Have you ever been verbally whipped on radio?

[ArtVandelay]

Once, taking off from Orlando executive on an IFR flight plan in visual conditions, a controller told me to maintain @ or above 2000' on runway heading. If you know the area, you know that Orlando (MCO) arrivals are right over departures and arrivals from Orlando Executive. And I could clearly see the airliners descending overhead. I asked twice for him to clarify and the second time he flew off the handle. I responded with "unable". A few seconds later a 2nd controller came on and told me to remain at or below 2,000. 
I am sure the guy made a mistake and was probably having a bad day. But not much room or error in this area, especially had it been in IMC. 

Interesting, that’s where I had a problem with the read back of my taxi instructions I mentioned above.

[dkkim73]

53 minutes ago, Schllc said:

...
When I got home I called his boss, they said I was not the first person to have this issue and they would listen to the tapes. I don’t know if they did or not, but they announced his separation the following week. 
They are human and make mistakes as well.

Usually they are separating us. Now you are separating them. 

[ArtVandelay]

They are human and make mistakes as well.

The difference is they do this 40 hours a week, most of us only fly about 100 hours a year.

[EricJ]

When I was first flying I had finished my PPL at KRAP, and we had seriously angry controllers who were always looking for reasons to chew you out.  If you really made them mad they'd make you go see them in person, which meant climbing the stairs all the way up to the tower cab.   There was an elevator, they just wouldn't let you use it.   I heard them tell an obvious transient airplane to join midfield downwind, which he did by overflying the airport since he was coming from the opposite direction.    He got told to climb the stairs for that.   It was genuinely a suboptimal situation.

Then Reagan fired essentially all of ATC and it was much, much better after that.   Regardless of whether that was good or bad anywhere else, it definitely reset the tower situation there in a good way.    Fortunately there's a much more service-oriented culture in the system now, which I am very glad for.    These days the ATC guys are way overworked due to personnel shortages, so I usually give them a pass if they do get a bit snippy occassionally, because I sympathize with their overall situation.   

[Danb]

Years ago I was going into Hartford and was kept high by approach control, when handed off I stated I couldn’t make it I was to high and asked for lower a few times but never granted, they told be to turn left climb and maintain say 5000’ and put in a hold for 10-15 minutes it seemed like an eternity I was then given a turn back and descend to 2000 contact the tower who rudely asked if I thought I could make the airport now I’m lower stating your out of the penalty box. I was like 150 hour pilot without a clue upon landing I asked ground why I was put in a holding pattern he said we waited for the pattern to clear, I asked if I could talk to there manager was told he wasn’t on duty. Quite unprofessional they were in charge not the lowly Mooney Pilot.

[Shadrach]

13 hours ago, N201MKTurbo said:

Just don’t do it at your home drome. They can carry a grudge for a long time.

Agreed. It was an airport I frequent. He chewed me out first. I think he regretted it more than I did because he kept stalling when I asked him for a number to call. 

[EricJ]

I went on the wrong taxiway once headed to takeoff and got held at the end of the runway for a long time due to "wake turbulence" from the landing Archers.    I was actually really amused by that.

[PMcClure]

5 hours ago, ArtVandelay said:

Interesting, that’s where I had a problem with the read back of my taxi instructions I mentioned above.

I have had a few instances of rude controllers at Orlando Executive. Nothing else serious but not a warm welcome. 

[Pinecone]

I was going into Sarasota to swap my 650 to 650Xi.  Then wanted to clear me for the visual, but I just wasn't seeing the airport.  So the controller gave me a heading for vectors to the ILS.  He sounded miffed.  So he left me cruising east a good bit, but left me at about 1300 feet.  Problem is, there are towers out there taller than that.   And I see one, just to the right of my nose.

As I am getting close to the tower, he realizes what he has done and directs an immediate right turn.  INTO the tower.  I decline, and he insists.  I tell him I will turn right after I pass the tower as a right turn would have me hit the tower.  He climbed me to 2000 and was a changed person giving me actual vectors to the ILS.

[Ed de C.]

I've been fortunate that I've never been yelled at by a controller, despite a few notable goofs.  Maybe it's the Midwest nice thing, or maybe it's that I'm flying a Mooney and there just seems to be a notch or two more respect coming back to me over the radio.  Being 60 and pretty good on the radio no doubt helps. 

A few months ago, I was coming home to Pontiac Michigan from Philadelphia and in Cleveland Approach's airspace.  The frequency got quiet and by the time I noticed, I had flown beyond radio range of the controller.  The adrenaline kicked in a bit since I'd never had this happen before.  I've got G1000 and Foreflight so there are a million ways to get the next frequency, but when under stress the million can shrink to zero.  I remembered the Detroit approach frequency for my home airport and hoped I was close enough.  It worked.  The approach controller started by saying "we've been trying to reach you."  I was on an IFR flight plan, and it was a CAVU day.  I had not yet penetrated the Detroit class B airspace and was high enough to not have interfered with the approach paths into Detroit.  Curiously, the controller simply asked me how I had found the Detroit approach frequency (he asked if I used Foreflight), and I replied that I knew it from memory.  I recall he said they tried me on Guard.  He was very calm, and nothing came of it.  I sensed he was relieved that I wasn't in some sort of distress.  Lesson for me was to figure out how to find handoff frequencies if I miss a radio call and I monitor Guard regularly (you hear weird things on Guard sometimes, having nothing to do with radio traffic).

Another goof was to turn the wrong way after takeoff and staying in the pattern at the home towered field.  Luckily it was 9pm, dark, and there was no other traffic.  The controller politely pointed out my error and said, "No problem, just continue."  Since we have 2 parallel runways, that was a serious goof since I was crossing the departure path of the parallel runway. 

I had two minor episodes 20+ years ago in my Lancair, one at my then home field in Romeo, Michigan and one flying in Destin, Florida.  Arriving at the traffic pattern at Romeo (uncontrolled) after a long flight, I flew an extra-long downwind before turning base.  I was tired.  Somebody behind me, barked about me getting on the ground and getting out of his way (no indication that he was in any sort of difficulty).  I mentally flipped him the bird and keyed the mic responding tiredly that it had been a long day.  Minor league episode, to be sure, but it ate at me that road rage makes its way into the air.

The Destin episode had a funny ending (20 years later).  I was sightseeing down there (DTS) back before they had their tower.  I entered downwind and as I turned base, a King Air cut me off on his straight in.  No warning on Unicom.  I was grumpy since I believed I had the right of way and had been taught that straight in was not an acceptable arrival when there's traffic in the pattern and it's a CAVU day. (I've since read that actually straight in is not illegal and it's the guy who is lower that has the right of way, or something like that) I said nothing to the King Air, however.  20 years later, I flew down to the same airport in the Mooney, and they now have a tower.  The line guy commented "yeah, when you were here last there was no tower.  But after too many fist fights on the ramp, we decided the tower was necessary."  I understood why.

Another thing I do is apologize to the controller when I've screwed up something (wrong heading, taxiing back to parking without switching to ground, you name it).  I fess up and always get a "no problem".   

Best,

Ed  

  

 

[dkkim73]

Worst I've ever got was "get a move on" when I stopped off the active to run a post-landing checklist. Not blocking anyone I knew of. Can't recall the airport. 

Where I fly now, people are just generally very reasonable. Once while still learning the G1000 I activated the flight director and NAV mode on the ground and also forgot I was departing the opposite runway (you know where this is going). So climbing past the initial altitude I got cleared direct to my first way point. I quickly remembered and then followed the FD. A little while later "Any reason for the long way around?". Pause. "Honestly, it was the autopilot." For a while after that I think they were careful with me on departure. But if they sighed it was after releasing the mic key, so I might just be imagining things.

I do see what my instructor told me about, controllers in general do seem to expect more from Mooneys. And cruising in the high teens, getting a lot of fast descents, too. Getting my money out of the speed brakes. 

[PMcClure]

One of the funniest things I ever heard on the radio was on the DC center frequency. An airline captain came on and started talking about how he was going to retire this year, had been flying for over 30 years, starting with Vietnam era fighters, etc... told everyone to sit back and enjoy their flight, who the flight attendants were and everything else you can imagine. It seemed like it was over 10 minutes. This was on frequency.... after he was done, total silence for a few seconds then he caught rapid fire  abuse from just about every pilot on frequency. Pilots can be relentless! 

 

[T. Peterson]

On 10/6/2024 at 11:16 PM, Ragsf15e said:

Kogd (Ogden) tower has been terrible for this a few times.  I came in one day and they were just screaming at a local helicopter pilot.  Very unprofessional, but also a significant detractor from everyone else’s SA.  I asked for the tower supervisors phone number and eventually talked to him (he wasn’t in the tower at the time).  

Im sure pilots (me too) do stupid stuff from time to time and a quick mention of “you missed 3 radio calls” or “when i say X i need you to acknowledge” is fine but screaming at someone is going to cause way more problems than it solves.  Get or give a phone number and deal with it when everyone is safely at zero knots.

A single phrase rebuke may be constructive or even required, but a radio diatribe is never necessary or professional.

[ta2too]

Had a memorable incident back in the 90's:

     I was working on my PPL, and was flying with my instructor one day. I was based in KOWD, and we decided to fly the VFR corridor down the Hudson River in New York.

      We started by flying direct KOWD, KHPN where we picked up Flight Following and proceeded down the Hudson, cleared at 1500'msl. Great ride, great scenery. Our intentions were to circle the Statue of Liberty, and then break it off, and fly direct back to KOWD, but for some reason we broke it off early. I called Approach, and was given a heading back to KOWD. This is where it got interesting.

      I acknowledged the heading, read it back, and proceeded as directed. Flying along things didn't seem right to me because we were getting very close to landing traffic at KLGA (LaGuardia). I asked my CFI if he thought we were OK and he assured me that we were on our assigned heading and we both agreed as to what we heard the controller give us for a heading ; not to worry.

      I was beyond worrying and would describe it more as a mild panic. I told my CFI I was going to verify with the approach controller, and as I placed my finger on the transmit button, I heard a VERY PANICKED approach controller screaming at me, questioning what I was doing, followed by "TURN LEFT IMMEDIATELY TO HEADING XYZ". Once turned I told him it didn't look right to me either and I was in the process of calling him to verify as he was calling me. This was followed by a minute of silence, and then I was handed off to another controller who was not happy at all. She assigned me another heading and directed me to maintain present altitude followed by "DO NOT DEVIATE"

      As we flew the new heading, we realized it took us right over Central Park at 1500'agl. This was great! Turned out to be the best sightseeing tour I ever had to this day. Once we were cleared and out of the way, she cut us loose. Not happy at all. 

     I never heard anything about that, but I'm sure the tape was played back which cleared us of any deviations.

     

 

[Bartman]

I have never been yelled at or done anything to deserve it.  However, just this past weekend I was climbing out of KTZR and in the soup.  Tower handed me off to Columbus departure and simultaneously I began my turn to the right on course.  I must have been a bit delayed because he immediately asked me if I was going to turn right on course or state my intentions.  

As I proceeded on course I pushed play on the Abbey Road album, and I didn't think of his question again until I read this thread.

[EricJ]

7 hours ago, PMcClure said:

One of the funniest things I ever heard on the radio was on the DC center frequency. An airline captain came on and started talking about how he was going to retire this year, had been flying for over 30 years, starting with Vietnam era fighters, etc... told everyone to sit back and enjoy their flight, who the flight attendants were and everything else you can imagine. It seemed like it was over 10 minutes. This was on frequency.... after he was done, total silence for a few seconds then he caught rapid fire  abuse from just about every pilot on frequency. Pilots can be relentless! 

That happens on guard from time to time.   Definitely funnier on an ATC frequency.