Funny Stuff Heard on the Freq

[DaveJ]

Yeah, but the airport involved, FTY, is almost a ghost town now. Twenty-five years ago it was a pretty busy place (I used to instruct there back then). Due to the high property taxes of Fulton County, however, most of the aircraft and flight schools there have been relocated to other airports where the taxes are more reasonable. Pretty much nothing left but various government and a few corporate a/c (GP, Coca-Cola, and I think Home Depot).

 

[Headwind]

Washington Center: Citation NXXX what is your indicated airspeed?

Citation NXXX: 250
Washington Center: Who gave you the speed restrication?
Citation NXXX: Clyde Cessna
I know most of the Citation jokes, but this is real.

Headwind

 

[Lrjtcaptain]

Scary part about that is that he is the only one in the tower. Running ground, clearance, and local control.

Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket.

What the hell are you talking about? That happens at every tower. I open mine alone, close mine alone....3 hours a day in the cab by myself.

Plus, lets use MCO for example..um....

You ever notice around 11pm or so you call in Orlando approach, and then the tower, and then ground, and get a clrnce outbound. Sounds like the same voice to me. UM....??? Could that mean one person is running the entire Bravo. I think so

 

[chperplt]

You ever notice around 11pm or so you call in Orlando approach, and then the tower, and then ground, and get a clrnce outbound. Sounds like the same voice to me. UM....??? Could that mean one person is running the entire Bravo. I think so

He doesn't even bother to have you change freqs... You're cleared for the approach, cleared to land, and cleared to taxi to the ramp all in one transmission.

 

[ShawnC]

What the hell are you talking about? That happens at every tower. I open mine alone, close mine alone....3 hours a day in the cab by myself.

Plus, lets use MCO for example..um....

You ever notice around 11pm or so you call in Orlando approach, and then the tower, and then ground, and get a clrnce outbound. Sounds like the same voice to me. UM....??? Could that mean one person is running the entire Bravo. I think so

So are you saying that there is no one in the Tracon? Or just one person at the Tracon, and at the Tower?

Do you work at MCO? Is the Tracon still at the old tower site or did they move it?

 

[TransMach]

Atc

FT Worth Center: XXX1051 turn right heading one two zero for noise abatement.

XXX1051: OK, one twenty on the heading, but just how much noise do you think we can make at flight level 330?

Ft Worth Center: Do you know how much noise it makes when a seven-twenty-seven collides with a seven-four?


Over ...

 

[JB74]

You ever notice around 11pm or so you call in Orlando approach, and then the tower, and then ground, and get a clrnce outbound. Sounds like the same voice to me. UM....??? Could that mean one person is running the entire Bravo. I think so

My father was a controller at Stapleton (Denver) back in the 80's and I can remember being on a midnight shift with him as a kid and him being the only controller on duty (TRACON). I was around 10 years old and I remember tagging aircraft with my own names, playing with the range on the scopes, getting all the flight strips and putting them into those tubes that shot up to the tower.

It made for some good memories.

 

[pilotman2105]

What the hell are you talking about? That happens at every tower. I open mine alone, close mine alone....3 hours a day in the cab by myself.

Plus, lets use MCO for example..um....

You ever notice around 11pm or so you call in Orlando approach, and then the tower, and then ground, and get a clrnce outbound. Sounds like the same voice to me. UM....??? Could that mean one person is running the entire Bravo. I think so

This would be what I was trying to point out.

I sometimes wonder why I'm trying to get a job doing that. I start school at CCBC for ATC in a month.

 

[Brett Hull]

Off Topic Alert!!!

Lrjtcaptain or any of the other ATC'ers,

I've never been on a tour of a Class C facility. How does one controller work everything? Do they have something like a D-BRITE in the cab? Where is the radar room usually in relation to the cab?

p.s., sorry for going off topic everyone. I didn't think this was worth creating a new thread for.

 

[310]

..... at an non-towered field, a BIG/HEAVY student and a almost as BIG instructor doing pattern work in a Cessna 152... on a very hot day...each call went something like Cessna N12345 heavy downwind 19 , Cessna N12345 heavy base 19 etc etc

 

[Jedi_Cheese]

Physically, a class B or C has 2 control rooms: the cab and the approach/departure room (don't know what it is called).

The cab in the tower owns the airspace around the runways (~3-5 miles), up to 1500 agl, and the airport land. From there, it is split up some more: clearance owns the printer that prints off the flight plans, tower who owns the airspace and the active runways, and ground who owns all the land except for the active runways.

The approach/departure room is split up into one or more approach/departure people as warrents.

When it gets slow, it will go to one person in the cab and one in the approach/departure room. Since tower isn't working in a radar enviroment (they are looking out the windows), it is tough for approach/departure to see what is going on topside. On the other side, tower will have a radar screen that displays the what the approach/departure guys can see.

This is in contrast to a class D where all the functions are in the cab. In that case, tower also runs the approaches (b/c the approach/departure room isn't around).

 

[minitour]

Physically, a class B or C has 2 control rooms: the cab and the approach/departure room (don't know what it is called).

The cab in the tower owns the airspace around the runways (~3-5 miles), up to 1500 agl, and the airport land. From there, it is split up some more: clearance owns the printer that prints off the flight plans, tower who owns the airspace and the active runways, and ground who owns all the land except for the active runways.

The approach/departure room is split up into one or more approach/departure people as warrents.

When it gets slow, it will go to one person in the cab and one in the approach/departure room. Since tower isn't working in a radar enviroment (they are looking out the windows), it is tough for approach/departure to see what is going on topside. On the other side, tower will have a radar screen that displays the what the approach/departure guys can see.

This is in contrast to a class D where all the functions are in the cab. In that case, tower also runs the approaches (b/c the approach/departure room isn't around).

In the private ground school I took, we actually got a "tower tour" of our D. It was set up exactly like you described the B and C. The cab up top and the radar room downstairs...really neat. Plus they showed us how the person upstairs can run the whole thing if needed (like when the radar room closes at 12). Really cool. Anyone know if any Bs or Cs are doing tours and how to get one? I kind of understand how "everything is done so no one has to talk to each other" but when there were only 2 people there (1 up 1 down) it was kind of hard to see how that works with someone running clearance, ground, tower, etc...

-mini

 

[Lrjtcaptain]

It doesnt matter what kind of airspace.

some airports have what is called up downs or tracabs. So they can run the approach from the Dbrite upstairs cause they can zoom out and use all the same maps. At night and early in the morning I work Local/Clrnce/Ground/Data all alone and it isn't tough. I just select all the neccessary freqs and do my job. Just gotta be careful to remember to listen up when your doing something else.

I dont work the approach control. Im just a tower puke. But, if its semi slow in the airspace, one controller is good because they get the entire airspace. No altitude restrictions due to someone elses airspace. Kind of cool to watch.

MK

 

[Jedi_Cheese]

In the private ground school I took, we actually got a "tower tour" of our D. It was set up exactly like you described the B and C. The cab up top and the radar room downstairs...really neat. Plus they showed us how the person upstairs can run the whole thing if needed (like when the radar room closes at 12). Really cool. Anyone know if any Bs or Cs are doing tours and how to get one? I kind of understand how "everything is done so no one has to talk to each other" but when there were only 2 people there (1 up 1 down) it was kind of hard to see how that works with someone running clearance, ground, tower, etc...

-mini

Check your PMs.

We got lucky once b/c the power went out during our tour (we were in the approach room) and the weather was going south. Talk about very busy controllers! And they didn't kick us out!

 

[Pilot124]

Way to kill an awsome post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Vector4fun]

This is probably more detailed than necessary, but since some asked....


I work at a Class C airport with separate Tracon and Cab, though all controllers, (except trainees) are certified and do work both. Along around 10:30 pm or so, the Midshift, (two people) shows up. One goes to the Cab, the other the Tracon. Along around 11:00 pm, providing traffic is light enough, and the WX is reasonable, we call the Center and they make a computer entry that directs all the flight plan strips to the tower printer, then we make a computer entry in our own ARTS computer to direct track control of all targets to one of the Tower positions. We have two D-BRITE radar displays in the cab with separate controls. One I'll range out to around 10 miles beyond our airspace boundry, and the other I'll leave at about a 20 mile range, so if I have to do some "fancy vectorin" close in, I have a better display with less target overlap.

Note, a D-BRITE display, if you haven't seen one, is about a 20" square, often mounted from the ceiling of the Cab. When I run the range out to encompass all our airspace plus a little, 1 mile on that display equals about 3/16th of an inch, so two aircraft 3 miles apart are just 9/16ths of an inch apart, or a little over a half inch. Don't expect me to get real fancy along around 2:00 am by vectorin' two airplanes a half inch >.....< apart....

Where was I? Oh yeah, we'll then call up all the normal Approach and Departure Freqs on the position we'll use in the Cab, and also set up the Clearance Delivery freqs for the satellite airports on a second position. (Using hand mikes now, we ditch the headsets.) Then call the Tracon for a briefing on what he/she has going, and take over the approach control in the Tower Cab.

Then the person downstairs will spend about 20 minutes closing out the facility, position and pay logs, close out the traffic count and delay logs etc. Afterwards, we simply spell each other on the one position in the cab, so one can eat or take a nature break etc. Helps a LOT having two person mids. They get real sleepy and dreary working by yourself, which we occasionally have to do if one sicks out. (no overtime on our mids...) Typically, the last airline flight arrives around 1:00 am, but may be later if WX delays at the Hubs have pushed everyone's schedules way out of whack. Afterwards, it's mostly just check haulers and an occasional Medivac or Police helo. Often the airport authorities will schedule some maint. on one of the movement areas, and there will be a detailed (almost hour long) inspection of all airfield lighting.

Along around 5:45 am, the whole process is reversed as the early shift arrives.

Busier facilities will keep the radar room open all night with three people. One acts as relief for the two. Then you have the facilities like MEM which are running lots of traffic all night long, and have a full compliment on the midshift. Also, some of the bigger airports are "split" facilities, where the Cab and Tracon are separate ratings, and none of the controllers are rated in both.

 

[dseagrav]

Shouldn't be a smartass!

I felt really stupid after this, but you'll probably get a laugh out of it.
The weather was crap today, low ceiling, but good enough for pattern work, which is good because I needed it. Anyway, second to last trip around the pattern, someone calls up out of nowhere and says "Anyone in the area, traffic advisories?" Just that. No callsign or anything. I wasn't expecting the instructor to answer, so I said "Gee..." as he keyed the mike and opened his mouth to talk... "...that was a really great callsign, wasn't it?"

Our intercom is set such that if I talk while he has the key down, we both talk on the radio at the same time, so I *KNOW* the other pilot heard me.

Then he says "HELICOPTER SOANDSO, flying the suchandsuch VOR approach, will report you in sight." You could hear the emphasis on his call, so now I know for SURE he heard me.

This happened about 3-4 seconds after I turned downwind.
I said "Maybe next time I should save my smartass remark until I'm sure you aren't keying the mike?" Did my BC-GUMP and prepared to turn base, when the heli passed by my 3, called and said "HELICOPTER SOANDSO, We passed you and you are no longer a factor." The instructor answered him, and I turned base, then while still in sight of the guy, and hurrying a bit because I turned late, I keyed the mike, called base, AND FORGOT TO GIVE MY CALLSIGN.

I realized what I did right after I let the key up. I felt like such a schmuck.
"Do you realize you just did what you made fun of that guy for doing?"

The heli pilot never said anything about this, so he's better behaved than I am. I felt like such a fool. I bet it was a real hoot for anyone who happened to be listening though.

 

[Philso]

My wife was flying back from London to Phoenix a few years ago on BA. Approaching Phoenix, the co-pilot came in the intercom and said the usual stuff, we are approaching Phoenix etc and then ended with ... "10 minutes to impact"