The Stall Siren

If you're an avid traveler you learn to just jump on board the first thing that takes you where you want to be -- size does not matter, in this case; speed often does.

I've finally recovered from my Sunday afternoon death run and I'm getting ready for my next jaunt: Rome. While enjoying dinner with friends last night on MFTM's back porch, we all started sharing our favorite "I can't believe I did that..." stories from various cities around the world. Some of the stories included too much alcohol... most of the stories included too much alcohol... and then I told the table of my near-death flight experience.

I got to the part about the siren going off mid-flight and then, jsut when I thought the experience couldn't get any worse, my friend J (who happens to be a pilot) asked, "Are you talking about the stall siren?"

"The what?"

"Usually when a siren goes off in a Cessna or small plane it's because the plane is about to stall so the pilot needs to level out the nose and the wings."

Um, pardon me? You did not just tell me that the plane was about to stall 10,000-feet up as I was heading into a black cloud.

Do you want to know the irony of all this, folks? When I was 16-years-old, I was hell-bent on joining Air Force and flying F-16s. I think the world is a much safer place with me at the keyboard.