Unprofessional controllers

[ArcticFlier]

IAH..............all the attitude of ORD with half the talent.


AF

 

[crashpad]

DIA Rules!!!

 

[ERfly]

ORD is a mess. They can move some airplanes, but if you're unfamiliar with it, you're completely lost. We landed there the other day just behind America West. They rattled off something. I had no idea what it was. Luckily, our instructions were, "Jetlink, follow Cactus." I just responded with, "That we can do."

Leaving ORD is equally a mess. Once Metering tells you to monitor ground, listen up. I was listening for like 3 seconds. He'd already given 4 airplanes taxi instructions. I realized after a couple of more seconds that he wasn't breathing, he was just talking. I'd be perfectly happy not going there unless I have to.

 

[General Lee]

General

How does ord suck? They are some of the best guys around. More than once when they were busy we just kind of followed the traffic and went right to our gate. About half way there they would say wisconsin you know what your doing keep going. They are great! Now iad IS THE WORST GROUP i HAVE EVER SEEN!!!!!!

They seem overly hyped at ORD. ATL is easy going and nice, with more traffic and fewer runways. I haven't been in there(ORD) in a couple years though, since our 757/767s don't really fly there anymore, mainly MD88s and 73S. Maybe they have changed......


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[chperplt]

ORD really isn't all the difficult to manage. They don't talk any faster than the guys in NY and they don't have that annoying NY accent.

 

[ERfly]

ORD really isn't all the difficult to manage. They don't talk any faster than the guys in NY and they don't have that annoying NY accent.

Yeah, but in LGA, it's Bravo, Echo, Alpha to the gate. That's fairly easy. I can't even begin to explain ORD.

I guess even IAH can become confusing if you're not used to it. Hell, every one of our taxiways has 2 letters. Even the ground guy got messed up today. He told us to taxi to 15L via Whiskey and Alpha. I just shot back with, "I'll assume you mean Whiskey Foxtrot, Whiskey Alpha to 15L." He responded with, "Yeah, that's the one."

 

[ArcticFlier]

ORD is a piece of cake.................patience is the key. I've got 41 more medicals, 41 more sim rides, 20 more ground schools. ATC is the least of our problems.


AF

 

[Beechnut]

ATL has more passengers pass through the airport. ORD has more airplanes. ATL has 4 strips of concrete and none of them intersect. ORD has....6(?)... use to be 7 and many of them cross each other... except for the parralles... but that doesn't really count because the two arrival runways are not the same departure runways.

Roger was great. Seemed to be a really nice guy. I hear he would work out his sched so we was working Oshkosh. When he was in a mood, his acknowledge to your check in was "Welcome to Mr. Roger's Neighborhood." He retired about a year ago.

S.

 

[pilotmyf]

Milwaukee Approach

 

[pianoman]

ORD doesn't seem to bother me; doesn't matter where you're taxiing just do it fast. NY airports are great.


IAH........ part of the problem and the reason guys screw up taxi instructions is that they don't use taxiway names when giving instructions. If you're not based there and they say take "A" when it's actually "NA" you may miss it. Also the only airport I can think of where you have to call CLEARANCE to taxi every time.

 

[J32driver]

F'cking LOVE ORD! Best controllers in the world. Only 2 rules to remember... NEVER call outbound ground.... and NEVER stop moving. Oh yeah... Roger rocks. Used to love talking to him and never being able to get in the last word...EVER!

F'cking HATE IAD. BUY a frickin metering frequency!!! Why do I have to talk to 3 different ground controllers to taxi down one parallel taxiway? Oh yeah... and don't expect me to try and land 1 1/2 miles behind a 757. I'll go around every time... you morons!!!

MKE... controllers are fine... but the traffic flow for arrivals has been jacked up ever since they took over the airspace up to 13,000. Don't know what the problem is, but they have a complete inablity to send an airplane in the direction it really needs to go. Coming from the south... gonna land on 25L... why don't you turn left direct MSN and then we'll set you up on a downwind for 25L. When you can see AZO... we'll turn you base. When you cross the shoreline of Wisconsin again... we MIGHT clear you for the visual.

 

[PropsR4Boats]

Yes Rodger retired about a year ago but then he came right back. He says he doesn’t know when he will leave. Would also say when he gave you a change…”thanks for being my neighbor.”

 

[Mookie]

The IAH guys are great, don't know what ya'll are talking about. I've even been up for a tour to the tower and with approach. Hell...we even invited them for our "Thank god we don't have to fly to Victoria ever again" party. I do have to say...not to bash, but I havn't heard so many people step on other people as the CAl and Express Jet guys do. Patience, younge jedi's...

Mookie

 

[ERfly]

Also the only airport I can think of where you have to call CLEARANCE to taxi every time.

That get's to be a pain in the a$$. Especially if you're at the gate and a PDC doesn't come up. You can't get a word in to get a clearance during a big push. Then, when you are ready to taxi, the guy in front of you had his flight plan drop out of the system, so you have to wait for him to get his new clearance. Meanwhile, you're ready to go. It's a stupid system.

 

[flap operator]

CVG sucks for the fact that they get all balled up when it's busy. On a perfectly clear, nice, day you're turning 20 mile finals. Not to mention the whole 40-50 miles out slow to 250 'cause they're going to stick you at 9000 outside DAY crap. CLE, STL also get my vote for awful ones.DTW rocks and are usually super cool, esp to Mesaba. MSP is great trying to pack into 2 rwys tons of traffic. MSP sucks though when they don't use meetering properly. It makes no sense to have the controler working meetering, clnce and ground. When they're using the 30s it's a bottleneck to try and leave cricle 79 and enter the ramp on 99. Never had a problem in ATL, ORD, EWR but the boyz in PHL are kinda goofy. But I suppose they're just trying to deal with a rwy nightmare.

Some enroute controllers are just bad too. THe worst was MEM center climbing out of MEM on our way to BNA. He clears us direct Grahm for the Grahm arrival. Then a few minutes later he gives us a heading to fly and said "Mesaba 35XX turn right heading 180, so I can get a real plane with real pilots around you guys." I was so mad I was speechless.


FO

 

[General Lee]

ORD doesn't seem to bother me; doesn't matter where you're taxiing just do it fast. NY airports are great.


IAH........ part of the problem and the reason guys screw up taxi instructions is that they don't use taxiway names when giving instructions. If you're not based there and they say take "A" when it's actually "NA" you may miss it. Also the only airport I can think of where you have to call CLEARANCE to taxi every time.

You call Clearance first in BOS most of the time too before push or when ready to taxi.


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[Capt. Caucasian]

You call Clearance first in BOS most of the time too before push or when ready to taxi.


Bye Bye--General Lee

General,

Since the 756 does not go to IAH you probably have not been there in a while so I shall explain a little bit. Being IAH based myself I don't see any big deal but I can understand how this can get wierd. SOP in IAH is to call ramp to push then call ramp when ready to taxi. Ramp issues a spot number to taxi to and upon reachinf said spot contact clearance. Sitting at say spot one you call clearance with the info they say monitor ground 118.57. Now you wait to be called and issued taxi instructions from ground. Basically it is just like ground metering.

Frank,
How bout it? Shoot me an email or PM me, I'll be moving to ATL in the next couple of months.

 

[SlapShot]

I have heard that IAD is a training facility. I do not know if that is true but that would certainly explain how the controllers get confused so easily and then get short with you when you question their idiotic taxi instructions. The other day it took us 50 minutes to go from Spot 105 to RWY 30. I believe every airplane Independence owns taxied by us holding short of Zulu.

PIT has some of the coolest controllers. I miss going in and and out of that place. I would love being "cleared for an immediate departure, traffic on a 2 mile final". IAD does not put you on the runway if there is another airplane within 5 miles of the runway. Also the PIT controllers just have a cool attitude. Although I could deal without having a "Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiicccccccccccccccccceeeeee Day."

 

[acaTerry]

The night crew at IAD ramp...love those guys! Classic IAD Ramp:

One night back in 1999 there was a BIG fire to the east of UAd and every guy contacting ramp would ask about the fire. Every single one.
Well, after a while the ramp gets tired of repeating himself and just goes "Attentiona all aircraft, Dulles Ramp, the fire to the east of Dulles is your crashpad....YES YOU LEFT THE OVEN ON".

 

[JohnQ]

Best controllers--ATL. Close second would be a tie between BOS, LGA (tower only), and ORD. Yes we all have our gripes (especially Miss Cleo in LGA, which is why I did not nominate LGA ground) but they all do a good job in very busy airports with limited acreage--especially LGA.

Worst controllers--FLL Gnd, BY FAR. I realize they have only one airline-usable runway, because the NIMBYs in FLL don't want 9R extended, but even so, they suck. I have rarely seen so much ground traffic screwed up by completely incompetent controllers, and for no reason. I've held short of a ramp exit point waiting for some propjob to pass me by, wenh they haven't even exited 9L yet. Then when they do finally pass us, ground ctrl has already forgotten we were waiting for them.

Etc. Etc. CVG could use improvement, in that they seem incapable of less than five mile spacing between departing and arriving traffic--though they have gotten better compared to a few years ago.