On Tuesday 13 January 2004 09:23 am, Chuck Busch wrote:
> >One of my pet peeves is pilots who call in to uncontrolled airport
>
> frequencies that clutter the airwaves with "cessna blah blah blah, 5
> mi. south of whatever landing, any traffic in the area please advise".
> A few times I've keyed the mic and said quit using your mouth and use
> your eyeballs!  <
>
> I think if you called me on that,  I'd like to have a talk with you on
> the ground.

"Any traffic please advise" is a waste of air time.  You're supposed to be
listening long before you enter the pattern for the announcements the
other aircraft who are following the AIM WILL BE MAKING.  In addition,
not all aircraft at an uncontrolled field have radios, so your PRIMARY
input should be your EYES, not your ears.

You'll argue that at a busy field your call makes you safer, but at a busy
field, you're making the situation WORSE by tying up the radio.

There's a reason the AIM has specific announcements called out for
uncontrolled fields -- someone smarter and who had a lot more time to
think about it than you did figured out the most efficient way of
utilizing the radio time while still offering the highest level of
safety.

If you're asking all the other aircraft to re-announce what they should
already be announcing, you're wasting everyone's time just to listen to
yourself talk.

The one announcement I *do* like to hear that's not in the AIM at
uncontrolled fields is...

"Big Huge Aerodrome, Cessna 12345, Blue and White Skyhawk turning
downwind, Runway 18... there is also a Red and White Cessna in the
pattern ahead of us who is not making radio announcements."

That covers making the announcement for the no-radio aircraft, takes very
little time, and lets the other pilots know there's someone else there
they didn't know about.

--
Nate Duehr, nate@natetech.com

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