My flight crossed the intersection of the equator and the international date line.

It can suck when you go through it but man is it fun putting others through it. I made t-shirts for the all the wogs in my division that had buttons on them. When you pressed the button they had to sing a Disney song, theme song, or show tune.

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polarisdelta@reddit

It's cool if people aren't psychopaths about it. A little bit of ribbing is one thing but people talk about broken fingers, being force fed stuff that puts them in the infirmary, leaving a palm print on a gun barrel that's been put through a bunch of rounds.

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OperaGrrl71@reddit

Elephant walk, "wog TV", wiping a part of the galley deck by the scullery while sitting down weren't all too bad. The wash down, while sitting and singing, "Row, row, row your boat" on the aircraft elevator.

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Speak4yurself@reddit

Also a Golden Shellback but class of 2010 on DDG 77. Hail King Neptune! I was Pacino Wog because of a slight resemblance and a pretty good impression. My knees were bleeding from crawling on the non-skid. Still haven't got my damn certificate!

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ReactorMechanic@reddit

Same here. On our way from San Diego to Brisbane to do battle with the jellyfish.

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OperaGrrl71@reddit

Ugh, I remember. I felt bad for the Nukes as well. One big pissing contest with the CO and whoever was visiting. I was with VFA-25.

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sednaplanetoid@reddit

TIL

A "Golden Shellback" is a title given to sailors who have crossed the Equator and the International Date Line simultaneously, marking a rare and significant achievement in naval tradition. This title is part of the line-crossing ceremonies that celebrate a sailor's initiation into the "Royal Order of the Deep."

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RumDarthRum@reddit

Golden Shellback 1999 checking in.

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Lrrr81@reddit

You may not know it, but you've been transported into an alternate universe. It's just like the one you came from, but everything that happens in the future will be different.

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redyambox@reddit

would love to see that waypoint.

N0E0

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Saltymt@reddit

Golden shell back!

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ShittyLanding@reddit

Easy to type into the box.

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LeadingTraffic7722@reddit

That’s awesome

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_wiltedgreens@reddit

When you landed, was it 5 years later?

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Bright_Broccoli1844@reddit

That's really cool! You should get a special pin or something.

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Bright_Broccoli1844@reddit

That's really cool!

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dilemmaprisoner@reddit

At that moment your watch flushes the other direction.

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WearingCoats@reddit

As an OCD person, if I were a pilot running this route I’d have it no other way.

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GenericAccount13579@reddit

A lot of very careful programming in the navigation computers for that to be okay

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RSkyhawk172@reddit

Planes use UTC for time, so I imagine the systems don't care about the date line.

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KickFacemouth@reddit

When a flight of F-22s crossed the international date light in 2007 (probably the first time the type had done so), a bunch of computer systems crashed on all of them, including navigation. Luckily they were with a tanker, so they were able to follow it all the way to Hawaii.

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Acceptable_Roll_6258@reddit

I went to a dinner once where the chief test pilot of the F-22 development program gave a talk. He mentioned that incident and that the lead F-22 pilot had to communicate with the tanker crew using hand signals to return to Hawaii, because the comms were also disabled. This was like decades ago so I’m foggy on the details but it was fascinating. Basically it was a division by zero error that wasn’t recoverable without an on the ground reset.

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KickFacemouth@reddit

If I had been one of them I'd have kissed the ground when I landed.

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retard-is-not-a-slur@reddit

It would've been a good day to be wearing brown pants.

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Lawsoffire@reddit

If you’re flying ferry distances in a fighter jet you’re probably wearing diapers anyway.

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slacker0@reddit

Allegedly : when they were 'flying' the F-16 in simulation over the equator, the computer got confused and instantly flipped the plane over ...

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RealJembaJemba@reddit

Thats gotta be like 4 Y2Ks

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Agitated_Car_2444@reddit

Looks like your team intentionally hit the jackpot.

At some point you were in two hemispheres and in two days at the same moment...

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steve626@reddit

some of the people in the same plane were in 2 different days at the same time!

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JohnC53@reddit

Airplane equivalent of the DVD Logo hitting the exact corner of the TV.

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Bob_12_Pack@reddit (OP)

I wish I had been watching as it happened

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misterchef711@reddit

And two different seasons too, from summer into winter

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leadzor@reddit

Solstice is next month, so fall/spring.

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CharacterLimitHasBee@reddit

Normal countries use the first day of December as the start of summer / winter, not the solstice.

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leadzor@reddit

There’s meteorological winter and astronomical winter. Meteorological winter is largely affected by your location. Ours is January. Astrological winter is the same everywhere, regardless of what kind of freedom units they use.

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mjdau@reddit

Normal countries also use the metric system.

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Lethal_Hobo@reddit

Lol downvoted but you’re right

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leadzor@reddit

People downvote the 4th comment in a thread all the time. It's a thing apparently. /r/ruleof4

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Alternative_Dust5027@reddit

That’s only if it’s the same comment. Like when someone comments one thing, the next person replies to that comment with the exact same thing, a third person replies to the reply with the exact same thing, then when the fourth person replies to the reply to the reply with the exact same thing, THAT’S when r/ruleof4 applies and the 4th comment is downvoted.

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Lethal_Hobo@reddit

Lol ppl downvoted you but you’re right

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commandercool86@reddit

And hes not even the 4th comment

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Agitated_Car_2444@reddit

I should downvote this comment...

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dingoparty@reddit

I should downvote this comment…

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FlakyLion5449@reddit

Down vote you!

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obecalp23@reddit

Yeah, not fun, you can easily get a cold

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TheMightyPushmataha@reddit

In another time's forgotten space Your eyes looked from your mother's face

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Affectionate_One_700@reddit

That's a Ted Chiang story if there ever was one.

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wrongwayup@reddit

The one time the middle seat paid off

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Agitated_Car_2444@reddit

Hmmm...wouldn't you have been closer walking to the loo...?

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wrongwayup@reddit

I’m assuming this was a twin-aisle

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frumperino@reddit

I'm sure the flight crew logged that as a necessary deviation from route to avoid a situation as awful as the bouncing DVD logo almost but not quite hitting the corner.

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DesperateTeaCake@reddit

This one little trick to earn double pay.

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slacker0@reddit

It was claimed that Warrimoo reached the intersection of the International Date Line and the Equator at midnight on 31 December 1899. This would have placed her bow in the Southern Hemisphere in summer on 1 January 1900, her stern in the Northern Hemisphere in winter on 31 December 1899. She would therefore have been simultaneously in two different seasons (winter and summer), in two different hemispheres, on two different days, in two different months, in two different years, in two different decades, in two different centuries.

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ThunderChaser@reddit

But 1899 and 1900 are both the 19th century.

The 20th century began in 1901.

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FullSkyFlying@reddit

But December 21+ and January are both the same season

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jf3l@reddit

One side of the equator is winter, the other summer

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FullSkyFlying@reddit

You got me

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Infinite-Condition41@reddit

Probably not though. Only looks that way because of the scale of the map. ARTOP is near there.

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Phillimac16@reddit

Here's the IFR chart for anyone who's wondering.

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Infinite-Condition41@reddit

I was wondering.

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nousernameisleftt@reddit

How far off were they?

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alheim@reddit

Sorry, off of the intersection of the date line and equator, or from the IFR route?

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sanger_r@reddit

Looks like about 60 miles off.

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ZeePM@reddit

Is there a name for this intersection besides just the coordinates? Like Point Nemo is the farthest location from land in any direction.

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Muelldaddy@reddit

“Hello folks you are flying Sine Airways”

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lucathecontemplator@reddit

Brisbane mentioned

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os2mac@reddit

so welcome to the party. you are a Golden Shellback now.

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UpbeatAssumption5817@reddit

I like you can tell exactly where the pilots decided to do this

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ArctycDev@reddit

Do people really think pilots of commercial airliners just willy-nilly fly where they want?

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UpbeatAssumption5817@reddit

For a small adjustment like this sure. Just put in the request and see what happens

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1731799517@reddit

Yup, like, its the pacfic, nothing to avoid there, and you can nicely see how they made the corrections and then just followed a great circle route after...

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UpbeatAssumption5817@reddit

You wouldn't even have to explain why. You're adjusting like one or two degrees. The state your flight level.

If they ask why then tell them do you want to four square. It's only going to be denied if ATC is being jealous 😂

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teapots_at_ten_paces@reddit

Maybe they were just trying to avoid the 'y' in Port Moresby and this was all a happy coincidence.

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C_Kambala@reddit

Jesus, you're right. Mid air collision that far out? Even Denzel couldn't save that.

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sjrobert@reddit

The pilots 100% did this on purpose. Is it 0 lat, 180 long.

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Anxious_Currency_42@reddit

timesphere travel

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Spear_n_Magic_Helmet@reddit

today you were the bouncing DVD logo

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KickFacemouth@reddit

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Cedric-S@reddit

I might be regarded but is this image real?

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ThnkGdImNotAReditMod@reddit

Google Lens works wonders

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jeffbell@reddit

Jazz Emu has you covered

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ImposterJavaDev@reddit

Well this looks like an edge case that can be overlooked in software lol

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Ok_Radish6580@reddit

Golden flight

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Komplexkonjugiert@reddit

In Honolulu, Im Lande der Azoren...

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jay_in_the_pnw@reddit

so, did your aircraft invert?

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Acoustic_Rob@reddit

That’s a deep cut

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Dj0rk@reddit

They should really capture that phenomenon in a song.

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Efficient_Sky5173@reddit

Pilots bored.

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20FNYearsInTheCan@reddit

OP rn: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FrDrWvMagAAiFVh.jpg

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lockerno177@reddit

Wow they now have lines for dating.

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bishophicks@reddit

I wanted to part a ship there at the turn of the millennium so at midnight, depending where you were on the ship, it could be a different millennium / century / decade / year / day or season

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sgtaylor50@reddit

Golden Shellback Initiation incoming..

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OneStrongGopher@reddit

Fun fact. Ive crossed that point on a ship.

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schrutesanjunabeets@reddit

I did the equator and the Prime Meridian on a ship!

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OrdinaryAward4498@reddit

That place is called "Null Island" by some.

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Schmergenheimer@reddit

One time my Uber made it all the way from there to the pickup spot in New York in less than five minutes. I didn't even know they made an amphibious Toyota Corolla.

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Amiar00@reddit

Same! We even stopped the boat for a swim! What a way to get a golden shellback.

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OneStrongGopher@reddit

We didn't swim, but we did stop over the Trench for a swim once. That was also a pretty cool experience.

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skeptical-nexus@reddit

Welcome to the Order of the Golden Shellback! Let the hazing commence!

Line-crossing ceremony - Wikipedia https://share.google/PzOiF5KTPs15oLodR

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0x7E7-02@reddit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Warrimoo

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OldFlourLungs@reddit

r/notinteresting

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aquoad@reddit

ugh that flight is so painfully long though

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chemtrail64@reddit

QF15?

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Senior_Green_3630@reddit

Did King Neptune come out of the pilots cabin and stck you with his Trident.

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InnerBreath2884@reddit

For a millisecond half of you would've been in one day and the other half would've been in yesterday...

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Resident_Mulberry_24@reddit

What did it feel like?

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Remarkable-Tennis440@reddit

Killin 2 stones with 1 bird.

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ComfortableCaptain61@reddit

This deserves more upvotes

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Remarkable-Tennis440@reddit

Captain, u r a gentleman & a scholar!

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fourtyTHEdeuce@reddit

According to Indiana Jones, X marks the spot.

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Jeandcc@reddit

Very neat! Lots of oceanic flights rely on “rounded” gps coordinates for the flight plan! Seems like your flight uses the N0, E180 coordinate 👌

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Fine_Trainer5554@reddit

Is that the convention where N takes priority over S and E over W? Or is S0, W180 also acceptable?

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PendragonDaGreat@reddit

Generally North and East have priority. This allows for easier conversions from the other standards where North and East are positive values while South and West are negative. Since "negative 0" isn't a thing outside of weird numerical encodings this means N0 has absolute priority over S0 and also why W0 doesn't generally exist. -180 and thus W180 are allowed under this scheme but cause a discontinuity which can make computers unhappy, so it's common practice to convert that to +180/E180 for consistency.

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Fine_Trainer5554@reddit

Wow, fantastic explanation, thank you!

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hambonecharlie@reddit

What a life experience to fly from LAX to BRI. Congratulations for making appropriate life choices to put you in such a position.

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Bob_12_Pack@reddit (OP)

This is my favorite comment, because it took me a long time to get to where I (and my wife) could afford to go visit our friends in Australia. We raised 6 kids and while that continues to bring us much joy, we finally had some time and money for ourselves, we've been twice in the last 18 months.

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idkblk@reddit

I wonder how the pilots saw that? Because to this day on airliners, the navigational map is very... schematic... Like its not a 'real map'

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ChunkyBezel@reddit

From summer to winter and from today to yesterday in the same instant!

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strayainind@reddit

It's tomorrow to today, going eastbound.

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reddit455@reddit

might have been "right of passage" for the pilot.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line-crossing_ceremony

Throughout history, line-crossing ceremonies have sometimes become dangerous hazing rituals. Most modern navies have instituted regulations that prohibit physical attacks on sailors undergoing the line-crossing ceremony.

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Whatever_Lurker@reddit

That must have been so confusing!