Is it possible for an avgeek to spend too much time at the airport?  My first impulse is to say, of course not! Airports are where the airplanes are – too much is never enough! However, recently I’ve noticed that the line between life at the airport and life at home is getting a little blurred. For example, I was driving the other day and saw a white truck ahead of me.  My first thought was, “Oh look, an operations vehicle.  I wonder what number it is.” (All operations vehicles on the airfield are white with red numbers on them.) Of course then I remembered that I wasn’t at the airport and the white truck… was just a white truck. Doh! Think this couldn’t happen to you? Don’t be too sure! Avgeeks are especially vulnerable.  Know the warning signs!

You might be spending too much time at the airport if…

– You hear school bells ringing and immediately think, “Someone is moving a jet bridge!”

– Your car breaks down and you find yourself calling for a tug instead of a tow truck.

– You prepare for security screening every time you see someone wearing a royal blue shirt.

– You wish you had a ground crew to load/unload groceries (as long as you didn’t buy eggs or anything in breakable jars).

– You are considering installing a de-icing pad at the end of your driveway to clear the snow off your car in the winter.

– You’d like to take pictures at the family birthday party but don’t because that would require you to delete airplane pictures from your phone.

– Then a really cool plane flies over so you make the sacrifice and reluctantly delete one of the 16 pictures you took of that interesting charter plane last week.

– You name your dog “Gear” just so you can yell, “Gear down!” when it tries to jump on people.

– Likewise your cats are named Cessna and Piper.

– Any time you are around or near airplanes you find yourself reaching for your SIDA badge.

– “Attention in the house, attention in the house – would the party who walked off with the TV remote please return it to the couch in the living room. Thank you.”

– You consider installing perimeter fencing around your property to keep out solicitors.

– You would like to do background checks, issue access badges and set up mandatory screening areas for your daughter’s boyfriends.

– The flag hanging in front of your house is a windsock.

– You use coordinates instead of an address to explain where you live.

– You want to set up a localizer in your yard just because it looks cool.

– You find yourself searching online for good deals on used Stairs Trucks.

In other news…

If you’ve read my post about Airport Jobs I Wish I Had, or my recent guest post on Capn Aux’s blog, then you know why this picture is so funny… and so incredibly scary.  I guarantee the guys at Airfield Maintenance are busy changing the locks and hiding the keys!