Tower's closed, roll tape?
 

Question for the ATC guys.

I've heard (and probably said) a few stupid/inappropriate things on the CTAF when our local tower has been closed. Yesterday there was an exchange between two pilots regarding the runway in use (and in follow up, who was going to do what, where and to whom) that had me concerned from both safety and FAR perspectives. It got me to wondering if smaller towers keep an audio record when in operation. And, more to the point, do they keep an audio record of CTAF chatter when closed?

When I was a controller in the 80's, we turned the tapes off when there wasn't a controller on duty. I can't say if that is still the case today.

bob

As an aside, if it's a feed covered by www.liveatc.net, then it will be archived there.

The recorders are turned off when the facility is closed. Listening to CTAF can be very entertaining though.

Yep...they turn off the tapes when closed. As for liveatc.net, that is typically the busier airports and if your tower closes at night, I highly doubt they will be on liveatc.net.

Are yours digital? We don't do anything with ours now that they are logged to a computer. Have to say, I've never searched a time frame when we weren't open, but something tells me there's at least some overlap. I'll check tomorrow.

I assume they are all digital these days and to avoid filling up the memory with useless data they are programmed to go off shortly after, if not immediately after, the tower closes. My tower doesn't close so I could be wrong but that is my understanding.

There's a story out there about a bunch of planes lined up and waiting for take off. They had been waiting quite a while due to incoming traffic when one smart *** pilot came over the radio and stated frankly: "I'm ****ing bored!" The ATC demanded that the pilot identify himself, and the pilot replied: "I said I was ****ing bored, not ****ing stupid!"

While chatter like this can be entertaining at times, I always get a little uneasy when I hear undisciplined radio usage, unless it is at a very small, uncontrolled airport, and not much is going on. Point is discretion is required. Do I think the FAA should regulate stuff like this or towers should roll tape? Heck no. The FAA has their fingers in enough peoples' pudding as it is. It's up to us to hold each other and ourselves accountable. Even if towers did roll tape, it'd be ineffective because who the heck is going to sit around and listen to all the tapes? And there's no guarantee that pilots engaged in such bafoonery would identify themselves over the radio. I imagine it'd get expensive quickly too, so I'd have to guess that nobody does it, even though I have no professional background as an ATC to back up that hypothesis. ;)