NORCAL tracon

ahsmatt7

ahsmatt7

Well-Known Member
I've been flying in NorCal's airspace since October when I moved out to the San Fran area from Texas.

I know that GA is a pain in the butt for a lot of controllers but the 123.85 sector controllers are always so angry sounding. For very good reason...I understand.

My point is this, what can I do as an instructor to make their lives easier? They even get angry with me sometimes and I am by no means an idiot.

Any NorCal guys/gals please chime in on here.
 
I don't work at Norcal but my advice would be to not take it personally. When people are busy they can sound more angry then they mean to be... some just generally are. As long as you aren't congesting the frequency needlessly then I wouldn't worry about it. I'm a center guy and to us 90% of light GA is very easy to deal with regardless of what they're doing but you do have controllers and pilots that make it harder than it needs to be.
 
I fly heavy metal around there all the time. They are just busy, and they are mixing GA, military, and big civil all in one big stew. You have everything from fighters, tankers, RJs, Chinese flight students, and every doctor and dentist in the Bay Area that feels like flying VFR with their private license that day. I don't envy their job. When a controller sounds irritated, I generally just keep it concise and don't ask for anything I can't get from the next guy. I also do my best to listen up...there is nothing like a super busy controller handing out instruction after instruction and then some dude listening to XM misses his call sign for a solid minute of wasted time. No wonder they get grumpy!
 
I'm the guy with the Asian student. I do keep it concise but at the same time, I don't expect to be yelled at either.
 
ahsmatt7 said:
I'm the guy with the Asian student. I do keep it concise but at the same time, I don't expect to be yelled at either.
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Some people are just having a bad day all the time. It's like the famous JFK ground controller that is just a complete ass. My usual response to that is to be as sweet as sugar and let them just continue having a bad day.
I have flown foreign students around in a busy tracon environment. I know it isn't easy. If it gets out of hand, I highly suggest you just call him on the phone. I have resolved a lot of miscommunication and misunderstanding with a phone call to ATC.
 
e6bflyer said:
Some people are just having a bad day all the time. It's like the famous JFK ground controller that is just a complete ass. My usual response to that is to be as sweet as sugar and let them just continue having a bad day.
I have flown foreign students around in a busy tracon environment. I know it isn't easy. If it gets out of hand, I highly suggest you just call him on the phone. I have resolved a lot of miscommunication and misunderstanding with a phone call to ATC.
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This... mostly about some people are always having a bad day. Just be thankful you don't have to work with them.

We get a lot of foreign training around here and even foreign military training. So as far as that goes, if your student can barely be understood and its busy try to bite the bullet and do most of the talking then work on the students talking when its not so busy.
 
if your really interested in seeing what they do and talking with them about how you can work together, go for a visit. if you decide to do that, you can land at MHR and they have a crew car you can use to drive to the tracon, about 5 minutes. just make sure to call and set up an appointment, you'll want to visit area C.
 
if any of you are reading here…thanks for your help…we have been using the heck out of your services in SCK and tomorrow MOD…lots of ILS and VOR and stop taxi backs….I appreciate you… Talk to you tomorrow.
 
you know what controllers really love when we are busy, when the first thing out of you mouth is "AAAAAAAAAZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH"
 
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