Bulletproof paperwork

One of the things I’m going to have to sharpen up on is the paperwork associated with flying. There are various bits of paper that you have to keep on board in order for your flight to be legal. I’d imagine that the required stuff is fairly standard the world over. The fact that I’m being deliberately vague about what they actually are, should tell you that my knowledge may be a little lacking in this area.

Time to hit the books on this topic I feel. Ironically the one piece of paper I have no trouble remembering is very area specific. Due to our paranoid cousins to the south I have to carry on board a copy of what are known as “interception procedures” aka “how not to get shot down by the US military”.*

I am seriously not making this up. You have to carry a little card telling you what to do if you accidentally wander off course and attract air force attention.

Now I am fairly close to US airspace and it’s not inconceivable (given my sense of direction) that I could wander across the border accidentally but the concept of being intercepted makes me laugh, a lot! For a start I wouldn’t be too worried about any deliberate acts of terrorism committed in a C172. You hit a building with that thing; chances are it’ll bounce right off!

The thing I find totally hilarious though is the thought of an F16 (or whatever the USAF use now) trying to intercept a light aircraft. I can stay in the sky at 50 knots, I suspect an F16 can’t. Has anyone even given any thought as to how this might actually work?

Despite what it says on the instructions if it ever happens to me all you’ll see is a person trying hard not to wet herself laughing as she slowly pulls back the power!




*Technically I guess the same applies to the Canadian armed services as well but I suspect that they are far too polite to shoot down a plane. They'd feel terrible about it !