Moominballs

Why are you always asking me to "confirm RADAR-contact/identified" when checking in if I only answer with "BAW-XXX, Good morning"?

I ask because your initial "Identified/RADAR-contact" is valid, and transferred across ATC-units, until someone explicitly states "Identification/radar lost/terminated"... :-).

Cheers
ATC-DUDE.

Thats actually hilarious... The thought of you naming the company Blue first... Then spending weeks on discussing what color you should be, and finally settling on blue since its's in the company name.

I've flown on the jump-seat a lot, and one time the autopilot-thingy stopped working (737). The guy in the right seat was NOT AMUSED as he had to hand-fly the full departure and arrival (he navigated after the horisontal/vertical lines in the artificial horizon-screen(?).... Worked enroute though, so it wasn't more than 15-20 minutes of extra work :-)

This study reports 13 incidents between 2002-2006, and to my knowledge only covered U.S. Cases:

Link

Excerpt:

Methods.
The database of Lexis-Nexis™, which contains full-text articles for over 350 newspapers, was searched to identify alcohol violation incidents involving airline pilots in the U.S. between January 1990 and June 2006. Information pertaining to the pilot, flight, blood alcohol concentration (BAC), and consequence was ascertained for each incident based on the newspaper coverage.

Results.
During the study period, newspapers reported on a total of 13 incidents of alcohol violations involving 17 pilots. All but two of the incidents occurred during January 2002 through June 2006. The majority (85%) of the incidents were first identified by airport personnel, such as security screeners, based on suspicion of alcohol use by the pilot. Subsequent alcohol testing revealed a mean BAC of 90 mg/dL (ranging from 10 mg · dL−1 to 182 mg · dL−1). Of the 17 pilots, 6 were known to be prosecuted criminally, including 5 who were sentenced to jail terms.

I can answer that; yes they do. There is a mandatory "no drinking the last 8 hours before flying", and most of the time it's adhered to... But from time to time there are cases popping up in the media where staff try to board the plane while drunk... I would guess that out of the ones getting caught drunk there are 100 more who are intoxicated but at such a low level that it doesn't raise suspension (or get reported), and an additional 1000 cases of hangovers but not intoxicated....