Using the word "traffic" at the end of approach and landing call outs

Lowflynjack said:
One of the things locals do is frustrating and dangerous. You should always use the proper name of the airport. Down here you'll be flying into Gillespie County Airport, but a lot of locals call it Fredericksburg. The guy from out of town may not know you're at the same airport as him.
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A glance at the A/FD section of the Chart Supplement would clear that up, since it's the only airport listed under Fredericksburg.
 

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teejayevans said:
I care little about plane type, color,tail #. All I care about is your position and intentions, at risk of being criticized my method is:
First call 10 miles out and which runway if landing. This gives someone else a chance to say if they’re using a different runway.
“Mooney 10 miles south landing 32”
2nd call 7-8 miles out, position and type of entry and runway number, ie “ Mooney 10 miles south will enter right downwind 32”.
3-5 miles ditto
1-2 miles drop the “will enter” substitute “now entering”
....
Plenty of calls to track my progress, at more than 2 miles you’re looking for a spec on the horizon anyway. I usually only call the turns, makes it easier to see me and location is more precise, as oppose to “Cessna on left downwind”. There can only be one Cessna on a turning left base, so identity not important.
and no I don’t use traffic at end.
And don’t use unicom if they contact me: “Mooney landing county how long you staying”...my response “3 days”... I don’t use airport id, I keep it short.
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If you don't include the airport name in your position-and-intentions report, that can be distracting for pilots at other airports that have the same advisory frequency. Looking for you takes time away from looking for traffic where they are. (This would usually not apply to your example of answering a question.)
 
Palmpilot said:
A glance at the A/FD section of the Chart Supplement would clear that up, since it's the only airport listed under Fredericksburg.
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So you're telling me that if you're flying into and airport and calling it by the official name of the airport, and you hear another pilot calling a different airport name, you're going to take the time to scroll down through the A/FD to see if there's a chance he is talking about the same airport? I like to keep my head outside of the airplane.
 
Lowflynjack said:
So you're telling me that if you're flying into and airport and calling it by the official name of the airport, and you hear another pilot calling a different airport name, you're going to take the time to scroll down through the A/FD to see if there's a chance he is talking about the same airport? I like to keep my head outside of the airplane.
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I think he means look it up as part of preflight planning Jack.
 
mscard88 said:
I think he means look it up as part of preflight planning Jack.
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I agree that probably what he meant, but there's only so much a person can remember. I've had to look at field elevation a few times when going into a new airport, especially on a long day of flying with many airports. He gave a good example of it being the only runway in the area, but that's not always true. We should call the correct name of the airport.
 
Lowflynjack said:
I agree that probably what he meant, but there's only so much a person can remember. I've had to look at field elevation a few times when going into a new airport, especially on a long day of flying with many airports. He gave a good example of it being the only runway in the area, but that's not always true. We should call the correct name of the airport.
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I've heard locals call an airport by a different name than the official one, and it has never caused a problem for me.
 
Palmpilot said:
If you don't include the airport name in your position-and-intentions report, that can be distracting for pilots at other airports that have the same advisory frequency. Looking for you takes time away from looking for traffic where they are. (This would usually not apply to your example of answering a question.)
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I do include airport name, I left that out of the examples for brevity, but I don’t use traffic at end.
 
Palmpilot said:
I've heard locals call an airport by a different name than the official one, and it has never caused a problem for me.
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How could it not cause a problem? The only way would be if you knew the nickname they were using. Otherwise, how would you know they were at the same airport?

I've actually heard it become an issue at the airport I mentioned. A plane was turning base in front of an airplane on final. He was honestly surprised when someone told him there was a plane on final.
 
Lowflynjack said:
How could it not cause a problem? The only way would be if you knew the nickname they were using. Otherwise, how would you know they were at the same airport?

I've actually heard it become an issue at the airport I mentioned. A plane was turning base in front of an airplane on final. He was honestly surprised when someone told him there was a plane on final.
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I don't know why, but it's always been clear to me which airport they were talking about. I recognize that there could be exceptions.
 
Lowflynjack said:
I agree that probably what he meant, but there's only so much a person can remember...
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I don't usually have much trouble remembering what town or city an airport is listed under.
 
Palmpilot said:
I've heard locals call an airport by a different name than the official one, and it has never caused a problem for me.
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Airpor misnaming have been a problem for me, when flying over an area where all runways are about the same direction, and all using 122.8 for whatever reason. IIRC it was Arkansas or maybe Missouri. One time I even had to ask "Is So-and-So County airport the same as Some Astronaut Field" somewhere. Of course it was at a time when there were a bunch of aircraft all transmitting position reports. I'm sure a local was mad and went venting somewhere on Red Board. The problem is, usually when they name the airport for a town, you can see that town on the sectional, but county name is never on the chart, so there's no way to know.
 
My home drome is officially “Greene County Lewis A Jackson Regional Airport”. “Greene County” is used in transmissions. We do get an occasional “Jackson Regional” from visitors until they pick up transmissions of “Greene County”. Two other airports in the near vicinity use the same CTAF, Urbana and Morraine and AFAIK, nobody landed at Greene thinking it was either of the others.

I usually tune in early when visiting airports to see what seems to be the typical call outs and go with the flow.

Cheers
 
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Of course the FAA and the local airport sometimes don't cooperate. MRB is the "Eastern West Virginia Regional Airport/Shepherd Field"
in the chart supplement. The ATC facility there is MARTINSBURG TOWER. Other than the chart supplement, nobody uses either Shepherd or Eastern West Virginia.

And then there's (don't get me started) Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. It's not in Washington and the ATC facility isn't REAGAN or NATIONAL but "WASHINGTON."
 
Hmm. The only airport in Oceanside (KOKB), just south of Camp Pendleton, is officially named Bob Maxwell Memorial Field.

So of course we use "Oceanside." :D
 
gasfiltered said:
Oh and one more thing, don't use local landmarks, I don't know where "Trash Mountain" is in relation to the airport....
God, I hate uncontrolled airports.
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I'll often report "over the highway on the 45" or "over the lake on left base" because there's only one of each and they're clearly visible.

I love uncontrolled airports, it's where the interesting planes and pilots hang out. :)
 
I use both position ("3 miles south") and local landmark ("over the salt shaker") as I find it effectively communicates to both local students and transients. Additionally I do sometimes get lazy and call myself just "Trinidad", but I have yet to share a frequency with another one.

Sry l8 2 thrd.
 
eman1200 said:
my preference is hearing the last 3 of a tail # over a description of your plane. if you can't read back 3 characters, that's an issue.
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I tow gliders and it helps me immensely to know the type aircraft inbound. N number alone doesn't tell me whether a jet or a cub is five miles out and knowing it's one or the other helps me work spacing. I once got bit by "yellow cub downwind" when there happened to be a yellow Husky in front of me that I mistook for the yellow cub in front of him. If the Husky had piped in with "yellow Husky behind the Cub" it would have been a great call to avoid confusion. As it was I ended up breaking out of the pattern when I finally figured out there was a second yellow airplane in the pattern in front of me that I didn't have in sight.
 
flyingron said:
Of course the FAA and the local airport sometimes don't cooperate. MRB is the "Eastern West Virginia Regional Airport/Shepherd Field"
in the chart supplement. The ATC facility there is MARTINSBURG TOWER. Other than the chart supplement, nobody uses either Shepherd or Eastern West Virginia.

And then there's (don't get me started) Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. It's not in Washington and the ATC facility isn't REAGAN or NATIONAL but "WASHINGTON."
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I thought Reagan was a decent enough guy, but he was not a pilot, mechanic, engineer, bag smasher, or even flight attendant... Why name an airport after a guy with no aero-cred? He also posted while riding western... I had to shake my head and turn away.

I try to keep my radio calls short and to the point.
"Cartersville traffic, Grumman 9428L ten miles south at three-thousand. Inbound to land. Cartersville".

While learning in Indiana, I just was entering the pattern for some tiny airport north of Indy when I heard "I'M LANDING!" over the radio. Perhaps this dude's call was a bit too short... He was landing at another airport with the same CTAF, but he sure had me looking.
 
My biggest issue with naming the airport after Reagan was:

1. He wasn't dead when they did so. I don't believe we should be building memorials to the living.
2. Congress crammed the renaming down the throats of the local government agency (MWAA) that actually owned the airport as an unfunded mandate.

The last time I brought this up, the MC sanctioned me so I won't go any further.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
KLIT is named after Bill Clinton. Hillary, too, I think.
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GAWD... I thought that was just a bad joke... than I looked it up... https://www.airnav.com/airport/KLIT
How do we stop this train wreck of naming airports after politicians... I can give G.H.W Bush a pseudo-pass since he was an actual aviator (but he's still technically alive).

Even more daunting; how do we get this thread back on topic?
 
A recent article on transients, local names, and near misses. I seem to recall the FAA publishing guidance on the same topic years ago as well.

Transients will often make unplanned or planned stops at airports without full local knowledge, for a variety of reasons (ie, additional fuel stop on a multi-state cross country).

I hate local nomenclature.

https://generalaviationnews.com/2017/02/26/local-procedures/
 
ironnerd said:
I thought Reagan was a decent enough guy, but he was not a pilot, mechanic, engineer, bag smasher, or even flight attendant... Why name an airport after a guy with no aero-cred?
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Perhaps because he fired 11,000 striking air traffic controllers?


He also posted while riding western...
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Don't be fooled. While Reagan often wore western hats and shirts, he rode English and was usually in English riding breeches and boots, sometimes while sporting a cowboy hat at the same time.

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ElPaso Pilot said:
A recent article on transients, local names, and near misses. I seem to recall the FAA publishing guidance on the same topic years ago as well.

Transients will often make unplanned or planned stops at airports without full local knowledge, for a variety of reasons (ie, additional fuel stop on a multi-state cross country).

I hate local nomenclature.

https://generalaviationnews.com/2017/02/26/local-procedures/
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I notice that the author of that article complained about locals referring to Branch County Memorial Airport as "Coldwater," but the latter is right above the former in the Chart Supplement, and in larger type.
 
ElPaso Pilot said:
A recent article on transients, local names, and near misses. I seem to recall the FAA publishing guidance on the same topic years ago as well.

Transients will often make unplanned or planned stops at airports without full local knowledge, for a variety of reasons (ie, additional fuel stop on a multi-state cross country).

I hate local nomenclature.

https://generalaviationnews.com/2017/02/26/local-procedures/
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On the sectional chart the town of Coldwater is labeled 1/4 inch from the airport symbol. It's the only airport around.

The AWOS calls it "Coldwater, Branch County Memorial Airport".

It's the only airport under Coldwater in the A/FD.

"Local knowledge" implies information known only to locals. This is widely available knowledge and pretty obvious at that.
 
The color of your Cessna means nothing, use the last 3 characters of your N number. This is especialy helpful to pilots with a good ads-b in display.

‘Traffic’ after airport name, that is enough ‘traffic’.
 
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