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CTAF Calls; please help!

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BuckMurdock1

Well-known member
Joined
May 2, 2003
Posts
476
Hey all-
I'm an airline pilot who still flys small-plane GA on occasion (less than I'd like due to cost/schedule), and have a special request to all instructors/student pilots & GA pilots in general...specifically with regard to CTAF communications.

PLEASE begin your calls with your aircraft TYPE. About 90% of the time, when entering a pattern at an uncontrolled field, this is how it goes:

Me: "Cessna Skylane N1234 entering left downwind RWYXX"

Airplane 2: "Cessna N2345 on left downwind RWYXX" (what are you? 172? Citation?)

Airplane 3: "N3456 on left base RWYXX" (now I don't even know your manufacturer. You may as well just say "airplane"..at least takes less time to say)

Folks; ask yourself this; what is the FIRST piece of info that Ground Control/Tower/Approach wants to know when you first make contact? When you are issued a traffic advisory: does the controller say "traffic 11o'clock opposite direction 1000ft above..it's Cessna N1234"? No! He calls it a Cessna Skylane..or Citation..or 421. This is the common sense aspect of the argument.
For those who need a proof source, look in FAR/AIM.

Frankly, if I'm close enough to read your #s while airborne--something has already gone VERY wrong. So just skip the #s and say "Cessna Skyhawk" (or appropriate type).
--Another "CYA" aspect of this practice; if you should accidentally land at an airport after curfew (or do something else you'd rather nobody knew about), would you rather the airport authority or Feds hear "Cessna N1234" on the recorded CTAF, or "Cessna Skyhawk"? Think about it.

Instructors; I specifically aim my plea at you--because you are molding these pilots from their very beginnings in our airspace. You teach them good habits, and they will practice them...

Thanks for your attention....
Rant over
 
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I fly a charter jet into a lot of unontrolled fields. Half the time, the guy on the radios (my radios) doesn't even know what direction we are coming from let alone the distance we are from the field. These guys sure as hell aren't going to make proper radio calls or learn "traffic pattern etiquette". most of these guys are just getting through the day, going through the motions, completely checked out. Its not just the youngins....Without enforcement, leadership, and consequences this will continue
 
I fly a charter jet into a lot of unontrolled fields. Half the time, the guy on the radios (my radios) doesn't even know what direction we are coming from let alone the distance we are from the field. These guys sure as hell aren't going to make proper radio calls or learn "traffic pattern etiquette". most of these guys are just getting through the day, going through the motions, completely checked out. Its not just the youngins....Without enforcement, leadership, and consequences this will continue

These are your F/Os? If they are that clueless, that is scary.

..And this brings up a perfect example of a potential accident due to simple non-compliance with procedures;
-Say you're flying a Citation (don't care which one). Your clueless "F/O" calls: "XYZ traffic, Cessna N1234 on 10 mile straight-in final RWYXX, XYZ traffic". Now the guy on turning left downwind & remaining in the pattern hears that call...assuming (incorrectly) that you're a 172. Naturally, he figures he has plenty of time/spacing to turn a left base/final inside of you & does it. Since your approach speed is over 2X what a 172 is..You have a near-miss with the pattern traffic as you converge at his base/final turn.

All that could've been avoided if your radio-operator simply said "Cessna Citation N1234"

PPPLLLLEEEAAASSEE get these "copilots" to wake up and get in the game instead of simply being a few hundred lbs of 'ballast'. I ask this because I am sharing your airspace and want safety to be preserved...
 
It's both. FO's and CA's, young and old, many backgrounds. In fact, we have a couple CFI types that are pretty good for the most part but have a tough time transitioning from arrivals and vectors in DC to screaming out of the flight levels into VFR conditions followed by a visual approach traffic pattern at a class E or G in west TX. No approach, no ATC instruction?, no one separating traffic? ....oh dear.... They have a tough time flipping the switch and going back to their roots. I can preach until I'm blue, but that's exactly what it is to them.....preaching. You can inform, instruct, lead by example, and even dish out some wrist slaps but you can't change attitudes and beliefs. I'm having a hard time believing they just forgot or dont think they need to. I think it's a combination of confusion, neglecting basics, followed by "just get it over with". Good habits are replaced with laziness and poor technique

I can appreciate you passion and concern for GA. Rules are written in blood. Also, with each act of neglect, the freedoms in General aviation get taken away
 
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You are lucky the older guys(50-60's) even talk on the radio and a have a transponder and If you fly around ag planes, forget about it!!! so do the "vfr" thing and see and avoid, do not assume and hope!!!! If someone is on final and you don't have a visual, then don't turn base and extend!!! If you are on ctaf freq then you are in non tower/uncontrolled field and that guy you are bitchin' about doesn't need to talk to you or anyone!!! Not safe or recommended but not illegal!!!

What is worse is the captain calls, "ahhhhhhhh xyz taffic, ahhhhhhhh is a cessna citation 1234 is ahhhhhhhh 20 mile final, ahhhhhhh runway 14, ahhhhhhhh xyz traffic"!!! or the eager student pilot..."xyz traffic, this is cessna skylane 1234, taxiing to runway 14 via taxiway alpha, november, charlie, crossing 34 onto delta, xray, to the runup area"!!! All this while 5 airplanes are in the pattern, 4 out of 5 are foreign students and you are just trying to get cheap gas. You have no idea what everyone is doing while this 4 minute taxi instruction is being transmitted!!! Thats a bigger issue for me than anything, when pilots give 4 minute taxi callouts while airplanes are circling waiting for Mr. future airline pilot finishes talking to himself and showing off his excellent radio usage!!!!
 
Hey all-

Me: "Cessna Skylane N1234 entering left downwind RWYXX"


If I could rant a little.... It's nice to know the aircraft type, but it's even better to know which field you're at. I like to state the name of the field first and last on the transmission. It's inevitable that you'll have 3 or 4 fields on a frequency and half a dozen aircraft. If you say the field name at the beginning and end of the transmission, you'll catch where they are at when someone steps on the beginning or end of their transmission.
 
Thats a bigger issue for me than anything, when pilots give 4 minute taxi callouts while airplanes are circling waiting for Mr. future airline pilot finishes talking to himself and showing off his excellent radio usage!!!!

That's annoying to me as well. Also annoying; gratuitous overuse of exclamation points.
 
If I could rant a little.... It's nice to know the aircraft type, but it's even better to know which field you're at. I like to state the name of the field first and last on the transmission. It's inevitable that you'll have 3 or 4 fields on a frequency and half a dozen aircraft. If you say the field name at the beginning and end of the transmission, you'll catch where they are at when someone steps on the beginning or end of their transmission.

I agree. Can't tell you how many times I've had to ask some guy who just gave a great, brief pattern call; uhhh what field are you at??

(i should've written all the words I say on my example..just condensed to the pertinent words to my point)
 
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