Allah Has It!

Author: Bobo

In the 70s, we flew with Iranian students. Never a dull moment with those guys.

I first heard of a Tweet guy with an Iranian student coming in for a landing. As the Tweet came over the overrun, say about 50 feet or so, the Iranian student threw his hands up and proclaimed, “Allah has it!” That got the IP's attention, as you might imagine. He grabbed the stick and continued flying to a full stop. Now, what do you do with this?

As it turned out, the IP got really resourceful to get the Iranian past this. He asked his student what the ATC procedure was for aircraft transfer. The student replied, “Sir, you say ‘You have the aircraft,’ and I say ‘I have the aircraft,’ then I shake the stick to acknowledge the positive transfer. “That’s right,” exclaimed the IP, “ so until Allah shakes the stick, you keep flying!” Got it? Genius.

The next Iranian student challenge was when this kid came into a turning rejoin in a T-38, with 100 knots of overtake (we usually used 30 knots or so). As they got closer to Lead, the IP became increasingly concerned. Finally, he couldn’t stand it anymore and said, “Hey Yosef, you have 100 knots of overtake!”

Yosef then promptly replied, “Sir, Yousef is not afraid to die!”

“Not with me!” thought the IP, as he took control of the aircraft! Just another day at the office.