When A Controller Asks?

TWinter

TWinter

Pre-Flight
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Dyersburg, TN
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TWinter
So I'm on the return trip of a 950 mile cross country. Left Monday for New England and the trip went great..one of my longest xcountry trips. On my return trip today I get passed off on FF to Lexington. The controller gives me the local altimeter, but also asks, "What kind of equipment do you have?". At first I thought he asked what kind of aircraft I was, but he replied, "No, what kind of equipment do you have?", I asked did he need me to IDENT?, Apparently he found this funny and he he responded, with a laughing chuckle saying, "No that's not what I'm asking, I have you on radar". I guess he figured I had no clue to his question and dropped it. I by no means have a ton of cross country flying experience, but I do have some. This past week I flew 950 miles to New England on Monday and made the return trip home today..so 1900 miles in a week alone. He was the only controller that has ever asked this. I did not see the humor in the question and from the side comments a few other pilots listening to him did not find him very funny either. Can someone let me in on what he might have been asking?:dunno:.

I will say Kudos to the Boston controllers. Busy, but efficient. New York were pretty good as well, other than the one guy who I was on FF with when I was crossing the Adirondacks in New York and radio reception was dropped off for a short bit and he asked where I went? I told him he had dropped and I had called several times with no response. He then proceeded to tell me I had a quote "crappy" radio. I'm thinking nobody else had problems hearing the recently installed GTN750.

Despite all that I had a great week of cross-country flying. Highly recommend Port City Air in Portsmouth, NH.

Thanks,

-Tom
 
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He may of been asking if you were /G, /A, etc., maybe to see if you could use GPS for navigation?
 
kevmor99 said:
He may of been asking if you were /G, /A, etc., maybe to see if you could use GPS for navigation?
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That's what it sounds like, but that's irrelevant for VFR.

IFR, it says what approaches and routing you can use. "Proceed direct PODUNK intersection" doesn't work if you're /A.
 
I remember telling the briefers that the 172 was /G when setting up my flight plans during my training. I'm surprised that you didn't have to do it, but maybe it was something my CFI made me tell them and wasn't necessary.
 
MAKG1 said:
That's what it sounds like, but that's irrelevant for VFR.

IFR, it says what approaches and routing you can use. "Proceed direct PODUNK intersection" doesn't work if you're /A.
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We get asked that question a lot while VFR using Flight Following. We say "slant Golf" and they are happy and go back to whatever they were doing".
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We also get asked what our destination is a lot. Some trips every hand-off they ask us. Sometimes the same controller asks us more than once. We do a lot of x-countries and get handed off a lot. Some days we just look at each other and say the controllers must have had a humdinger of a party last night for none of them to be able to remember what we just told them.
 
TWinter said:
...The controller asks, "What kind of equipment do you have?". At first I thought he asked what kind of aircraft I was, but he replied, "No, what kind of equipment do you have?", I asked did he need me to IDENT?, Apparently he found this funny and he he responded, with a laughing chuckle saying, "No that's not what I'm asking, I have you on radar".

I guess he figured I had no clue to his question and dropped it..........I did not see the humor in the question and from the side comments a few other pilots listening to him did not find him very funny either. Can someone let me in on what he might have been asking?:dunno:.
....
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I mean, it sounds like you DIDN'T have a clue what he was asking. :dunno:
 
Sounds good to me..I think at one point he had me flustered a bit as the radio was busy and most of us were circumventing the rain storms. It probably sounded silly, but while trying to answer his question or trying to figure out what he was aking I advised at some point my navigation equipment was a GTN750 ..whatever, just one of those things that none of the others asked, but then again, I usually don't do two 900+ mile trips in a week. Thanks for the input. I'll know next time.
 
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I think he wanted to know if you were transgender asking about your equipment and all. :dunno:


Better contact an aviation lawyer and ask them what you should do. :rolleyes: ;)
 
He was asking what you are using to navigate,probably so he could give you direct to a point for a shorter route.
 
eman1200 said:
I mean, it sounds like you DIDN'T have a clue what he was asking. :dunno:
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Your right, the way he asked the question I had no clue. I did tell him I had a GTN750. I admit, I don't know it all. Just asking for a possible answer for next time. As a training officer in my field I guess when I train new officers, or older officers for that matter, and they have forgotten a statute or legal terminology I try not to giggle like a school girl over a simple mistake, but that's me.
 
Geico266 said:
I think he wanted to know if you were transgender asking about your equipment and all. :dunno:


Better contact an aviation lawyer and ask them what you should do. :rolleyes: ;)
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I don't know it all, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express. I also think Bruce Jenner is an embarrassment, we know he has the wrong equipment.
 
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You could have asked for clarification.

I would have found it funny.
 
TWinter said:
Your right, the way he asked the question I had no clue. I did tell him I had a GTN750. I admit, I don't know it all. Just asking for a possible answer for next time. As a training officer in my field I guess when I train new officers, or older officers for that matter, and they have forgotten a statute or legal terminology I try not to giggle like a school girl over a simple mistake, but that's me.
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yep, no big deal and it happens to everyone (happens to me more than I'd like to admit). but with reporting 'type plane' or what kind of equipment, I actually always say /A because I don't want them to throw some crazy /G request at me that I most likely won't know how to handle lol. so, if I aint got it, at least according to them, I can't use it. so for me it's typically "PA28 (or P28A) /A" even though most of the pipers I fly have either a 430 or 530 in them.

wait, did someone mention school girl? yum......... um, I mean, we ARE talking college, right?
 
eman1200 said:
yep, no big deal and it happens to everyone (happens to me more than I'd like to admit). but with reporting 'type plane' or what kind of equipment, I actually always say /A because I don't want them to throw some crazy /G request at me that I most likely won't know how to handle lol. so, if I aint got it, at least according to them, I can't use it. so for me it's typically "PA28 (or P28A) /A" even though most of the pipers I fly have either a 430 or 530 in them.

wait, did someone mention school girl? yum......... um, I mean, we ARE talking college, right?
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It's all good..and I'll probably go with the /G next time they ask. That's why I like this forum. It's fun and games and finally you hear what you wanted to find out:thumbsup:
 
TWinter said:
It's all good..and I'll probably go with the /G next time they ask. That's why I like this forum. It's fun and games and finally you hear what you wanted to find out:thumbsup:
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No disrespect intended, but if you tell them you are /G, they might expect that you know how to use it. Are you sure you're ready for that? Perhaps you might want to start with /U.
 
JOhnH said:
No disrespect intended, but if you tell them you are /G, they might expect that you know how to use it. Are you sure you're ready for that? Perhaps you might want to start with /U.
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No disrespect taken..Good point. I'm always a less is more kind of guy.
 
Great topic!

I was asked that once on FF, and I had no idea what he was referring to. I even had him Say Again, which he did. After a big pause I squeaked out something like "GPS... radio." He gave me a "Roger" and I believe I detected the slightest hint of amusement in his voice.

Could it be that ATC sometimes has a little fun at our expense?
 
You could have replied like the guy who claimed he always got compliments on his instruments.
 
They are listed in the AIM on page 5-1-12 in Table 5-1-3, Aircraft Equipment Suffixes. That is the 2014 edition so it might be slightly different in your version. They are also listed on many flight planning sheets. If you fill out a paper flight plan before actually filing, it goes in Block 3. Your CFI should have covered this when you did flight planning.
 
snowbird said:
You could have replied like the guy who claimed he always got compliments on his instruments.
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I got a compliment on my equipment a few months ago. The controller said I had the best sounding radio he had heard in among time, no static at all
 
You could have said "Steam gauges".

The actual answer was identified above. The appropriate equipment code.

My friend is a pre-solo student and when things like this come up I start with "There's test questions on this, where would you look for the answer" She'll be good to go for the written :)
 
I have had controllers tell me I have a pretty airplane (which was interesting as they were a radar controller, but I believe the Potomac TRACON lets them browse the web on one of the overhead displays and it was late at night in a quiet sector).

I had a controller ask about what tow bar I was using (turns out he had the hangar a few doors down from me).

Departing Dulles one morning, we were asked what color our airplane was.
 
I get asked sometimes what "model" or "year" of a Bonanza I'm flying when asking for flight following. Guess they see me moving too slow on radar to be "real Bonanza" :(
 
brian];1816520 said:
I get asked sometimes what "model" or "year" of a Bonanza I'm flying when asking for flight following. Guess they see me moving too slow on radar to be "real Bonanza" :(
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LOL.
Brian has Deb-ophobia......:D
 
Am I the only one here that is surprised this wasn't covered in your training? That was all covered very early on in my PPL training, and I know there were a bunch of questions in my written exam prep guides "you have the following equipment in your airplane, what special equipment suffix would you put in box 3 of your flight plan form?"

That said, until you're pretty comfortable navigating the menus and screens of your GPS you probably shouldn't tell them /G. Even VFR if you're on flight following they can give you vectors for traffic, and they may tell you to go to some fix that you dont know how to pull up in a timely manner.
 
Would the OP have known what he was talking about if he had said something like "what is your equipment code" or ..."equipment suffix?" Just curious if that would have rang bells that "what kind of equipment do you have" didn't?
 
petrolero said:
Would the OP have known what he was talking about if he had said something like "what is your equipment code" or ..."equipment suffix?" Just curious if that would have rang bells that "what kind of equipment do you have" didn't?
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Ah...the ol' two people separated by a common language issue. Maybe.
 
I suppose that could be part of the issue. Curious what the pilot/controller glossary has as the official way to ask the question. I've certainly heard it the way the OP described.
 
I'm guessing the controller wanted to know if you had GPS on board, hence the question. It's why I have asked, and will continue to ask, pilots what equipment is aboard the aircraft.
 
I woulda been a smart ass and told him all about my fancy fuel flow meter and the shiny new ADSB out box and capped it all off with the new air filter that gave me one more knot on cruise speed. I'm sure he would enjoy knowing about all that stuff or he wouldn't have asked!!

Also, first time I had a controller tell me he was in training was yesterday. That was right after he gave me a ****ty vector and his trainer got on and amended that vector about 120 degrees for me. I was like seriously? You want to me to back from where came from?

I got a laugh....
 
brian];1816520 said:
I get asked sometimes what "model" or "year" of a Bonanza I'm flying when asking for flight following. Guess they see me moving too slow on radar to be "real Bonanza" :(
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With that fancy new prop, I'd expect you to be cruising with the G36 Bo's!!
 
Unit74 said:
I woulda been a smart ass and told him all about my fancy fuel flow meter and the shiny new ADSB out box and capped it all off with the new air filter that gave me one more knot on cruise speed. I'm sure he would enjoy knowing about all that stuff or he wouldn't have asked!!

Also, first time I had a controller tell me he was in training was yesterday. That was right after he gave me a ****ty vector and his trainer got on and amended that vector about 120 degrees for me. I was like seriously? You want to me to back from where came from?

I got a laugh....
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And here I was thinking I was swinging for the fences correcting a trainee who was a mere 80 degrees off. Holy smokes!
 
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