Oh SFO tower

ChasenSFO said:
Benefits: You get to check in at the "Cement Plant" and call it the "Semen Plant" and no one ever notices. "We'll get the new ATIS Unicorn and call you at the Semen Plant". A fun fact about that; it used to be the check-in point for SFO tower before the San Mateo Bridge became the hand off point. United, PSA, Air West, Pacific Airlines, and Air California pilots used to check in at "The Italian Shoe Factory", which was later shortened to "The Shoe Factory". LOL.
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Can’t remember if we did the same tower tour, but it was with the ex-military controller who had kind of a southern accent so he legit pronounced it that way, and would throw weird pauses into his transmissions.

“Report.. the….. semen.. plant.”
 
form810 said:
C'mon man. Pretend you are an efficiency consultant. I'm trying to figure out precisely why you need to spend so much time to accomplish something that seems, well, really pretty quick and simple.
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He literally did. We have to make sure the plane is going to the right place. Fixes, frequencies, headings or tracks, altitudes or altitude constraints, engine out procedures, flap and thrust settings, and V speeds are all runway-dependent. Change a runway, change all that, and it all has to be verified.

If that takes 1 more, it takes 1 minute. If it takes 5 it takes 5. Set the brake.
 
Ian_J said:
Was doing just that a few years ago and the Captain admitted to me the first time he ever got those instructions, he as a west coast guy, took a left at the lady then a right up the East River.

LGA was not pleased.
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I’m NYC based and have always wondered if anyone has flown up the east instead of the Hudson. I would love to hear that ATC interaction.

Fun fact of useless trivia, the East “River” is actually a tidal estuary. Would be cool if NY approach somehow worked that into their berating of a pilot that flew up the east.

“Sir, I told you to follow the river and you followed the tidal estuary, turn right heading 090 climb….”

roundout said:
He literally did. We have to make sure the plane is going to the right place. Fixes, frequencies, headings or tracks, altitudes or altitude constraints, engine out procedures, flap and thrust settings, and V speeds are all runway-dependent. Change a runway, change all that, and it all has to be verified.

If that takes 1 more, it takes 1 minute. If it takes 5 it takes 5. Set the brake.
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Seriously, we will all spend hours sitting around waiting for ground stops and flow times but rush through one of the highest threat occurrences to help maintain schedule integrity. Every time I’ve caught an error I made it has been due to rushing something that would have taken a minimal amount of time to do correctly. Never taking the runway unless everything is set and all checklists are complete is my personal preference.
 
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Airline pilots: 10 pages of discussion.
Business Jet pilots: I got 99 problems, but a takeoff runway change ain't 1.

VMC without any terrain around I'm ready in less than a minute. IMC with terrain nearby a new departure procedure, brief and programming is going to be necessary.
 
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Ian_J said:
Was doing just that a few years ago and the Captain admitted to me the first time he ever got those instructions, he as a west coast guy, took a left at the lady then a right up the East River.

LGA was not pleased.
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I actually asked my copilot, "which river is he talking about" "he means the Hudson" "which one is that?" :)

Seriously, NY sometimes has this "everyone knows everything about NY" attitude.
 
roundout said:
He literally did. We have to make sure the plane is going to the right place. Fixes, frequencies, headings or tracks, altitudes or altitude constraints, engine out procedures, flap and thrust settings, and V speeds are all runway-dependent. Change a runway, change all that, and it all has to be verified.

If that takes 1 more, it takes 1 minute. If it takes 5 it takes 5. Set the brake.
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Indeed. SET THE BRAKE.

Nothing has ever gotten better by rushing but everything is generally worse when you do.

I would loooooooooooove to have a landline chat with the controller that day. Nothing emotional, just a factual conversation about the task load of changing a runway in an Airbus and the aircraft owners expectations on how we accomplish it.
 
Wardogg said:
Airline pilots: 10 pages of discussion.
Business Jet pilots: I got 99 problems, but a takeoff runway charge ain't 1.

VMC without any terrain around I'm ready in less than a minute. IMC with terrain nearby a new departure procedure, brief and programming is going to be necessary.
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Lotta airlines are similar to that. There’s only one Air Line that be like…


THREE


TWO


ONE…



LIFTOFF! LIFTOFF!



Of Delta 832 and she has cleared the runway!



Taking flight to infiniti and beyond for mankind!







The rest of us are like, bro that’s the 10AM clapped out shuttle to Atlanta…
 
derg said:
I would loooooooooooove to have a landline chat with the controller that day. Nothing emotional, just a factual conversation about the task load of changing a runway in an Airbus and the aircraft owners expectations on how we accomplish it.
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The answer you will probably get from ATC is “that’s all well and good, but if it’s that lengthy of a task to work, then why didn’t the crew accept the offer to hold short that was given to them after the line up and wait was issued; knowing there was traffic on final? I gave them that option. They declined it.”
 
Oh I'd talk to the crew as well, don't get me wrong! ;) I even threw my LCP hat on a few pages ago.
 
derg said:
Oh I'd talk to the crew as well, don't get me wrong! ;) I even threw my LCP hat on a few pages ago.
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What I was meaning by that, is that ATC will probably listen to what you have to tell them and will be interested in learning that. But since they don’t and can’t know what is going on inside a particular airplane cockpit, workload or time-wise; the best ATC can do (even after their phone convo with you) is make the requests they make, with the onus being on the airplane crews to decline if they aren’t ready (or unable to otherwise comply), or accept the clearance if they are ready and/or can comply.
 
scooter2525 said:
Bring back ATC jumpseat rides!
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They are still around, right before Covid I had a Denver center controller up front. He said it was a pain to do but worth it for him since he was using it for personal travel.

It was insightful picking his brain on why things work they way they do, and it was funny listening to him talk poop on other controllers. We also asked him about what his peeves were in general and about our airline specifically. It’s funny because his chief complaint about us was something I ever really noticed but now I hear it all the time and really try not to let it happen to me. It was “you guys never answer the radio on the first call”.

Overall it was really good and I wish it happened more often.
 
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