You reminded me of a good controller story. For 27 some odd years, I was the Operations Director for Boston Fourth of July. We put on the Fourth of July concert, fireworks and fly-over in Boston, MA. Since I was a pilot, one of my responsibilities was to coordinate the fly-overs. We had a C-5, B-2 and other assorted aircraft. The most fun was a flight of three F-18s that flew in from the George Washington. The pilots had just completed a tour flying over Iraq. The day before the fly-over, I met the pilots at Hanscom duel use base just outside of Boston and we coordinated the fly-over. The FAA liaison had given us a hard deck of 1,000 ft. Hearing this, one of the pilots pulled me aside and said “sir, at 1,000 feet the crowd will not be able to see the airplane. How about I go a little lower”. I said that would be fine.
The at the end of the Stars and Stripes, three F-18 flew down the Charles River right to left at 1,000 feet. The next pass the F-18s were “dirty”, lights on, flaps and gear out. Two of the F-18s swung around for another pass. As the crowd focused on these two, the third F-18 flew down the river at 500 ft, clean with after burners going. Mid point of the river, he pulled up into full vertical. It was a great spectacle and the crowd went wild. Everyone had a lump in their throat.
As the F-18’s completed the last pass, I received a call from Boston tower, “Boston Fourth Operations, do you think the F-18s could do a Top Gun for Boston tower?”. You all remember the scene when Maverick flies past the tower and the controller spills his coffee. I said, “I’ll call and ask but I’m sure it be fine.” The next call was from an irate FAA liaison demanding to know if the F-18s were at the hard deck of 1,000 feet. “Of course,” I said. “You can call Boston tower and ask”, which she did. What do you think Boston tower told her? Controllers can have fun too!