Any traffic in the area please advise!!!!!

[BE90flyer]

Cessna 1234 10 miles west, any traffic in the area please advise!
Cessna 1234 entering downwind, any traffic in the area please advise!
Cessna 1234 turning base, any traffic in the area please advise!
Cessna 1234 turning final, any traffic in the area please advise!

Please stop this now, it’s getting very annoying hearing this all the time. Unicom, multicom, CTAF frequencies are designed to be monitored and then to announce your position. If you monitor you appropriate frequency far enough out you will know if there are any other traffic at your airport.

There may be 10 airports using the same Unicom frequency in an area. The airwaves are busy enough without everyone stepping on each other to announce there positions 4 or 5 times.

Neither the AIM nor any other aviation publications recommends or suggest using this particular phrase. So please stop using this unneeded phrase and just listen to the radio like you are supposed to.

 

[TrafficInSight]

Here, have a cookie.

 

[Catbert]

I'm glad you posted this. Where exactly does this phrase originate? I used to work line service and would hear this from jetlink after the tower closed. More recently, a student of mine was a tower controller and would pop this out anytime we went to a non-towered field. I told him it wasn't required... but it was a little annoying. Is there any good reason to do it?

 

[aucfi]

Cessna 1234 10 miles west, any traffic in the area please advise!
Cessna 1234 entering downwind, any traffic in the area please advise!
Cessna 1234 turning base, any traffic in the area please advise!
Cessna 1234 turning final, any traffic in the area please advise!

Reason # 5,403 I love flying the ol J3, no radio. :beer:

 

[MFRskyknight]

I don't think it's necessary to add "any traffic in the area please advise" after each position call, but I usually make a request for active traffic at 10 miles out or whatever, unless the CTAF is too busy and I'm obviously going to tie it up. If the freq is dead anyway, what harm could it do? You just might alert the guy about to turn onto the runway who thought he was the only one out there and got lax with his calls.

There's a lot of things that aren't "necessary" that aren't exactly bad ideas...

MFR

 

[SDCFI]

It's just like saying "and" at the beginning of a transmission, or "checking in" and "with you" to ATC. There's nothing that says you're not supposed to, but it just sounds tacky. As if there's some schmo in the pattern thinking to himself "well, I wasn't going to respond to his position report, but since he said "any traffic please advise" I guess I should." I heard a regional pilot say this last week and it reminded me of back when I was instructing and the guys at a competing flight school who trained a lot of foreign students seemed to use it all the time. Whoever started this trend needs to be taken out back and beaten with a rubber hose.

 

[charter dog]

"any traffic in the area please advise"

We were just discussing this very subject last night about midnite. We had departed our home field (after ATC had gone home) for a repo flight and the other pilot had made this announcement on the radio. I told him about having read about the great annoyance many other pilots feel when they hear it. I also mentioned that I have no real position on the issue because it may depend upon the circumstances as to whether or not this is necessary or appropriate radio usage. I pretty much left it at that since it was late and we had more pressing concerns like when, if ever, would we get any sleep!

On reflection, (after getting some sleep) I now realize that this is not consistent with what I really believe. I guess I was too tired to be a Richard about it! (also a little out of character) In fact, I am a stickler for the important stuff like runway taxi instructions, altitudes, anything where a misunderstanding could create a hazard. I also like to hear crisp, brief radio transmissions that utilize standard phraseology so that everyone on frequency will understand what was said in the same way. But maybe I grow tired of being a pain about it all the time. I completely understand that the AIM does not cover all situations and it certainly does not limit you to only using phrases printed in the P/C glossary. That said, I get just as annoyed as anyone else does when other pilots needlessly tie up the frequency with extranious chatter and poorly phrased transmissions. If it's not busy, it's less of an annoyance but still a distraction.

As to the phrase; "any traffic in the area please advise", I understand why somebody (probably some airline D.O. just itchin' to write a memo!) might have thought this would be a good idea to help situational awareness as the switch from an ATC frequency to advisory is made. However, I do question the usefullness of doing so. What does this do for you that simply announcing your aircraft type, position and intentions doesn't? Anyone else making proper position/intentions advisories will do so whether you ask them to or not.

So while I do not choose to use this phrase, I do hear it plenty. maybe we just need a good reply to give when someone does. Any ideas?

Here's my submission: Everybody on freqency counts to three and then keys down to answer at the same time. On second thought, I guess that kind of defeats the purpose of CTAF! Pardon my sick sarcasm.

Thanks guys, for helping me finally arrive at a definitive position on this matter. I will share that with all my cohorts. It may be like shoveling sand against the tide, but it's better than doing nothing.

Best,

 

[sharpeye]

I've been a member of this forum for a long time but i don't have many posts because i usually just post to things I definately know about or things that are very important to me and this is one of them, because I just finished reading an accident report involving a king air and a navajo that ended in 3 fatalities while one was landing and the other taking off at an uncontrolled field. Asking for traffic advisories when you first get on freq is not a bad idea at all and I highly recommend doing it and yes I do it. Because when I first get on freq I want to know about any traffic in the area right now, I don't want to wait for them to tell me where they are at because by the time they tell me it might be too late. I don't fly into any noncontrolled airports and I am happy for that because they are more dangerous then noncontrolled airports, but I used too, and I would make a radio call when on downwind, another on base, and another on final, and sometimes when on short final. Someone taxing out can know where I'm at all times, and who knows maybe they were too busy running checklists or distracted by something else and didn't hear my first two calls. It's important to make the calls and one day could save your life, so by all means my recommendation would be to make the calls. Asking for traffic advisories after every call you can do without, but making your position calls is important.

 

[MauleSkinner]

I'm glad you posted this. Where exactly does this phrase originate?

I believe it originated either at Great Lakes, UND, or some combination of the two...I started hearing it back around 1989 or 90 here in the upper midwest, and nobody else around the country had heard of it. Obviously it's spread since then (kinda like the plague).

Asking for traffic advisories when you first get on freq is not a bad idea at all and I highly recommend doing it and yes I do it. Because when I first get on freq I want to know about any traffic in the area right now, I don't want to wait for them to tell me where they are at because by the time they tell me it might be too late.

As far as this goes, most of us have two radios these days...if you monitor a little farther out, you can get a good picture of the traffic in the area and avoid asking 4 or 5 people to repeat the calls they just made, solely for your comfort level.

Fly safe!

David

 

[340drvr]

It always seemed to me rather like answering the phone, and saying "Hello, I'm answering my phone now....Hello?"