In this episode of So There I Was, Fig and RePete are joined by Kemo and they sit down with two air traffic controllers to talk about what pilots never see — and rarely understand — on the other side of the mic. From go-arounds that mean “you’re not trying hard enough,” to near-miss moments that make an entire tower pucker, this conversation pulls back the curtain on how airspace actually gets managed.

Along the way, we dig into controller training timelines that rival military pipelines, staffing shortages that stretch patience and margins, and what it’s like working a shutdown while still moving metal safely. Then things go sideways — canceled takeoffs for iguanas on the runway, Brasher warnings explained, and stories that absolutely did not make it into the AIM.

It’s equal parts aviation reality check, dark humor, and behind-the-scenes storytelling — and once you hear it, you’ll never hear ATC the same way again.

New Year’s Eve, no guest, and somehow the cockpit still turns into a full-blown sitcom. Fig & RePete kick off with a takeoff that goes sideways at V1 when “rotate” gets called… and apparently translated into “stare blankly into the void.” From there, it’s the perfect hangout episode: Top Gun continuity crimes (medals disappear, sunglasses teleport), a hard pivot into the Air India 787 post-rotation dual-engine power-loss mystery (and why one explanation feels disturbingly too plausible), and a buffet of leadership horror stories that’ll make you grateful for every normal human you’ve ever flown with.

Plus: quiet professionals, jumpseat survival tactics, and one legendary “turn the checklist 90 degrees” power move that ends exactly how it should. Funny, sharp, and just unhinged enough to feel like the crew room after midnight.

This week’s So There I Was episode is a Hangout — that happens when you put pilots, controllers, and a few proud troublemakers in the same virtual room and hit “record.” We swap the kind of stories that never fit in a checklist: a Harrier night recovery that ended six inches from a very bad day, a Learjet that missed an airliner by 100 feet in IMC, and a “UFO” sighting that turned out to be Starlink doing accidental aerobatics in the sun’s glare.

Then Heater drops in and casually explains how Top Gun almost became a dark vampire movie (until someone showed the director what blue sky actually looks like). Add laser-strike rage, EMAS explained for non-pilots, and the annual reminder that the Marines were the in-flight entertainment.

Happy New Year—check six, and don’t touch the igniter wiring.