Webb

Webb

Well Known Member
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Flew over to KAEX (Alexandria, LA) tonight. Some great trash talk happened between a Lear, the tower, and me.

I was approaching the pattern at about 140 knots, starting to slow and was asked to square off the base to give a Lear enough time to get off and then it went like this.

Tower - Caution potential wake turbulance
Lear - We'll be out of here before he gets here
Tower - I don't know, he's fast.
Lear - I'm faster
Me - Yeah but I'm prettier
Lear - Yeah but I've got a stewardess, galley, and a toilet
Tower - Ouch
Me - Oh but I'm paid for
Lear - But I get paid for it
Me - Touche
Tower - Laughter

Ladies and gentleman....this is the way it's supposed to be...Fun

Upon leaving later, I was cleared for take-off and right turn out. Took off, rapid climb, and turned east. Tower came on with a "nice turnout". So sweet to hear kind words from these folks. Told them first trip there and how nice the FOB was. Got a thank you and a "y'all come back now, hear."

BTW - what a nice FBO. They even have an ice cream machine. Young lady there said they serve also breakfast and lunch.
 
Sounds like our environment when cookie delivery is spaced no more than a couple weeks apart to "the facility". If you ever fly into KGTU and find that ..22C gets a hint of priority, you'll know why. You're right, when the rigidity of the system isn't required (sometimes it is very important), it is nice to have humans on all sides of the operations.
 
Louise has used Tanya's "cookie diplomacy" at KCLL tower as well, and seems to get better handling now than many of the school alumni that occasionally visit....;)

They know that an RV can get up and out when a Citation is on a three mile final!
 
Cookie Diplomacy? Would be a shoebox full of fresly baked chocolate chips that just happend to end up in that little room at the top of that tall building with lots of windows?
 
I'm based at KOMN (Ormond Beach Fl.) We have a great group of controllers.We often leave and return as a flight ( up to 10 planes ) no problem. We have a gathering once a year and give rides ( 2009 had 17 aircraft gave over 100 people rides ) tower told some students that wanted to shoot touch and go's to come back in about 2 Hours as they were too busy now. Don't know how they do it 'but they seem to have LOTS of patince with students from all over the globe that can barley speak english and are still learning Tower/pilot language.
 
Yesterday, while transiting the ex-POTUS permanent TFR in Dallas:

"Tower, 1CT, are we cleared through the TFR?"
"1CT, you're just not supposed to loiter in the area"
"Well, with our cruise speed, we've been acused of loitering before, but we'll do 120kt through the TFR"
"[chuckle] Roger 1CT"

TODR
 
this happened to a friend of mine.
he was talking to the tower coming in and they had him do all sorts of stuff because of the traffic. he called the tower after about 8 min of 360's, extended this and that, says to the tower he was trying to do it right, after all I AM A STUDENT PILOT back after my 1st solo xcountry. no reply from the tower. its funny now but i bet you'd be sweating up a storm, he was. anyway the tower hit him with the "LIGHTS" red green etc. for landing, he did well. as he was rolling out the tower said "NICE JOB" please turn left on november and taxi to parking area! my friend went to the parking area turned towards the tower and flashed his landing light a couple times............... but there was no comeback from the tower.
something he will never forget.
 
Ironflight said:
Louise has used Tanya's "cookie diplomacy" at KCLL tower as well, and seems to get better handling now than many of the school alumni that occasionally visit....;)

They know that an RV can get up and out when a Citation is on a three mile final!
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I can do that with my kitfox, have done it many times.
 
From the tower side... yes, most of us know what an RV can do, most of us also know who can do whatever we ask, and who doesn't. We also sure as heck know who brings us cookies!

Unfortunately, liability cases being what they are, we can get in a LOT of trouble if something happens (incident) and the tapes get pulled and reviewed by management. In fact, an incident doesn't even have to happen, there are random tape reviews, and reviews of our busiest hours of operations for phraseology 'errors'. Just yesterday there was a small incident at the airport... and the tapes got pulled, and I got talked too... yay.

The slightest 'error' on our part (and I'm talking about out a callsign on a 'thanks' or something stupid like that) can be enough to de-certify a controller if there are enough of them lined up... and if the particular manager feels like it.

If you like cheery, helpful controllers, support NATCA!
 
I say THANK YOU at the end of the dialogue

osxuser said:
From the tower side... yes, most of us know what an RV can do, most of us also know who can do whatever we ask, and who doesn't. We also sure as heck know who brings us cookies!

Unfortunately, liability cases being what they are, we can get in a LOT of trouble if something happens (incident) and the tapes get pulled and reviewed by management. In fact, an incident doesn't even have to happen, there are random tape reviews, and reviews of our busiest hours of operations for phraseology 'errors'. Just yesterday there was a small incident at the airport... and the tapes got pulled, and I got talked too... yay.

The slightest 'error' on our part (and I'm talking about out a callsign on a 'thanks' or something stupid like that) can be enough to de-certify a controller if there are enough of them lined up... and if the particular manager feels like it.

If you like cheery, helpful controllers, support NATCA!
Click to expand...

Hey, you guys do a great job. I say THANK YOU at the end of every dialogue especially when I need vectors like today trying to find KFUL amongst 80 million homes and countless freeways in SOCAL.

Coming from Tucson, I'm just not used to sooooo many people. I love it when they tell you to look for the freeway. Yeah, which one?
 
MrNomad said:
Hey, you guys do a great job. I say THANK YOU at the end of every dialogue especially when I need vectors like today trying to find KFUL amongst 80 million homes and countless freeways in SOCAL.
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I always say Thank You if the freq isn't overly busy. Yes, they're getting paid to do the job, but courtesy doesn't cost anything and makes life more pleasant.

TODR
 
At my home airport I land short and roll out within 300ft. I ask for a 180, I get it and I say thanks. When done talking to the tower I always say have a nice day. Took a while but now they say it automatically, cool.
 
Changin Frequencies

After the frequency read back I usually sign off with "thanks and have a good one" when changing frequencies (as long as it's not too busy).
 
Something new to me

The last time I did a cross country flight I called up for flight following and just used "Experimental 104XP". He gave me a squawk code and everything was going great. There was then some traffic coming my direction and he called the other plane and said, "Cirrus XXXX, there is an Experimental RV-10 at your 12 o'clock."
Do most of the controllers have access to the database for identifying aircraft?
Anyway, I thought that was pretty cool.

Whenever there is a discussion on controllers I always try to give kudos to the tower operators at Ogden UT. They are some of the best in the west!
They would sweep the runway for you if you requested it.
 
I got to agree with Scott that Ogden Ut is one of the best I have seen.....I might be biased since that is my home field. Yesterday I went out for an IPC. A little tail dragger had ground looped on the north end of runway 16 thus closing 16/34 and 7/25. With only one runway open, not the primary GA runway and a lot of traffic they did a great job getting everyone rearranged and either on the ground or in the air. It was nice, a flight of two RV's (RV 6 and RV7) took off in formation just in ahead of us. I was doing my check ride in a 182 since my airplane is still in annual, and as we were rolling out the RV's were gone and all I could say to the instructor was......boy am I spoiled with my RV-10. Even though the airport was busy they supported our multiple approach requests. I am sure it is all in a days work for them, but we should let them know that their extra efforts are recognized and appreciated.
 
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