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I-29 in North Dakota or I-5 in San Diego? It depends.

My first ATC assignment was SMO. While I am no longer in SoCal, my heart hurts for this airport. What a waste of millions of dollars of economic activity to the community. So sorry for everyone’s loss here.

As a guy in the process of buying an Arrow....thanks!

Okay...in that case at 6-10K you’d be in the middle of the arrival area...aircraft entering the downwind are descending to 9000 or 7000, depending on their assigned runway. At the shoreline the glide path might be around 4-5000’, but it assumes that aircraft on final aren’t above the glide...

Ah. Because a B738 going to MSP will climb great, but the A321 going to LAX in the summer time? Maybe they’ll be able to get on top of you, maybe not. I have had some trouble getting above RFD’s airspace with some a/c types on hot days this summer. If ORD is launching westbounds side by side...

Not negative. Arrivals start at 11 or 12,000 and descend to 7000 from several arrival routes around the airspace. Departures climb to 5000 in every direction except within a 90 degree cutout which marks the arrival area (where arrivals descend below 7000). It doesn’t matter if O’Hare is West...

06C is a little bit of a special case because it lies just underneath the final approach path for 9L and 9R and large air carrier airplanes can be as low as 2300’ right there...that is the concern. C90 is not policing whether you are on the edge of the class B (vertically or laterally), but if...

6000 isn’t a great altitude because it is used in-house to move IFR traffic north and south over the top of O’Hare above the departures and below the arrivals. It wouldn’t bother most controllers to work some VFR traffic over the top of ORD, but when it is busy (which is a lot of the time), and...

I hate to disappoint, but in a world of 250-KT airplanes, ATC doesn't notice a 20-KT difference between an Arrow and an Archer, or a Skylane and Skyhawk. If someone calls themselves an Archer, I try to call them Archer, but on a busy sector, the strip says "P28A" and I know you're going to go...

The FAA has come out recently and changed wake turbulence rules at a number of air traffic facilities (program called 'Wake Recat'). They've determined that B757s aren't any more likely to cause issues with wake turbulence than other large airliners under 300,000 lbs. In Chicago (among many...

To the OP: what was the equipment suffix on your flight plan? That may or may not have something to do with it. My best guess as an approach controller: There are a lot of canned routes and procedures dependent on different flows as bigger airports. Because of that, what's on the flight strip...

I know a guy who did exactly this at age 27. He now works for BNSF and is too old to apply again. Proceed cautiously.

As a rookie ATC working ground control many years ago at SMO, "Bonanza Four Echo" called for taxi...I responded, "roger, what is the full callsign?" And received a very, very deliberate "Bonanza Four Echo"...pulled out the binoculars and sure enough "N4E" on the side of the plane. My bad.

Most likely submitted as IFR with "VFR" as the altitude. The NAS computer handles flight plans completely differently between the VFR and IFR boxes when you are filing.

Chicago approach also has the ability to see ADS-B traffic, but it's currently turned off. I can select it on our radar scopes, but I have to turn off everything else to see it. I believe they plan to turn it on so we see ADS-B info along with primary/secondary radar info in the next couple of...

Why aren't these more popular? There are a couple near me for sale in the $30K range. One in particular is an '83 Sundowner with a mid-time engine, standard avionics, appears to be in good shape, etc... Comparable Archers seem to be selling for $20-$30K more. How come?

They generally allow people in for free at some point in the evening....7pm? This is speaking from years past, but I can't imagine they'd charge admission at 9pm.

Ahh, shoot, going up Thursday right through Milwaukee, but about 6 hours earlier.

Descend via is relatively new in the grand scheme of things, and some controllers misapply the rules. Some pilots mess up climb/descend via too. We're all on the same team, so as a pilot, if ATC gives you an impossible instruction (or a confusing one), ask for clarification. We (TRACON...

Not at any of the three towers I worked at...I mean, we ARE the Feds, but I have never seen an aborted takeoff leave the tower cab or be logged anywhere...