Interesting comms

ahmad

ahmad

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Apr 9, 2017
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478
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S Illinois
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Display name:
Midwest Aviator
While getting flight following I heard the following:

pilot: Calls for FF to mo ya vee. he meant Mojave.

atc: gets the pilot set up on FF and then tells him to stay clear of the restricted airspace ahead.

pilot: um, I don't have the restricted space in sight. Can you give me a heading?

atc(super nice guy): gives him a suggested heading. 10 mins later I hear atc asks him to turn 30 to the right cuz he's about to bust the restricted airspace again.

Atc: tells the pilot to squawk vfr.

pilot: can you give me the airport ctaf frequency? I don't know it.

atc: frequency is xyz sir.

That was unreal and the atc was on a super good mood.
 
I heard something similar. Years ago. Turns out we were both heading in the same direction and it went on and on and on.
 
Once I heard a Cherokee ask Chicago Center for Flight Following. Center gave him a squawk code and said "ident." The pilot said he didn't understand the last part of the instruction. The controller told him to push the ID button on his transponder. After a pause, the pilot said he didn't see any ID button.

Controller: "Then I can't help you. Frequency change approved."
 
Gilbert Buettner said:
Once I heard a Cherokee ask Chicago Center for Flight Following. Center gave him a squawk code and said "ident." The pilot said he didn't understand the last part of the instruction. The controller told him to push the ID button on his transponder. After a pause, the pilot said he didn't see any ID button.

Controller: "Then I can't help you. Frequency change approved."
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hahahahaha. That's funny. I was amazed at how cool and calm the controller was with this guy.
 
midlifeflyer said:
I heard something similar. Years ago. Turns out we were both heading in the same direction and it went on and on and on.
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This guy was near me and under me by 500 ft. I steered the heck away by miles.

my wife who knows very little about flying asked me "what the heck does he mean by not having the airspace insight ?" Then she asked "how's he navigating you think?"

I had no answers for her.
 
Reminds me of when a student pilot took off at Aurora (delta airspace) with the intention of staying in the pattern, but then got lost in the instructions to extend upwind.
You could tell from his stuttering and the start/stop mic clicks that he didn't know how to respond and was nervous about saying the wrong thing. He'd just ask repeatedly if he could turn downwind and they'd say continue flying upwind.
Minutes later while he was still in the delta airspace they tried contacting him repeatedly to turn cross-wind and he wouldn't respond except with "uh" and "uhhh". Finally tower just told everyone to steer clear of them because they were clearly in over their heads. Flew right out of the delta on that course.

Still don't know what happened to that guy, hope he got back home safe and didn't keep flying runway heading until he was out of fuel.
 
This morning our tower controller had a very busy time with a number of new students. I listened to him try to give taxi instructions to someone. As hard as he was trying, the student just couldn’t get it right. Eventually the CFI intervened. Tower came back with something like,”xxx, we don’t bite. We’re here to help you learn. Relax and have fun!”
 
My fav was after a fumbling back and forth between Pilot trying to get FF ad ATC controller fed up asked "November 123...are you a student pilot?....[sheepishly] "no" ...luckily I was not keyed up cuz I laughed out loud!
 
Okay, here's my funny coms story.
On a flight in upstate NY one day, guy in a Cessna calls up to get flight following. After giving ATC his destination, this exchange took place:

ATC: Cessna 123, say heading
Cessna: One-eight-zero
ATC: That's not gonna get you there.
Cessna: How about 245?
ATC: Well, that's closer...

Had a non-pilot in the plane with me and even they were cracking up at this exchange.
 
ArrowFlyer86 said:
Reminds me of when a student pilot took off at Aurora (delta airspace) with the intention of staying in the pattern, but then got lost in the instructions to extend upwind.
You could tell from his stuttering and the start/stop mic clicks that he didn't know how to respond and was nervous about saying the wrong thing. He'd just ask repeatedly if he could turn downwind and they'd say continue flying upwind.
Minutes later while he was still in the delta airspace they tried contacting him repeatedly to turn cross-wind and he wouldn't respond except with "uh" and "uhhh". Finally tower just told everyone to steer clear of them because they were clearly in over their heads. Flew right out of the delta on that course.

Still don't know what happened to that guy, hope he got back home safe and didn't keep flying runway heading until he was out of fuel.
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I believe there are 2 flight schools at KARR + another one sending their students to practice class D pattern work - stuff like that bound to happen now and then .
 
Shawn said:
My fav was after a fumbling back and forth between Pilot trying to get FF ad ATC controller fed up asked "November 123...are you a student pilot?....[sheepishly] "no" ...luckily I was not keyed up cuz I laughed out loud!
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Y’know… I’ve probably talked to ATC or a tower half a dozen times in the past ten years. If I suddenly decided to do it, I’d probably fumble a bit and people would be spraying coffee through their noses and having to wipe it up off the panel.

But I won’t meow.
 
Years ago, I heard the following exchange on center:

Center: xxx say altitude
xxx: 17999
Center: xxx I show you at 18000
xxx: No, I’m at 17999

I think the exchange was repeated a few minutes later.

Obviously, the guy was not equipped to be in class A airspace and refused to admit it. I thought it was entertaining.
 
Gilbert Buettner said:
Once I heard a Cherokee ask Chicago Center for Flight Following. Center gave him a squawk code and said "ident." The pilot said he didn't understand the last part of the instruction. The controller told him to push the ID button on his transponder. After a pause, the pilot said he didn't see any ID button.

Controller: "Then I can't help you. Frequency change approved."
Click to expand...
LoL!! Some people!
 
Gilbert Buettner said:
Once I heard a Cherokee ask Chicago Center for Flight Following. Center gave him a squawk code and said "ident." The pilot said he didn't understand the last part of the instruction. The controller told him to push the ID button on his transponder. After a pause, the pilot said he didn't see any ID button.

Controller: "Then I can't help you. Frequency change approved."
Click to expand...
Haha was it me? I never said I couldn’t find the ID button but I definitely have been pushing the light instead of the button for quite some time. o_O
 
One summer day while IFR down in Georgia or thereabouts:

27K: Navion 27K would like higher.
ZTL: What altitude would you like?
27K: Something around 70 degrees. It's hot down here.
ZTL: Climb and maintain 70 degrees. Let me know what that ends up being.

Or on a more practical note:

27K: Is there any altitude I can request that won't involve me going to the KELSO intersection?
C90: Let me check... (thirty seconds or so later)... Nope.
27K: (already at 10,000). Ok, I'm going to climb up to 10,500, cancel IFR, and then you'll give me flight following to OSH.
C90: We can do that.

They then start holding all the departures from MDW and ORD at 9000 as I'm crossing overhead. Except an MD80 is climbing through my path. Kind of cool seeing him that close, but we're not going to collide. Then he starts descending.

UA: I just got a TCAS RA.
C90: Oh, yeah. There's a Navion up there.
27K: I had him in sight.

Why having me VFR in their departure path was preferable than being in positive control 4000 or more below is beyond me.
 
This weekend I heard ATC say "N12345 stop talking!!" He was really frustrated with the guy and needed him to shut up so he could deal with other traffic.
 
RockyMtnFlyer said:
Years ago, I heard the following exchange on center:

Center: xxx say altitude
xxx: 17999
Center: xxx I show you at 18000
xxx: No, I’m at 17999

I think the exchange was repeated a few minutes later.

Obviously, the guy was not equipped to be in class A airspace and refused to admit it. I thought it was entertaining.
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Wouldn't that depend on the barometric pressure he was going by, which presumably was set to the nearest station?
 
dbahn said:
Wouldn't that depend on the barometric pressure he was going by, which presumably was set to the nearest station?
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Class A airspace starts at 18,000 feet. At which point you set your altimeter to standard air pressure so that everybody is on the same page. And you were also required to be on an IFR flight plan. Apparently the pilot in question was not on an IFR flight plan but he was at 18,000 feet. He should’ve also been at a VFR altitude, meaning even or odd thousands +500 feet. Which again he was not.
 
dbahn said:
Wouldn't that depend on the barometric pressure he was going by, which presumably was set to the nearest station?
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His actual altitude was irrelevant; he was not going to say he was at 18k or higher and illegal. As if just saying that would have helped him had been busted....
 
flyingron said:
They then start holding all the departures from MDW and ORD at 9000 as I'm crossing overhead. Except an MD80 is climbing through my path. Kind of cool seeing him that close, but we're not going to collide. Then he starts descending.

UA: I just got a TCAS RA.
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A UAL MD80?
 
Back in the day, I was on my first Flight Following, I took a detour from the direct route to my destination to do some sightseeing along the way.

ATC: 05J, where are you going?
Me: Doing a little sightseeing along the way.
ATC: Let me know next time so I don't think you're lost.
Me: Roger
 
Larry in TN said:
A UAL MD80?
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This was a few years back.

Amusingly, I know that the pilot was obliged to report this to the NTSB. I decided it might be helpful if I submitted my side of it. The only problem is that the guy who processes these things at the NTSB happened to be one of my wife's volunteers at Udvar-Hazy. He sent her a message saying "Can't you guys possibly fly to Oshkosh without scaring the crap out of some airline pilot."
 
dbahn said:
Wouldn't that depend on the barometric pressure he was going by, which presumably was set to the nearest station?
Click to expand...
ATC radar doesn’t detect the difference between 17,999 and 18,000 anyway so the controller questioning the pilot is ridiculous. Pilot in question could’ve stated 17,800 and that’s still a valid report and valid mode C.
 
Last edited:
flyingron said:
27K: Navion 27K would like higher.
ZTL: What altitude would you like?
27K: Something around 70 degrees. It's hot down here.
ZTL: Climb and maintain 70 degrees. Let me know what that ends up being.
Click to expand...

I tried that once coming out of Phoenix, where it was so hot (how hot was it?) saguaro cacti were bursting into flames.

Departure was not amused, and wanted a specific altitude.
 
side question - I vaguely remember something about the lowest usable Class A altitude depends on the local altimeter setting altitude vs 29.92 altitude. You don't want someone at FL180 actually flying 17500 msl or something close to that.

Or is that just something the engineers worried about...
 
Bob Noel said:
side question - I vaguely remember something about the lowest usable Class A altitude depends on the local altimeter setting altitude vs 29.92 altitude. You don't want someone at FL180 actually flying 17500 msl or something close to that.

Or is that just something the engineers worried about...
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It's called Lowest Usable Flight Level. See 91.121
 
Bob Noel said:
side question - I vaguely remember something about the lowest usable Class A altitude depends on the local altimeter setting altitude vs 29.92 altitude. You don't want someone at FL180 actually flying 17500 msl or something close to that.

Or is that just something the engineers worried about...
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The lowest usable flight level will never be below 18,000'.

When the local altimeter setting drops below 29.92, FL180 becomes unusable. Below 28.92, FL190, etc.
 
luvflyin said:
Take it to some other countries. Many start the Flight Level thing down pretty low.
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Some of them get low enough to get hit by small arms fire. :-/
 
luvflyin said:
Take it to some other countries. Many start the Flight Level thing down pretty low.
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And, transition altitude and transition level aren't always the same.

In Aruba (Curacao FIR), for example, the transition level is FL40 and the transition altitude is 2,500'. When descending, you descend all the way to FL40 (~4,000') before switching the QNH. On departure, you switch to QNE reaching 2,500'.
 
Larry in TN said:
And, transition altitude and transition level aren't always the same.

In Aruba (Curacao FIR), for example, the transition level is FL40 and the transition altitude is 2,500'. When descending, you descend all the way to FL40 (~4,000') before switching the QNH. On departure, you switch to QNE reaching 2,500'.
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Easy enough there. Highest point is 617 ft. Aren't there some countries with elevations higher than where the Flight Levels start? That seems like it could get complicated.
 
luvflyin said:
Easy enough there. Highest point is 617 ft. Aren't there some countries with elevations higher than where the Flight Levels start? That seems like it could get complicated.
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Mount Everest is in both China and Nepal, and its summit is a little above 29,000 feet. I don't know where the flight levels start there, however.
 
Palmpilot said:
Mount Everest is in both China and Nepal, and its summit is a little above 29,000 feet. I don't know where the flight levels start there, however.
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My guess would be pretty low because of the scarcity of, and distance between altimeter reporting stations. To keep the aluminum separated from each other, planes gotta be using somewhat the same setting. Separating aluminum from the rocks brings a different issue into the equation.
 
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