What is O'hare Metering?

[jrh]

I have a quick question for the pilots who have gone in and out of Chicago O'hare.

A few weeks ago I flew out of ORD on a United flight that played the ATC communications through channel 9 of the audio system. While still parked at the gate, the frequency was called "O'hare Metering."

It sounded sort of cryptic. A lot of transmissions went something like:

"O'hare Metering, Skywest 1234, at the south line."
"Skywest 1234, monitor Ground .75"

"O'hare Metering, United 567 at the B gates."
"United 567, monitor Ground .75"

or

"O'hare Metering, United 789, do you know what runway we'll be getting?"
"United 789, you can plan on 9L."

And that's all that would be said at one time.

So what's this frequency used for? I'd never heard of a "metering" ATC position before this.

 

[casey]

ground is too busy giving taxi instructions and yelling at aircraft that wont keep moving to have you call up and ask for taxi. You basically call metering after ramp is done with you and they give you the appropriate ground freq to monitor. They do stuff on thier side to coordinate what sequence everyone is in for what runway, and when ground is ready for you they'll tell you what to do.

a lot of busy airports will use a metering freq when traffic is bad. Houston uses clearance delivery for that purpose (as well as delivering non-pdc clearances). I've only seen newark use metering a handful of times, just an extra freq to hop through between ramp and ground.

 

[blee256]

Whats a non-PDC clearance? I am assuming you are talking about airlines/airplanes w/o ACARS?

 

[jdflight]

LAX will occasionally use it. SFO uses gate hold, which is similar, but more for release times.

 

[BobDDuck]

Whats a non-PDC clearance? I am assuming you are talking about airlines/airplanes w/o ACARS?

Or those of us with ACARS but managment is too cheap to invest in the service. Non PDC clearence is the old fashion calling of clearence delivery and saying "N123XX to MEM with bravo". Don't tell me you forgot that already?!

 

[Chris_Ford]

Or those of us with ACARS but managment is too cheap to invest in the service. Non PDC clearence is the old fashion calling of clearence delivery and saying "N123XX to MEM with bravo". Don't tell me you forgot that already?!

Doesn't PDC stand for Prior to Departure Clearance? If so, that has nothing to do with ACARS, but ACARS is one way to get your PDC, right?

 

[DE727UPS]

"If so, that has nothing to do with ACARS, but ACARS is one way to get your PDC, right?"

PDC=pre departure clearance. ACARS is the only way to get PDC's. If you can figure out a way to get it on your cell phone, let me know. ACARS also allows you to get the ATIS sometimes. You have to look for D-ATIS on your jepp charts.

 

[Alchemy]

ACARS is the only way to get PDC's.

At PDC airports, the gate agents usually print out the PDC's for us and bring it down to the airplane as well, so if ACARS in the aircraft is Kaputt you can still get your PDC if you have a gate agen to do it for you.

 

[FlyChicaga]

Basically, at PDC airports, clearance delivery will send a text version of your clearance to your ACARS system 20-30 mins before departure time. Some ACARS have you request the clearance, while others will get it automatically. When I flew the SF34, we had to tap a "request clearance" line on the ACARS, then soon after the clearance would come. On the ERJ, it comes automatically.

You'll see on the airport diagram (10-9 page for Jepps) in the upper left hand corner if it's a D-ATIS, PDC airport. It will note this.

Sometimes even at PDC airports we won't get the PDC sent, so we'll call clearance and say something like, "Jetlink 1234 to O'Hare with Bravo, negative PDC." This way they know you didn't receive it.

Only select airports around the country have PDC and D-ATIS. More and more are getting it though. I have flown entire four day trips and not once called clearance delivery or listened to a broadcast ATIS.

 

[BobDDuck]

I wonder if it is an extra feature or is it part of the DAtis system. We get the ATIS over ACARS all the time but I have never tried to get a PDC clearance. There is a line for it on the ACARS. Maybe I'll have to try it some time and see what happens.

 

[Chris_Ford]

Ah, thanks for the clarification everyone. Technology is wonderful.

Maybe I'll have to try it some time and see what happens.

You have selected: regicide. If you know the name of the king or queen being murdered, press one.

/obscure?

 

[BobDDuck]

You have selected: regicide. If you know the name of the king or queen being murdered, press one.

/obscure?

Hmm... I'm not following you. That's from a Simpsons isn't it? Bart pushes a bunch of random buttons on 911 and get that. I'm not talking about random buttons. I'm talking about requesting a PDC

 

[Chris_Ford]

Hmm... I'm not following you. That's from a Simpsons isn't it? Bart pushes a bunch of random buttons on 911 and get that. I'm not talking about random buttons. I'm talking about requesting a PDC

The "press it and see what happens" just immediately made me think of that episode, for whatever reason. I can just see you hitting the PDC button and getting that message to pop up on the ACARS. Or... receiving a pizza.

 

[BobDDuck]

Shoot... that's how you get pizza. Here I was hoping that one day for a crew meal we would get a pizza. Turns out all I have to do is request it through ACARS.

 

[Bog]

JRH: consider metering to be like the initial call for taxi to ground. Once they've coordinated what runway you get, the ground controller will call you on the outbound ground freq (don't ever call them first lest ye be yelled at). It's an extra step, yes, but makes the task of getting around ORD a bit simpler. It's for outbounds only, so you'll hear references to South Port, Bravo Line, Charlie Line, The Y, Fox Alley, Gulf Alley, Hotel Alley, West Line, East Line, it goes on and on.

Once you make the switch to ground on 121.75, your taxi directions might be simple, such as:
"Air Shuttle 7000, runway 9L, Bravo, Juliet."
Or, you might get something insane such as (after 6 other aircraft have received their taxi instructions with no chance to read back or ask questions):
"Eagle 6969, runway 9L, Alpha Alpha 7 Bravo Mike 2 Mike Foxtrot back to Bravo to get you around the 80 who's in my way and not talking to me then the Bravo bridge Papa Hotel short of 4L for more there."
Don't ask them to repeat it, don't mess it up, and don't try to read it back unless they ask you to.

And don't ever stop when taxiing in ORD.