Radio Pet Peeves

[sabreliner]

"taking runway 32 for departure..."

Taking it where?? I need to use it too, and I doubt your airplane can carry the whole thing!!

Also, ditto on what NJA Captain had to say about uncontrolled fields. I'm usually up high until only a few miles/seconds out from the pattern, and you've been unknowingly talking all over the guy at a field 40 miles away. Also, I'm trying to monitor and talk to approach as well as my company during that time, so there's a good chance I didn't here that last call or two that you made.

On a note not really related to radios, but to uncontrolled fields-

DO NOT DO A RUNUP HOLDING SHORT BLOCKING ACCESS TO THE RUNWAY!!!!! I don't have to do one and you are in my way while I'm burning lots of gas.

 

[jsoceanlord]

i've counted some puerto rican islander pilots that annoyunce on CTAF their position in the pattern over 7 times - even if no one else is around.

 

[bobbysamd]

Transponder etiquette/procedure

You don't have to read back a transponder code. Just set it in. ATC will let you know in short order if your code is wrong.

The best advice to be given about communications is that you say more with less. For example, let's say you want VFR flight following. Once you've established contact with the facility, just provide your position and altitude and say you're "VFR to East Armpit." You don't have to say "Request flight following." ATC will know what you want. It will assign a code if it can work you; you set the code in your transponder, and you're set. Transaction completed.

Good discussion, by the way.

 

[HAZ-MAT]

I cannot stand that "taking the active" at an uncontrolled airport... or whats even better is when they put a ZERO in from the of the runway number....
Spruce Creek traffice N12345 is taking the active zero-five......

The other one is "Roger That".

Funny one i heard today was here in BDL... it was snowing and about 2300RVR... you had a United, Delta, and Southwest at the end of the runway asking how much snow was on the runway, was it contamminated and blah blah blah... controller comes back to the Delta and told him to move out of the way because he had a Starcheck that wants to take off!

 

[skydiverdriver]

Some airports use Dixie instead of Delta, specifically Delta Airline's hubs, since that causes some confusion.

One complaint for the ATC guy, why do some smaller airports give the atis at such a fast pace? Don't they know we are trying to get the info 100 miles out over a radio, in a loud aircraft? Pleasee slow down. Sometimes it takes three times to hear everything, and we are busy up there!!

I like it when the guy is fourth in line for the runway, and he says Cessna 1234 ready to depart, in sequence. No kidding.

Bobby, I heard a controller get very upset at an airliner for not reading back the transponder code. I don't know why it bothered him, but I would suggest you read it back.

Good thread guys!

 

[Typhoon1244]

One complaint for the ATC guy, why do some smaller airports give the atis at such a fast pace? Don't they know we are trying to get the info 100 miles out over a radio, in a loud aircraft? Pleasee slow down.

I once got a clearance read to me by a controller at Lawton, Okla., at about thirty words per second. Fortunately I'd flown back and forth between DFW and LAW about a hundred times, my hand was warmed up enough to copy down all the numbers, and I was having an unulusally limber-tongued day. I managed to read-back the clearance at pace equal to, if not faster, than the one she used.

Guess what? She had to call me back and say, "I'm sorry, I didn't get any of your read back. You talk awful fast!" When I told her I was just trying to match her pace, she laughed and apologized, saying "we get so used to reading the same thing over and over that I guess sometimes we don't know how fast we're going."

I think that's the key: a lot of ATC guys are not really testing to see how fast you can listen. It's just a matter of habit.

Oh, speaking of talking fast, a suggestion for you "younger" guys: when you're at a big metropolitan airport during rush hour, and there're about eighty airplanes all trying to get clearances at the same time, call for your clearance at a slow relaxed pace and give your destination last. Usually the first part of your transmission will be blocked by the other seventy-nine guys, but clearance delivery will get the destination and call you back.

You: "zsdkjbasdflkawhrkawb--formation quebec to Saint Louis."

Cl. Del.: "Several calling at once...who's that going to Saint Louis?"

You: [Yes! Works every time!]

 

[Patriot328]

Some really good comments in here!

I have to agree with the fast ATIS. There's some guy down in CAE that has determined to make it his goal in life that pilots listen to the ATIS 4 times in order to write it down.

Speaking of 9-er, anyone know that guy down in RDU that is the nine-ER king? I mean, I'm all for standard radio pharsology, but the guy overdoes it.

Regarding the with you, I can honestly say I never use that phrase on the radio. I was cured of that when getting my multi with Don Lauderdale back at Riddle. He told me every time I used "with you" on the radio I would lose an engine.

First take off in the king air, switching to departure, I said "with you".. *slam* left engine failure... c'mon I have 25 seconds of flight time in the thing! Following week, I was doing a single engine NDB and checked in with tower using a "with you" and *blam*, lost the "good" engine... He was nice enough to give me it back, though...


I don't mind good bye, good days, cyas, take care, etc, as long as it's short and the radio isn't too busy. We are, afterall, talking to human beings down there in those deep, dark dungens of misery called ARTCCs..



Patriot

 

[whereamI]

Whispering Willie!

Anybody flying down in Tuscon every hear this guy on the radio. LOL, this guy will crack you up if you hear him. Using the correct phonetic pronunciation is one thing, but this guy is hilarious.

 

[avbug]

Bobb,

At LAX, where the radio gets a tad busy at times, when picking up a clearance, all ATC wants to hear is your callsign and transponder code. It's assumed you got everything else.

One thing you definitely do want to read back is the transponder code. Sure, ATC may see the code come up on the screen, but suppose someone else put it there, or dialed it in by mistake? Include the xpdr code when reading back, if time and frequency congestion will allow.

As for arriving in a blessed jet at 250 knots to an uncontrolled field...try monitoring local on the second radio on the way in. There is no need to ask any inbound traffic to advise. It's the lazy man's way of getting things done and is too self-presumptuous.

How far out do you copy ATIS and prepare to land? I always have it copied by 50 nm from the destination, and if it hasn't been completed, the in-range/approach checks are completed by this point. Certainly now that the backup radio is done with ATIS and any company-related calls should be complete, monitoring unicom or CTAF for an uncontrolled field isn't such a big chore, is it??

Throw it on the backup, and have the second pilot listen. You can even make a call or two as you come in, before switching over.

Most ag airplanes have aircraft radios, by the way. When I started in them, we had CB's and no aircraft radios...but in Western Kansas, it didn't matter a whole heck of a lot. Come to think of it, it doesn't matter a whole heck of a lot anywhere.

Strangely, that's why God gave us eyeballs, and the FAA likes to know about them every six months.

All except for those who think their TCAS and radio adressses the need for them. Sad. Dangerous, too.

 

[NJA Capt]

As for arriving in a blessed jet at 250 knots to an uncontrolled field...try monitoring local on the second radio on the way in. There is no need to ask any inbound traffic to advise. It's the lazy man's way of getting things done and is too self-presumptuous.

Perhaps you missed where I said we try to listen on the second radio, but 20 people are usually stepping all over each other and sometimes it's not possible to hear "your" traffic reports. It not unusual to come to an uncontrolled field, with an inbound commuter and local traffic in the pattern. We are trying to judge who is where and how to fall in line. It has nothing to do with being lazy.


What if a person's #2 radio is MEL'd?

OR

What if the guy is single pilot in a jet? Talking to ATC and running checklists? (Get used to that one Eclipse fans)

OR

What if someone stepped on YOUR traffic report?

OR

Who is listening to #2 when 1 pilot is flying and talking to ATC and the other is running a checklist?

OR

Maybe you just forgot to call downwind "once" when we WERE listening? (That's never happened has it? [sarcasm])

It sounds more like the people training in the pattern are the ones that are lazy. Students are practicing radio use aren't they?
Just so I understand. You want two guys in a jet talking to ATC, listening to your advisories, running checklists, configuring to land while slowing down. While one/two guys sit quiet in a C152?

It's just like showing up after a game has started and asking, "what'd I miss?" We get transferred over to unicom at the last minute and we would like to know "what we missed."

It's real simple. Just answer the question when asked.