shoulder taps

splash

splash

your social justice comic center
I'm not a big fan of shoulder tapping..

"abc ground, moon rover 123..."
"moon rover, abc ground"

But question is, how are pilots to know when or when not to do this? If the freq is busy I don't get the reason behind the shoulder tap. It seems as though at some airports the rules about this are diffefent or maybe the guy I'm flying next to knows more or less than I know. Honesty, he shoulder taps all the time and annoys me with it.

"Hello, is anybody there?"
"Yeah, you got the right freq with volume up I hope and I haven't taken an emergency potty break."

When there is 5-10 of silence after my transmission my mind goes in the gutter and the new Airplane movie which will never come out begins to play in my head...THEN I check to see if I made a mistake.

Edit: Are the mics cordless now, I mean are there potty time mics or headsets these days? I just know the pilot world is advancing and I think of others and wonder if their place is advancing as well. :)
 
Last edited:
It really varies controller to controller. Honestly when I'm busy I prefer it because I can tell you to standby and get back to you when I have a second. Sometimes you get VFR's calling up who tell you everything at once but my pen isn't ready so I'll have to ask you to repeat stuff anyway. Plus while they're droning on and on about what they want I have someone blowing through the localizer, a missed gap, and 4 others who need turns and speed. Basically there is no right or wrong in regards to the shoulder tap.

And we still have cords on our headsets. I don't think we will go cordless any time soon either.
 
You'll never make everyone happy. Try not to worry too much about it.

Even general guidance on this topic is greatly debated.
 
JordanD said:
I'll have to use that instead of my usual "still there?"

Which I had to use when we were being vectored extremely close to ORD and heard nothing but silence for a while. God I'm paranoid.
Click to expand...
Seattle weakly responded "here!" the other day.
 
NovemberEcho said:
I rarely have those quiet moments here at NY so when they happen I try to savor the silence, but it's always ruined with "still there?" Lol
Click to expand...
Same for me. Every once in a while I'll only have 1-2 aircraft I'm talking to. About half the time someone will ask for a radio check or throw out a "still here?"
My response is always "yep, still here, sometimes radio silence is pretty nice."
 
Stinger said:
Same for me. Every once in a while I'll only have 1-2 aircraft I'm talking to. About half the time someone will ask for a radio check or throw out a "still here?"
My response is always "yep, still here, sometimes radio silence is pretty nice."
Click to expand...

If I'm feeling snarky I'll mention to them the quiet is pretty rare and let's not go ruining it
 
Stinger said:
Same for me. Every once in a while I'll only have 1-2 aircraft I'm talking to. About half the time someone will ask for a radio check or throw out a "still here?"
My response is always "yep, still here, sometimes radio silence is pretty nice."
Click to expand...
HA! I disguise it as a request for rides...when "bueller" is not used
 
Pilots at a former employer got violated for losing ATC due to a screw up with a frequency change, so if I don't hear anything for a few minutes, I will do a radio check. CYA.....
 
Thing is, these "shoulder taps" go both ways...

"Airliner 123, XYZ Center"
"Go ahead for Airliner 123"
"Contact ABC Center on 123.45"

And this on a frequency that was neither quiet nor overly busy.

Didn't miss a call either.
 
JordanD said:
I'll have to use that instead of my usual "still there?"

Which I had to use when we were being vectored extremely close to ORD and heard nothing but silence for a while. God I'm paranoid.
Click to expand...
My answer to that has been "yes, for another 25 years or so"
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top