How NOT to get a call sign

[Plummit]

I flew Hang Gliders for 30 years and my "Home" flying site was Lake Elsinore, CA. Most every pilot gets a nick-name from the "E" team. Mine was simply "Marc the Plumber", until one day I launched without being Hooked-in to my wing.

After that I was Marc the Plummet. I just spelled it differently to make it License-Plate friendly. ;-)

-Marc

[Snowflake]

I've heard of a pilot who stood up too quickly in the officer's mess one day and smacked his head on the TV hanging from the ceiling, then flailed around trying not to fall down. He became known as... "Spaz"

Another seems to occasionally remind people of a male chicken through his appearance and mannerisms... and thus became... "Rooster"

[breister]

We had a fellow get over-intoxicated in the dorm in Iceland. He fell down the stairwell, nearly ripping his ear off on the banister. Nickname: VanGogh.

"That's all good fun, until somebody loses an ear!"

[YellowPeril]

Well...I had this middle-age, male notion of growing a pony-tail, and not only did it grow in like I had just stuck a fork in a light-socket, one day whilst scooting around under my -8, my coif became one with my creeper.

There was blood.

After cutting myself loose...

(no mean feat when you're on the floor and the scissors are in one of the upper drawers of your toolbox - while your hangar neighbor is rolling around on the ground)

...and then going to the barbershop to rid myself of this fashion faux-pas, my barber thought I had been attacked by a feral animal.

Even he still calls me Hairball.

And my creeper still rolls funny...like one of those bad shopping carts you get sometimes at the Giant Eagle.

[Pilot Dog Ship]

Several years ago, our national television network created a documentary that followed several young pilots as they checked out in the CF-18 Hornet.
At the end of the course, there was a ceremony where their instructors awarded them callsigns.
One young man unfortunately had the last name ?Job? and he was assigned the call sign ?Blow?...

[Pilot Dog Ship]

Fifteen years ago, my not-very-well built Six flipped on its back during a forced landing, making the slowest Six in the area also the worst looking. I had called it The Imitutor but in an instant it became The Dog Ship.
And now my flightsuit name tag: ? Pilot, Dog Ship? which makes sense if you say it out loud without pausing...

[erich weaver]

Have an acquaintance who got the call sign ?Stroker?. Gonna leave the story behind it to your imagination, but you can likely guess something pretty close. Enough said.

Erich

[Steve Crewdog]

Originally Posted by Plummit

I flew Hang Gliders for 30 years

Ha! I flew a WW Duck 160 for 10 in NorCal, when I started volunteering in Sun n' Fun Air Ops I had to have a callsign, since if you got on the radio and said "Hey Steve", you might get several people answering. And since there was a tradition in Air Ops of people having animal names for callsigns (Flipper, MudDawg, Gator...)

Since I'm building a SeaRey, it was easy. Duck.