[Spridgets] Was Traffic Circles Now Signs

[Jim Johnson]

On Nov 15, 2007 12:26 PM, Paul Herder <p.herder at cox.net> wrote:
> My favorite sign was "Slow Church Crossing" on one of the Air Bases I was
> stationed at.

Two of my favorite signs were on Maxwell AFB (MXF). Back in 1969 there
were a lot of ANG F84s and T-39s flying from MXF with some pretty
green young pilots. They would go out and shoot touch and go
approaches for hours on end. On weekends, other base personnel who log
some cockpit time to stay current would take up the F84s or even the
odd O-2. Anyway, while I was there, a young Capt. on TDY at the Air
War College spent all day in an F84 shooting approaches at MXF and
over at Craig in Selma. He climbed out of the cockpit and straight
into his VW bug and headed for the main gate still going over flight
procedures in his head (or so he claimed later). There were several
cars stopped at the base gate so when he suddenly looked up and
noticed the stationary cars ahead of him, he simply pulled back on the
wheel to fly over them.  As a result, for at least a few years the
base Commander had a sign put up on the approach to all the base gates
saying "Car, Not Plane!"

Also at Maxwell there was a perimeter road that passed the runway
15-33 barrier on the south end within about 10 feet of the last
barrier. When we had C-141s taking off into a north wind, they would
run up their engines sitting in front of that barrier. Another poor
sod in a VW bus drove around the end of the runway while one of these
big birds was running up and the jet blast rolled the bus.  Thereafter
the base put up a sign in that area that said, "Danger!! Big Aircraft
Make Wind!!".

Locally, a friend had an official looking sign put up on the Arkansas
River bridge here in town. The Arkansas hasn't had water in it for at
least 23 years. Nothing but sand. The sign he put up says, "No Fishing
>From The Bridge".

Cheers!!
Jim