Tying Up the CTAF (Rant)

MBDiagMan

MBDiagMan

Final Approach
Joined
May 8, 2011
Messages
5,190
Location
Mount Pleasant,Texas
Display Name
Display name:
Doc
I was doing a practice approach yesterday into my non controlled field with several planes either in the pattern or about to enter it. I was two miles from the IAF and a conversation was in progress at an airport in another state. If it were necessary radio traffic it would have been different, but it was a conversation between two acquaintances as if they were both in their lounge chairs on the telephone with no aviation discussion whatever. One would finish and the other would immediately key their mic and put forth non aviation blather.

I wasn’t bothered much at first, but I started my concern about two miles past the IAF level at 2000 and slowed down to 120. I was considering what I would do at the FAF and trying to think about what to say to dress them down about it (the former Army NCO in me.)

They finally shut up and I called 7 mile final and listened for the traffic. They were all friends of mine and knew what was going on as soon as I called the final, so it all worked out and I didn’t bend the ratchet jaws ears like they needed to be. I was busy.

What is in someone’s head that will lock up a frequency for such a long amount of time with impertinent blather?
 
The worst is fly-in's. There's occasionally the one guy that has to chew out someone else on frequency. But he forgets that he's tying up the frequency for like 2 minutes with his rant about what is right and wrong. Meanwhile 5 of us are somewhere between crossing the field, entering downwind, turning base and turning final before the arsehole finally release his friggin' PTT. Rant=off.
 
That is annoying. I only talk if the freq is dead quiet besides me and the other guy.
 
Why did it take so many words to say that?
 
AggieMike88 said:
I feel for you. You should hear how crazy 122.8 and 122.9 are for this part of Texas, too many airports assigned o n those frequencies.

at least the meowing is restrained to 121.50
Click to expand...

@Ryanb and I heard the meowing coming back from 8A6 last Saturday. WTH?
 
MBDiagMan said:
I was doing a practice approach yesterday into my non controlled field with several planes either in the pattern or about to enter it. I was two miles from the IAF and a conversation was in progress at an airport in another state. If it were necessary radio traffic it would have been different, but it was a conversation between two acquaintances as if they were both in their lounge chairs on the telephone with no aviation discussion whatever. One would finish and the other would immediately key their mic and put forth non aviation blather.

I wasn’t bothered much at first, but I started my concern about two miles past the IAF level at 2000 and slowed down to 120. I was considering what I would do at the FAF and trying to think about what to say to dress them down about it (the former Army NCO in me.)

They finally shut up and I called 7 mile final and listened for the traffic. They were all friends of mine and knew what was going on as soon as I called the final, so it all worked out and I didn’t bend the ratchet jaws ears like they needed to be. I was busy.

What is in someone’s head that will lock up a frequency for such a long amount of time with impertinent blather?
Click to expand...
So you were able.to announce 7-mile final, but not sooner? What would anyone in the pattern have done with the information that you were on 10-mile final? Not defending the airwave abusers, but this hardly seems rant worthy, especially since they were your buddies.
 
Last edited:
eman1200 said:
Wait, the guys rambling were friends of yours?
Click to expand...

No, the ramblers were at a different airport on the same frequency. The guys in the pattern were all people I know and once I was finally able to call my final we were able to work around each other. They were all also out of touch with each other also because of the ramblers.
 
AggieMike88 said:
at least the meowing is restrained to 121.50
Click to expand...
I’ve noticed that the cats are invading us up north recently. It makes me want to ask, on 121.5 of course, “Hey everyone, what is the holiday on the first of May?”

On the OP’s concern, I also hate when people chew the rag on CTAF. Get a ham radio license if you want to ask people over the air which side of the bologna is supposed to go up on a sandwich. I don’t know how to make them stop, though, other than just keying the mic over the top of them every time they start talking.
 
Lindberg said:
So you were able.to announce 7-mile final, but not sooner? What would anyone in the pattern have done with the information that you were on 10-mile final? Not defending the airwave abusers, but this hardly seems want worthy, especially since they were your buddies.
Click to expand...

The guys in the pattern were locked out also. Once I could call the final at seven miles it all worked out. After five miles of their blather I was beginning to think it would never end and I would have to divert or something. It seemed to go on and on and the way they were going it sounded as if it would never end.
 
My home base, KHZL, we use 123.00 but isn’t busy from our pattern. We share with wings which is quite busy as well as blairstown and a couple of others. It keeps your radio calls short and sweet.
 
AggieMike88 said:
I feel for you. You should hear how crazy 122.8 and 122.9 are for this part of Texas, too many airports assigned o n those frequencies.

at least the meowing is restrained to 121.50
Click to expand...

Yes when one of my planes was at Bonham and the other at Antlers, both airports were 122.8 and it was a madhouse on a nice flying day.
 
MBDiagMan said:
The guys in the pattern were locked out also. Once I could call the final at seven miles it all worked out. After five miles of their blather I was beginning to think it would never end and I would have to divert or something. It seemed to go on and on and the way they were going it sounded as if it would never end.
Click to expand...
Why would you have needed to divert?
 
Sinistar said:
The worst is fly-in's. There's occasionally the one guy that has to chew out someone else on frequency. But he forgets that he's tying up the frequency for like 2 minutes with his rant about what is right and wrong. Meanwhile 5 of us are somewhere between crossing the field, entering downwind, turning base and turning final before the arsehole finally release his friggin' PTT. Rant=off.
Click to expand...

The company I work for has several hundred thousand employees worldwide. Every now and then someone mistakenly (or ignorantly) sends an email to “all”, often with a very narrow bit of information intended maybe for one project. It’s one post, but the reactions often get into like fifty or so. First someone reply’s (to all, naturally :) ) that “you shouldn’t have posted this to all”, along with dozens of replies to all “I don’t think I was supposed to be on the list for this email”, followed by people telling the people replying to all “please don’t reply to all!”, and so on...until it dies down, usually after like two days. The response is worse than the original sin. But I find it hilarious.

Reminds me of the three monks story. Three monks take a vow of silence for a year. The first day, while washing up after the meal the first monk drops a rice bowl and it shatters on the floor.
He says “oh damn, I’ve broken the bowl!”
Second monk says “you idiot, now you’ve broken the vow already!”
Third monk: “I’m the ONLY one that didn’t break my vow!”

Is it every done, or likely to help if the OP had just quickly said “could you guys take the chatter to another frequency?” Doesn’t seem more rude than non aviation talk on the CTAF.
 
Last edited:
LongRoadBob said:
The company I work for has several hundred thousand employees worldwide. Every now and then someone mistakenly (or ignorantly) sends an email to “all”, often with a very narrow bit of information intended maybe for one project. It’s one post, but the reactions often get into like fifty or so. First someone reply’s (to all, naturally :) ) that “you shouldn’t have posted this to all”, along with dozens of replies to all “I don’t think I was supposed to be on the list for this email”, followed by people telling the people replying to all “please don’t reply to all!”, and so on...until it dies down, usually after like two days. The response is worse than the original sin. But I find it hilarious.

Reminds me of the three monks story. Three monks take a vow of silence for a year. The first day, while washing up after the meal the first monk drops a rice bowl and it shatters on the floor.
He says “oh damn, I’ve broken the bowl!”
Second monk says “you idiot, now you’ve broken the vow already!”
Third monk: “I’m the ONLY one that didn’t break my vow!”

Is it every done, or likely to help if the OP had just quickly said “could you guys take the chatter to another frequency?” Doesn’t seem more rude than non aviation talk on the CTAF.
Click to expand...

How could I ask them to take the chatter to another frequency when each one was keying their mic as soon as the other one stopped talking? I’m all ears.
 
Lindberg said:
Why would you have needed to divert?
Click to expand...

Before the blather, I had heard enough to know that there was a significant amount of traffic. If the blather had continued, do you think that it would have been smart to just continue all the way to the runway with no local communication whatsoever? I’m not that much of a risk taker and I don’t want to be a problem for my friends.

By divert, I mean that I would have diverted West over the lake until I could resume communications.
 
When people are on their local CTAF, they often forget that the frequency may be shared with other fields a long distance away. Other than awareness and courtesy, there's probably not a good answer unless we get more frequency allocations.

It might be nice if aviation radios had adjustable output power. On the ham bands, we can reduce our transmit power to a level that will meet the distance required, or crank it up when we need to go a long way. There's no need to be transmitting at full power when you're within a few miles of the field.
 
MBDiagMan said:
How could I ask them to take the chatter to another frequency when each one was keying their mic as soon as the other one stopped talking? I’m all ears.
Click to expand...

When one stops talking don’t you have an equal chance to beat the other one to the mic? What, was the guy greased lightning on the mic key?
The size of your ears has nothing to do with it :)
 
Last edited:
MBDiagMan said:
Before the blather, I had heard enough to know that there was a significant amount of traffic. If the blather had continued, do you think that it would have been smart to just continue all the way to the runway with no local communication whatsoever? I’m not that much of a risk taker and I don’t want to be a problem for my friends.

By divert, I mean that I would have diverted West over the lake until I could resume communications.
Click to expand...
To each his own. There can always be a NORDO plane in or near the pattern, and the radio is just there to make it easier to coordinate with other traffic. You always have to look for other traffic, even on good radio days. But some of us are more comfortable flying without a radio than others, and the key on this is to do what works for you rather than deferring to some guy on the internet to make your safety-of-flight decisions for you. You're here to complain about the CTAF rag-chewing after the fact, so what you ended up doing worked out just fine. There's no need to second-guess your decision making process on this one.
 
i'm thinking that since they were on the ground (maybe) or at least in the pattern at a different airport, I would just key the mike and transmit over the top of them and hope my comms were received at the airport I'm approaching.
 
Maybe learn to say STFU next time? ;)
 
Tune up early. One often gets more info by listening than talking. Yeah, join the conversation if needing some air time.
 
Generally the convos I hear are not that obnoxious, but I have no problem inserting myself in between. Also like the other post said, if the other transmissions are coming from 50+ miles away, I'd just talk over them.
 
yeah, it's always fun in a busy pattern...wanting to call a turn to final or base or downwind...or calling taking the runway for departure...and not being able to get a word in...
sometimes I think it gets carried away.... upwind calls, crosswind calls, turning to downwind calls...midfield downwind calls...turning base calls...turning final calls....short final calls.... with a high number of aircraft in the pattern...can be just about as bad as a conversation
 
I'm based out of a PHL suburb in South Jersey. I think part of the problem is there are just too many airports on one unicom frequency. The FAA should come up with a few more unicom frequency to split them up more. On a nice weather Saturday or Sunday 122.7/8/9 are just completely jammed. Constantly getting multiple people talking at once which makes the radio make those horrible jumble noises. Other part like the above poster said is people just making too many reports. No one needs to know your taxing from the ramp to the runway at a small airport with one taxiway and runway. Another thing is the crossing thr runway calls.... I get it if someone is on final and you want to let them know you see them and your crossing but sometimes just unnecessary.
 
Adding to the frustration....carrying on a conversation in Hindi.

Sunday was a busy day at KCDK and a flight of two C172s was buzzing about trying to decide which way to land on 5/23 - could barely understand their calls in “English Proficient” but between their overabundant and confused traffic calls they insisted on carrying on a dialogue in Hindi. I was just monitoring on ground but seems other traffic was just trying to stay out of their way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top