"Nxxx check your flaps"

J

JordanD

Here so I don’t get fined
Had this tonight which I thought was mildly interesting and made me a little curious. I get done with a student, we clear the runway, get taxi clearance back to parking. My student forgets to clean the airplane up, so we still have full flaps down and the landing light on and all that, but I decide to let it go and see if he catches it. Just as we're pulling in to parking, clearly on the ramp by the hangar, ground pipes up and says "November blah blah blah check your flaps."

No big deal, but why would they care? I've heard the old tale about leaving your flaps down coming into the gate as another form of squawking 7500, but I've never seen anything official about that and on top of that, why would that ever be an issue in a 172?

Bored, maybe well intentioned controller?
 
Haha, we don't need ground/tower telling us around here. We let all the flocks of students watching out the window laugh and make the same usual remarks as the new guy rolls up with flaps down and strobe lights on for all to see. :rolleyes:
 
I heard a controller once say that is one way to let controllers know you're being hijacked.

EDIT: I see you have heard the same.
 
JustinS said:
and strobe lights on for all to see. :rolleyes:
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At Parks College Professional Pilot Development Academy (or whatever), it seems that having the strobes on at night is SOP. It makes the red mist descend upon this erstwhile viking. Sure, light em up on the runway, or even crossing a runway, but all the way to the tiedown? Just a little more of the "I'm the only person in the universe, screw you" aesthetic we've all come to know and love in 21st Century Amerika.
 
The flaps = hijack thing doesn't have to do with leaving the flaps down. You'd ask the pilot to verify their flaps were down, and if they answered in the affirmative, that was your clue (whether they were or not, why would ATC care, the idea was for the question to sound normal to the supposed hijackers so they wouldn't suspect someone was on to them). It's not used anymore.
 
Boris Badenov said:
At Parks College Professional Pilot Development Academy (or whatever), it seems that having the strobes on at night is SOP. It makes the red mist descend upon this erstwhile viking. Sure, light em up on the runway, or even crossing a runway, but all the way to the tiedown? Just a little more of the "I'm the only person in the universe, screw you" aesthetic we've all come to know and love in 21st Century Amerika.
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Haha, well it's not SOP for our 172s we keep only Beacon on until we're ready to take the runway or when crossing a runway.
 
Boris Badenov said:
At Parks College Professional Pilot Development Academy (or whatever), it seems that having the strobes on at night is SOP. It makes the red mist descend upon this erstwhile viking. Sure, light em up on the runway, or even crossing a runway, but all the way to the tiedown? Just a little more of the "I'm the only person in the universe, screw you" aesthetic we've all come to know and love in 21st Century Amerika.
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There's a school with a bunch of Cirruses in our building, the strobe thing drives me absolutely nuts. People need to look up the reg and see the pilot's discretion part.

One of the Pilatus guys that comes in every night said he was going to start blasting his landing lights at them every time they sat on the ramp with the strobes blaring.
 
Pretty sure the Nav lights don't work in lieu of anticollision in the case of the cirrus

Sent from my Nexus 4
 
elmetal said:
Pretty sure the Nav lights don't work in lieu of anticollision in the case of the cirrus

Sent from my Nexus 4
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Yeah, but the reg says you don't have to run the strobes if they are distracting to other pilots - which they are.

I flew a Piper Archer for about 120 hours that had 3 light switches. Landing, nav lights, an strobes. Never once did I run the strobes on the ground other than taking the runway or crossing a runway. Nav's are enough.

I also worked line service for 3+ years. Nothing more annoying or distracting than someone sitting on the ramp with all the lights going at night, for you know, safety. A plane pulling into the ramp with all the lights on lit up like a circus act was pretty annoying too.
 
Roger Roger said:
Yes, but that doesn't mean you turn it on on the ramp/taxiway at night. God and Klapmeier gave you nav lights for a reason.
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Our PA44 doesn't have a beacon, so the strobes are the only anti-collision light, but I still teach not to use them when we're taxiing around the ramp, especially with another airplane on it that is clearly occupied. There is a pair of demo Cirri that live in the hangar down further down the ramp and the pilots always taxi around with the full light show going day and night.
 
FM_Weasel said:
The flaps = hijack thing doesn't have to do with leaving the flaps down. You'd ask the pilot to verify their flaps were down, and if they answered in the affirmative, that was your clue (whether they were or not, why would ATC care, the idea was for the question to sound normal to the supposed hijackers so they wouldn't suspect someone was on to them). It's not used anymore.
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Still included in the FAA powerpoint on the subject as of 1/13
 
I would guess that perhaps the ground controller is also a pilot, noticed the flaps and thought he would offer a helpful reminder.
 
JordanD said:
For a 172 though? C'maaaaan!
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I was really only replying to FM. Sounds like this guy was just bored/irritated/a know-it-all (none of those traits uncommon at all in the profession). TBH I think the whole hijack procedures are a joke. They might fool the idiots who hijacked ETH961, but the American trained 9/11 hijackers would have been taught about them in ground school.
 
greg1016 said:
I was really only replying to FM. Sounds like this guy was just bored/irritated/a know-it-all (none of those traits uncommon at all in the profession). TBH I think the whole hijack procedures are a joke. They might fool the idiots who hijacked ETH961, but the American trained 9/11 hijackers would have been taught about them in ground school.
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Yes but at the same time the 9/11 hijackers did not hijack the airplane on the ground.

Current hijackers would probably not take over the plane on the ground, which is probably one of the reasons this method is not taught anymore to alert A.T.C.

I did not even know that this alarm existed in preventing a hijacking.
 
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