American Eagle Stuck mic

Autothrust Blue said:
In other words, you were nasty on the frequency, you got a phone number, and you continued to be nasty?

Congratulations. The facility is going to paint a target on your back and if you so much as fart wrong, you're going to get a pilot deviation.

(How NOT to do it.)
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I think my favorite controller mistakes thus far are:

ORF - asking for clarification 3 times (yeah, LIDOs didn't really have the place they asked us to go), and having the ground controller get short with us (yeah, told her to be more professional, in a nice calm voice).

DTW arrival - given a squawk change to my flight number, read it back, changed the squawk. 5 minutes later, controller complains to another flight they didn't change their squawk like they were assigned. They say, you didn't give us a squawk. Well, she gives it to them then, and tells us that we took another callsign's instructions. "No we didn't, you used our flight number". "Yeah you did". "Nope". Alllllmost got to tell her to pull the tapes.

Well there was the time they vectored us into an RA in IMC, in Class A airspace.

Sometimes I wish we could write them up, since they're so trigger happy on us.

A buddy of mine got a number to call because he didn't "check in" in a timely manner.... I mean, really???? GMAB.
 
banjo said:
I think they forget who they work for.
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The FAA, right? Because they don't work for you.

I've never heard anything on guard while buzzing around in 172s. But one of my best friends was ATC at a West Coast AFB until recently, and he could listen in on guard for thousands of square miles. He's also one of the funniest and raunchiest people I've ever met. Some of the stuff he would say when airline guys would get on guard, oh man! Bet they all thought it was some RJ pilot and not the guy vectoring them around!

Best one was he had a guy on his freq, the guy asked for a shortcut, on guard. He gave him the short cut in a disguised voice on guard. Then when the guy starting turning, called him on the freq "What the hell are you doing?!". The pilot freaked out. Then my buddy played it cool and said "Alright, that's fine, you can go direct X". In the voice. HAHAHAHA

I'll let you guys guess the airline. ;)
 
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Autothrust Blue said:
Wait, isn't there something about like "safe, orderly, and expeditious" in all of that? I thought that was the point.
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Airlines sell tickets on a schedule, pilots fly the airplanes for the airlines on that schedule, airplanes land at scheduled airports and independently run airports, government staffs people to control the flow of airliners and all other aircraft in/out of said airports independent of the airport(in most cases).
 
I think its good for atc to get a little feedback. If I was the rj captain I would tell them on the phone the same thing i said in the air.
 
banjo said:
I think its good for atc to get a little feedback. If I was the rj captain I would tell them on the phone the same thing i said in the air.
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Somewhere on an ATC forum a controller is writing that it's good for pilots to get a little feedback and that's why they ask pilots to call.

Controllers are the same as pilots, there are bad ones, good ones, and average ones, regardless of region. Seems to work better if you think of it as working with them rather than them forgetting who they work for.
 
I don't take the "they work for us" angle at all.

We're both doing our jobs.

I'm flying an airplane, which is my job.

The controller is sequencing traffic and providing separation, which is his job.

Saying that a controller 'works for me' is like a sandwich artist at Subway telling the guy on the automagic bread machine, "YOU WORK FOR ME!"

No you don't. You're working for the company that owns the airplane and the controller is working for the FAA. The quicker you people realize that, the fewer tantrums I've got to endure when I'm just trying to check in on the frequency.

Besides, @canadian_atc is a pretty tall fellow and, being Canadian, probably has some of his 'beat down' skills from hockey. I wouldn't mess with him! :)
 
cencal83406 said:
Sometimes I wish we could write them up, since they're so trigger happy on us.

A buddy of mine got a number to call because he didn't "check in" in a timely manner.... I mean, really???? GMAB.
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An Army buddy of mine became a controller- he tells me often as not that "unable due to traffic" or whatever just means they're lazy and don't want to do it.

My IRA instructor was also a controller, and he told me anytime a controller starts to wind up on you, especially if they're wrong, demand a 'TIME CHECK'. Getting the official time right then and there tells them YOU'RE going to make an issue and you're getting the exact time they have to mark the tape for reference later.

Used it once myself. Controller shut right up. (They were wrong..)
 
Autothrust Blue said:
Okay. We actually went back to LAX; we would have had to burn our alternate fuel to hang out. It took them 20-25 minutes to corral the pelican after closing the airport so I'm glad we went back.

Here (MP3 target; this starts about 23 minutes in, and you can hear my horrible radio voice.)

Best part is, though, Police One: "I've got a great shot from here..."
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I totally tried getting on your jumpseat for that flight!

The gate agent denied me because of weight restrictions, but in the end I guess it worked out better because I just took the barbie jet down there 30 mins later...
 
crazyjaydawg said:
I totally tried getting on your jumpseat for that flight!

The gate agent denied me because of weight restrictions, but in the end I guess it worked out better because I just took the barbie jet down there 30 mins later...
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Well you would have been ridiculously uncomfortable for an hour and change. Glad you got home okay even if you had to rely on the jet.

Of course...If I were commuting, I wouldn't rely upon the Brasilia. Unfortunately, they have made the people fatter and the airplanes heavier without giving us a takeoff weight increase above 26,433 pounds—especially in the wintertime. The customer service-flight deck crew communications about if there are non-revs standing around up there isn't always great either. "Ehhhh 27 and that's it!" (Well, maybe it is, and maybe it isn't.) I always do my best, but the FO's power is pretty limited on this subject.
 
Derg said:
canadian_atc is a pretty tall fellow and, being Canadian, probably has some of his 'beat down' skills from hockey. I wouldn't mess with him! :)
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Naw... the Canadians? They're panzies. Just whine that us US refs are biased and let the game get too physical.

Hey, you know ... there's lots of good ice in Vegas. ~.^ Should put together a JC tournament team. ^.^

-Fox
 
Derg said:
No you don't. You're working for the company that owns the airplane and the controller is working for the FAA. The quicker you people realize that, the fewer tantrums I've got to endure when I'm just trying to check in on the frequency.
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What do you mean "you people?"
 
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