PILOTS\' BAR TAB SHOWS THREE GALLONS OF BEER By MALCOLM BALFOUR http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/53179.htm July 23, 2002 -- MIAMI - Two grounded America West pilots drank nearly three gallons of beer before they allegedly tried to fly a jetliner earlier this month, prosecutors are charging. Throw in one martini - and a lone Western hamburger - and that's what was on the bar tab for Christopher Hughes and Thomas Cloyd, according to prosecutors' filing. The credit-card tab for the popular bar Mr. Moe's was opened by Hughes at 10:45 p.m. and closed nearly six hours later at 4:22 a.m. Their pair's bill came to $122 and they left a $20 tip. They checked into their rooms at 5:30 a.m., according to their electronic room keys, records for which were released yesterday. Only five hours later, at around 10:30 a.m., they were in the cockpit of a Phoenix-bound plane carrying 124 passengers. The purportedly plastered pilots were ordered to return from the runway to the gate just before takeoff after a screener reported smelling alcohol on their breath. Hughes initially told cops it was "merely mouthwash," according to police reports. But tests showed the two men had blood-alcohol levels more than double what's allowed for flying. Cloyd, 44, and Hughes, 41, have pleaded not guilty to charges of operating an aircraft under the influence, but were fired almost immediately by the airline. Their pilots' licenses have also been revoked. The bar tab became public after a hearing yesterday in which the judge on the case pilloried the pilots for failing to show up - and for leaving for their Arizona homes without permission. Circuit Judge Richard Maargloius warned that the pair had better show up at their next hearing, Aug. 1, "or els e." Each faces up to five years in prison if convicted.