The Dreaded Phone Number

[I_Money]

Many of us have heard people over frequency getting the 'dreaded' phone number - Can you explain who you are calling? What is going to be discussed? Does it mean you are going to get sent to the FSDO? Is it up to the controllers discretion? Is it something taken very seriously in the tower, recorded and filed?

 

[Dugie8]

Many of us have heard people over frequency getting the 'dreaded' phone number - Can you explain who you are calling? What is going to be discussed? Does it mean you are going to get sent to the FSDO? Is it up to the controllers discretion? Is it something taken very seriously in the tower, recorded and filed?

It pretty much means your dairy air (thats for TonyC) is grass and someone in a tall skinny building has a weed wacker. :nana2:

 

[BobDDuck]

I've been asked to call tower twice when I was instructing. Since I've started flying 121 I've had a captain ask me to get a number for Washington Center.

Of the two times the tower asked me to call one they just wanted clarification as to a pattern entry I did and to request that I come in from a different point (I called up on the instrument finals one time, but well outside the class D airspace so it was more of a curtisy thing). The other time the appoligized for vectoring somebody right in front of me.

The captain asked me to get a numeber for center due to a possible altitude deviation we had. They yelled at us about climbing through our altitude (by 3000 feet) when I checked in but then said it wasn't a problem. He called them when we got on the ground to double check and it turns out that Potomic was giving the wrong altitude to every aircraft on the climb out of DCA and we were the 5th plane to have the problem.

 

[averyrm]

I was asked to call New York approach, they thought I took off on something other than 1200 when VFR. Turned out it was someone else.

 

[AlexF]

I've only got that number once. It was late at night and I was doing some pattern work for currency. Apparently the tower was trying to drop "suddle hints" when they were talking to me, but I completely missed it (although I did think their choice of words was odd). So I land, get the number and call them. They tell me when the tower says taxi back to the runway with me, I need to answer "wilco" and not to repeat what they were saying, and other things like if the tower calls you by part of your call sign, even if it's just Cessna tango, then reply that, and no more. Anyway, as it turns out, they had a lot of residents complain of unnecessary noise recently and tapes were getting pulled, so the tower was trying to help out the pilots.

 

[Fox Xray]

The majority of the time you are given a number the issue will be resolved with the phone call. When you call you will most likely be speaking to a supervisor and you'll basically get a hand slap. The other night we had an air carrier that we had to repeat everything to 4 or 5 times, he was asked to call and was asked to listen up next time.

ATC: N12345, when you land call facility XXX @ xxx-xxx-xxxx

If the infraction was something more serious you should be given a heads up when given the number... such as:

ATC: N12345, be advised possible operational deviation, please contact facility XXX at xxx-xxx-xxxx

 

[SpiraMirabilis]

I've only got that number once. It was late at night and I was doing some pattern work for currency. Apparently the tower was trying to drop "suddle hints" when they were talking to me, but I completely missed it (although I did think their choice of words was odd). So I land, get the number and call them. They tell me when the tower says taxi back to the runway with me, I need to answer "wilco" and not to repeat what they were saying, and other things like if the tower calls you by part of your call sign, even if it's just Cessna tango, then reply that, and no more. Anyway, as it turns out, they had a lot of residents complain of unnecessary noise recently and tapes were getting pulled, so the tower was trying to help out the pilots.

Hehe, nice guys.

 

[TeddyG]

Hehe, nice guys.

exactly if a a controller states contact xxx possible pilot deviation. then yeah it's most likely your ass(thats in the 7110.65). I tell you what and this is GOLD dont ever go toe to toe with ATC just be like Im sorry we didnt catch that sorry, sorry. Get the point then we tend to back down. Hey were all human mistakes are going to happen. Most of the time the pilot is left of the hook. The other day I told a heavy dc-8 to hold short of a xxx rwy and the clown turns left onto a taxiway that was restriceted to smaller acft. Had a coworker quick to jump on a pilot deviation. I said nah nothing happen lets let it go. So just use your best judgement.

 

[GreenDayPilot]

I had to call it a while back... I was flying my 152 and appaaaarrantly you can't fly over Washington DC for scenic flight....go figure!!!

 

[Timbuff10]

I had to call it a while back... I was flying my 152 and appaaaarrantly you can't fly over Washington DC for scenic flight....go figure!!!

Sure you can... Once!

Consider it your retirement flight but trade in the water cannon salute for real cannons!

 

[SpiraMirabilis]

thats when they deploy the PAC-3 missiles!

 

[pilotnate23]

Many of us have heard people over frequency getting the 'dreaded' phone number - Can you explain who you are calling? What is going to be discussed? Does it mean you are going to get sent to the FSDO? Is it up to the controllers discretion? Is it something taken very seriously in the tower, recorded and filed?

It depends. We've issued the number to the watch supervisor's desk (sometimes recorded) to talk with the watch sup. Sometimes it's the recorded line that goes to the operating positions (speaking from a terminal radar perspective: the same one you call for IFR clearances at some uncontrolled fields). In that case you'd talk directly to the controller that you were dealing with. It's usually up to the watch sup as to whether or not an incident gets reported to the FSDO. Is it taken seriously - sometimes if what happened was bad enough...often times it's just to try and clarify a situation and it's dropped at that. Hope this helps.

- LL