Way back in the 60's American Airlines ran an ad campaign touting Captain Cliff Schmidt. He said he always would think of his passengers as eggs, "thin-shelled eggs." He talked about how he would change altitude to find smooth air or change his route to go around weather, "even if it means loosing some time."

We all thought the ad was pretty silly, since we all would do the same things to achieve a smooth ride.

Now in the past I think I wrote about how the 727 was a hard-landing plane with stiff gear and small highly swept wings. All of us from time-to-time would slam it on and make the flight engineer stand at the cockpit door to receive the wrath and teasing of the passengers.

One day on a busy rush hour at KLGA, there was a long line of planes waiting to takeoff. Here comes American Airlines in a 727 and slams it on! After the third bounce during the rollout someone picked up the mic and said...

"Is that you Captain Schmidt?"

The radio went wild!!!  ;D