Truthfully. How hard do you have to think

FlySince9

FlySince9

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Display name:
Jerry
How hard do you have to think when reporting which way you're coming from or which way you intend to go?

"Bugsmasher N1234 five miles uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, south, no, north...west, no, northeast...Yea, Bugsmasher N1234 five miles northeast..." LOL...

Yesterday I called Tower expecting a left downwind to runway 2. When he came back with a Right downwind to runway 2... I paused, in brief, yet, deep contemplation..."That's weird," I thought. Then the Uh-Oh moment, then the call... "Podunk Tower, my bad, actually I'm West not East of the airport...

Tower: "Well, that makes a difference, Report midfield, LEFT downwind for runway 2..."

(I love the controllers at my home base! Really easy-going bunch of guys/gals...One of them sings the ATIS broadcasts...)

Zoom Zoom... :D I'm not really as bad as the guy in the Bugsmasher N1234 example... Shut up, @eman1200
 
I think its because you look down at the compass as you are talking, and read your heading "to" versus your direction "from" subconsciously.
 
I don't have to think about it. Then again, I'm a north up guy.

(heh, wayne beat me to it)
 
yep, north up.

also, if you kind of, like, know where you are, that kind of like, helps.
 
I was flying with a 20,000+ hr pilot last month and he did it TWICE in the same flight. We were 10 miles out.
I took the radio, and guess what? We went from the plane being East, and him reporting us West, and then I called North.
Then we were laughing so hard we couldn't talk for a minute or two.
Dan (the tower guy) told us: "When you geezers decide where you are, let me know. In the mean time just pull up and circle until you get it under control."
Lack of concentration, brain fart, whatever. It happens.
It's also nice having friends in the tower at a no traffic airport.
 
Shepherd said:
I was flying with a 20,000+ hr pilot last month and he did it TWICE in the same flight. We were 10 miles out.
I took the radio, and guess what? We went from the plane being East, and him reporting us West, and then I called North.
Then we were laughing so hard we couldn't talk for a minute or two.
Dan (the tower guy) told us: "When you geezers decide where you are, let me know. In the mean time just pull up and circle until you get it under control."
Lack of concentration, brain fart, whatever. It happens.
It's also nice having friends in the tower at a no traffic airport.
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LMAO!
 
I'm a "Track Up" guy until I get close to the airport, then I switch it to "North Up" I remember the first plane I flew that had a DG... it was so much easier than using a compass!
 
Everybody does from time to time. I did it once and after that I just make a conscious note almost as part of an approach checklist. Takes me about five seconds to make sure. I usually look at the DG reciprical heading.
 
FlySince9 said:
Tower: "Well, that makes a difference, Report midfield, LEFT downwind for runway 2..."

(I love the controllers at my home base! Really easy-going bunch of guys/gals...One of them sings the ATIS broadcasts...)
Click to expand...

Turning the wrong way can get interesting reactions from ATC as well. Incidentally this just happened last night, and from a controller that was very much NOT easy-going: :)

We were coming home from MIA, and LGA switched up their landing runway. Everyone inbound on the arrival was put into holding. There are a number of fixes on the arrival with published holding patterns, and different airliners were given different spots to hold by Washington Center. The poor controller was busy and clearly p!ssed - I think LGA caught Washington Center by surprise, so what was normally a routine evening turned into a dumpster fire in no time. United made the mistake of asking for 10 mile legs, just to get a bitchy reply about crowded airspace (we were about to ask for the same thing...ummm...never mind! :p).

So we've just entered our charted hold over RBV (right turns) when we hear the controller lose her s**t on this unfortunate regional jet somewhere behind us: "Endeavor - why are you turning RIGHT??? The published hold is to the LEFT! LEFT!"

Endeavor mumbles back some reply, and the controller comes back with, "Endeavor, I don't have the time to babysit you!!! Left turns! It's on your chart!"

So in the ensuing awkward silence, you can imagine every pilot (including me) is scrambling to double check their given hold to make sure they're not about to have this controller come unglued on them as well. And since we were in a right turn while this was all going down, my CA looks at me and says in his heavy NY accent (he sounds a lot like Joe Pesci), "Kayoh man- tell me we didn't just f*** this all up!"

"Nah, we're over Robbinsville. We're good man, we're good! Those guys are a couple fixes back."

"Thank God, 'cause holy s*** - that lady sounds just like my wife!"
 
Direct-To, Enter, Enter then read the scoreboard at the top of the G1000.
 
Uuuhhhh......hhhmmmmm......let's see..... Ok........uuhhhhh..... What was the question again.??
 
I think it's an up/down/right/left thing. We never mix up "up" and "down" but often mix up "left" and "right." Similarly, I never mix up
"north" and "south" but have been known to do so with "east" and "west."

"North up" here.

I guess if I was a "track up" person I might mix up "up" and "down" because "up" would be "down" when on a 180 heading!!! ;)

arrrgggghhhh...this is soooooo confusing!
 
I'm making a left-hand turn for a right final to the opposite side of runway 18...
 
I love having a compass card instead of a wet compass. It is so easy to decide where Im coming from... just look at the bottom of the card and badaboom!
 
EdFred said:
I don't have to think about it. Then again, I'm a north up guy.

(heh, wayne beat me to it)
Click to expand...

And I was gonna say the same thing.

OK, I *am* saying the same thing. North up, and pay attention to what is going on. ;)
 
Topper said:
GPS tells the distance, just look at the bottom of the dg/hsi. If you are flying East, West will be on the the bottom, works every time. Only took 500 hours to figure this out.
Click to expand...

Another reason not to rely on the "magenta line".
 
I was flying with @flyin'gator - I was PIC. We were going to Taxi to 32. I hadn't read the taxi diagram so I asked the pilot next to me who had landed in this place, "Where is 32?" He says, "It's the other end of 14."

I said, "Okay, so where is 14?" and he says "the other end of 32."

I hit the brakes, hard, (literally and figuratively) and said "Where is the ****ing runway smart ass?" He said something like "take that taxiway to the left, and then right on the next intersection."

Taught me to brief the taxi diagrams myself :)
 
Topper said:
Only took 500 hours to figure this out.
Click to expand...

Yea I figured that out on my long solo about 30 years ago... I just have to figure out if that particular brain cell, of my few remaining, was sacrificed for something more useful, or just misplaced...
 
It's been a while, but I've had the e/w mixup. I even have it immortalized on a Youtube video somewhere. I was towing a guy on his first solo glider flight and he recorded his flight and audio. I messed up on the e/w position call when I was returning to land. The other mistake I make is when I am facing south (180) but intending to land north (R36). I've caught myself saying "R18...correction...R...uhh...R36". For whatever reason, I make the e/w goof but not the n/s goof.

The latest "duhhh" moment was about 6 weeks ago. I was on flight following and approach handed me off to tower. I did the basic contact, but didn't include my position because I thought approach might have done that, so I made the simple "Cessna xxx, level yyy" call. Tower asked "Say direction of flight", so I said "heading xxx". Tower said, "No, where are you?" I sounded like less than a beginner. The "say direction flight" messed me up.
 
When I was a fresh PPL and carrying one of my first pilots, I made an error at an Airport with 5 runways all at different headings... no parallels. They cleared me downwind onto one runway.... I screwed up and entered downwind on another runway. Realizing I was "off" the controller quickly turned me to a heading where I re oriented and landed with no issues, and no "please call the tower". This was a fantastic learning experience on being sure of the airport layout and taking the extra time when going into a new, busy airport to familiarize yourself with the field. Also, don't be afraid to ask for help if needed.
 
asicer said:
Wonder why they didn't simply ask "say position"?
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Dunno - I was going to be #3 and approach had been vectoring me around to get into line and then dumped me onto tower. Things were a little busy on both ends. I though at first I misheard, but I don't think so.
 
+1 - Gets me too. My favorite so far:

ME: Tower, Skylane 1234Q, 10 East with Golf, Inbound for the option
TOWER: Skylane 1234Q, Tower, that puts you in the MSP bravo and possible pilot deviation
ME: :eek:....(for 2 seconds)
ME: Tower, Skylane 1234Q, 10 WEST with Golf, Inbound for the option
 
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