say aircraft would come over descending from very high altitudes facing a crossing restriction at Cedar Ridge (later CEDES) at 11,000.

Hughes Air 66: "Oakland Center Hughes Air 66 out of flight level 330 for flight level 240"
Grant: "Hughes Air 66, Oakland Center roger, cross Cedar Ridge at and maintain one one thousand, San Francisco altimeter, two niner niner niner."
Hughes Air 66: "Hughes Air 66 roger, Cedar Ridge at 11,000."
Hughes Air 66: "Center, Hughes Air 66?"
Grant: "Go Ahead."
Hughes Air 66: "Hughes Air 66 can't cross Cedar Ridge at 11,000."
Grant: "You would if you loved me."
Hughes Air 66: "We love you but we can't get down by Cedar Ridge."
Grant: "Oh, all right, turn left heading 150 for a bodacious vector, expect hairy S turns."
Hughes Air 66: "Center, ah Hughes Air 66 will make the restriction at Cedar Ridge at 11,000"

And he did. The End