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What airport has the worst controllers?

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Vector4fun said:
I can't wait for the thread on which airline has the worst pilots...
Well now I'm curious: who gives you guys the most trouble?
 
I can only speak for one controller, but there is one guy at SBP who gets so wrapped around the axle whenever there are more than about 2 airplanes in his airspace. He will constantly try to micromanage the pattern, and is FAR too optimistic regarding issues of spacing and closure rate. In other words, if there is a Saab (Final speed 125 kts) on a 3 mile final and a C-172 (Final speed 65 kts) ready to turn a 1 mile base, he WILL turn the Cessna inbound.

I have gone around more times with this guy as controller than I have at probably all airports I have flown into put together.

You can recognize him on the radio, he is always the one who says "Uuuummmmmm" between every other word in his transmissions.

LAXSaabdude.
 
Typhoon1244 said:
Well now I'm curious: who gives you guys the most trouble?

Southwest... they climb and descend slow, even when you ask them to pick it up they tend not to. They can be a real fly in the ointment when you have to get them down 10,000' through various traffic. No other airline deveiates for weather like AAL. Where everyone else goes 5-10 miles they go 60. Both things must be an SOP thing.

The WORST are the foreign carriers, the Varigs, Air China and the like, those guys are brutal. Old A/C, bad radios, communication barriers.

On the average day of working A/C less then 1% are trouble.
 
Amen at IAD. I just shake my head at those guys. We can't leave out the morning Signature Ramp controller at ORD. UAXers and Eagle guys know who I'm talking about. The rest of the ORD controllers RULE!
 
Well now I'm curious: who gives you guys the most trouble?

Ask me that four different months, I might give four different answers. ;)




ATCER said:
Southwest... they climb and descend slow, even when you ask them to pick it up they tend not to.

Must be a high-altitude thing. When I ask them to hustle up/down, they seem to try hard to please. They are especially good on or close to the runways. You can almost smell rubber when they take the runway on an immediate.


No other airline deveiates for weather like AAL. Where everyone else goes 5-10 miles they go 60.

Amen, but it's expected, so no surprises. I hate surprises.
SOP I can deal with.

On the average day of working A/C less then 1% are trouble.

Amen again. But that 1% can be more trouble than any ten other aircraft. There have been times when particular airlines were going through some upheavel, that the pilots were a bit difficult. But it seems to always smooth out eventually.


Typhoon, I've got a question for you. Some of the CRJs seem to take an awful long time to roll after taking the runway. Is that a checklist/procedures thing? Or do you think it's more likely junior crews. They can't ALL be Navy pilots. I used to say the Navy had catapults not because of the length of the deck, but because the pilots would have sat there on the runway until bingo fuel unless shot into the sky.:D

You Navy guys think T-2 or TA-4. We always seemed to need a 6 mile gap on final to roll one.....
 
ATR-DRIVR said:
Not a controller (thank god) but a certain female ramp 5 (atl) controller IS the worst!!!!!

:D

Does she switch ramps occasionally? I swear I've had her on 3 or 4 also.

Edit: sorry, didn't see ATLDC9's response. Must be the same one I'm thinking of.
 
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Charleston, SC (CHS) BY FAR has the worst controller. His name is Leigh and he thinks he is gods gift to ATC and in reality he can't work 2 planes at a time without it turning into a total cluster. Everytime I go down there Leigh is messing up his airspace. Watch out in CHS.
 
Without a doubt it's got to be PHX. They cannot stand GA aircraft. You have to beg and plead for a practice approach regardless of the time....and whatever ya do, don't ask to be vectored OUTSIDE the marker. Be lucky if you join at the marker.

Oh, the all time classic from them (on the only day of IMC I lived there).....

"Approach, N11111 request a contact approach into Deer Valley"

"Erm...a contact approach? Report the field in sight."

"Approach, I don't have the field in sight, hence why I need the contact"

"Roger...report field in sight"

"Approach, is N11111 cleared for the contact?"

"Negative sir, I need you to report the field in sight"

Fortunately by this point I knew I was close so I said i had it in sight anyway....what a joke that was.

~Fly~
 
Vector4fun said:
Typhoon, I've got a question for you. Some of the CRJs seem to take an awful long time to roll after taking the runway. Is that a checklist/procedures thing? Or do you think it's more likely junior crews.
Don't know...although I have, on occasion noticed what you're talking about. As for ASA, the checklist that comes right after "cleared for takeoff" only has two items...so unless people are being really meticulous about (1) turning on the landing lights and strobes, and (2) checking the fuel quantity, I don't think that's the problem.

Have you noticed that the CRJ's wings are really close to the ground? That means that the flux gates are also very close to the ground, where all the rebar and electrical cables are. Seven times out of ten, you get on the runway and discover that the DG's are out of whack by six degrees or more. Maybe guys are taking too much time slewing them around.

My personal technique: I align the DG's once while we're waiting for the runway, then give them a quick tweak (if necessary) when in position. As soon as I hear a takeoff clearance (for us :D ) I wave for the F/O to finish the checklist so that by the time he acknowledges the clearance and announces "checklist complete," we're rolling.
 
And the losers are...
Worst by far is KLAS, if there is a cloud visible on the horizon expect 1 hour ground stop. I think KSLC is a close second "Salt Lake Tower SkyWest 3635 is ready to go". "....is that SkyWest 3635 calling". Of-course we are the only airplane even remotely close to the runway... "Yes it is, we're ready to go". "Oh , SkyWest 3635, hold short 34L, I've got a Cessna on a twelve mile final, I'll get you right out after him"

Now for the winners...
Best by far is any SoCal controller. those guys know how to "push tin" and are way cool as well. KSFO controllers are also quite good. they've got one tower frequency and twice the runways as KSLC and are ten-times more efficient.
 
Why hasn't anyone mentioned ground control at ORD? I don't know that they're the "worst," but c'mon: no readbacks, multiple clearances per transmission, punishment for those who request clarification...

I mean, it's the only place I tell my FO to "just say 'roger,' and we'll try not to hit anybody."

Does it have to be that way? :eek:

One more nomination: I'm pretty tired of AEX approach vectoring 250-knot jets to Hell and back in order to get a 90-knot Cub in. Yeah, I know he's got the right-of-way, but I've known controllers who could do this smoothly. Not in Alexandria, La., though!
 
I gotta put mine in now. The worst controllers are the one at Air Force Bases. In Whichita Falls on night I was in a hurry trying to do a quick turn with frieght so I key up tower to get my clerance and taxi in one shot. Nope...contact CL/DL....Okey dokey then. Pickup cleanace and go to gnd...its the same guy. So I taxi and switch over to twr and guess what...its still the same guy. Now I am pulling my hair out at this point and cursing the place .
 
Part 2 Andrews AFB
Jeez what a nightmare. I am flying a BE-200 in formation with the XV-15 and we are trying to tell the controllers that the XV-15 is VFR ONLY. That is right as we hit a cloud bank in FORMATION. Mommy... So i bank away a little hoping to be in the same place on his wing when I come out. Talk about having to remove the seat cushion from my butt on that one. Then also trying to convince them that the King Air (me) has to land first because of approach speeds. The XV-15 has a gear speed of about 90 kts and the King Air falls out of the sky at that point. So the tilt-rotor lands first and I hit his wake ( I gave him plenaty of room but it wasnt enough). Holy maccoronni bataman. I immedatley firewalled the engines and went around. The controller then bitches me about about doing touch and goes.I get him set staight n that one and enter the pattern. I turn base just in time to go beak to beak with each an AF G-II. Thanks to the controller. He gets the AF bird back on his runway and me on mine. Gee I couldnt wait to go to the hotel bar that day.
 
Re: The cards don't lie...

brew3departure said:
...when Miss Cleo is working ground at LGA.

-brew3


AMEN!

Other than her....NY ATC is the best.

What about the guy that works clearance at LGA on the weekends...it takes him like 45 minutes to read it to you...then when you read it back you get:

"Ahhhhhh CHQ3808.............rrrrreadback corrrrrrect........contact grrrround for the push...........sayyyyy the gate?" Guy cracks me up.


By the way...PHL Approach is the worst.
 
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Lion Flyer

My brother used to be one of the signature ramp controllers at ORD but he's over in Baghdad now (in the army) so there's probably some new people there.

The morning guy sux huh? What kind of stuff does he do?
 
Worst: Masirah, Oman. Not like they have much traffic to deal with, but they are pricks and will make us wait forever when the Omani Air Force is out demonstrating Darwin's laws of natural selection. These guys try and trick you into landing without a clearance just so they can yell at you.
The funniest thing I ever witnessed was a crew initiated go around in Bahrain after a particularly impressive bounce. The Bahraini controllers had a meltdown trying to figure out why this crew went around and what they would do about it. I think there may have been one other airplane in their airspace at the time.
 
Typhoon1244 said:
...90-knot Cub in.

90 knots on a good day with a tail wind. Alot of times it's faster to drive than take a Cub.
 

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