Ramstein (Germany)

Woke up and checked out of hotel pretty early (0600). Had plane ready for the boss on time and took off with great weather. As we left German airspace and tried to talk to the French, though, they started talking about the IFF again. We tried to fix the problem, but our friends on the ground in Dijon decided that our "diplomatic clearance" was cancelled and that we should return to Ramstein. We did some tests on the ground for about an hour and then tried to take off again. As we were climbing out, the German controller started talking about how fun it was in Kaiserslautern on Friday nights. He even mentioned a few places that he recommended we check out. We laughed and told him we would love to stay - but we had to go back to work. He switched to Dijon again - and we understood his comments. They refused to let us continue and told us not to try again today (until our transponder was repaired). When we switched back to Rhein, he said "I told you!" On the ground again (1600), had to call the Ship (not pleasant, either). They didn't believe we were broken, but at least I have the boss to verify it. Worked with some of the techs at Ramstein for a few hours and thought we had the problem repaired. Met boss for dinner at Vesuvios again (2130). We'll try again tomorrow...