How to tell planes apart in the pattern

[201er]

"And Blairstown traffic, is there anybody in the pattern? No? And Bonanza is taking the active" - Bonanza

"Uhm, Blairstown, uhm, trafffffic. Uh, Cessna 123AB is uh 5, no 3, miles eeass-west landing on..... 25. Oh, Blairstown" - Cessna

"Blairstown traffic, commanche on a 20 mile straight in final 25, Blairstown" - Piper

"Blairstown tower, Cirrus 321ZX request clearance to land" - Cirrus

"Blairstown traffic, Mooney 45 left downwind 25. Got the departing Bonanaza, will slow up behind the skyhawk number 2, commanche on final no factor, looking for the Cirrus. Blairstown" - Mooney

 

[1964-M20E]

Nice

[carusoam]

Proof that flying a Mooney improves cognition!

Best regards,

-a-

[chrisk]

I am guilty of the "10 mile strait in final".  This is often the anouncment I make when doing practice instrument work.  I always assumed it was better then anouncing a position over a fix. 

 

+1 Cirrus

[Marauder]

"And Blairstown traffic, is there anybody in the pattern? No? And Bonanza is taking the active" - Bonanza "Uhm, Blairstown, uhm, trafffffic. Uh, Cessna 123AB is uh 5, no 3, miles eeass-west landing on..... 25. Oh, Blairstown" - Cessna "Blairstown traffic, commanche on a 20 mile straight in final 25, Blairstown" - Piper "Blairstown tower, Cirrus 321ZX request clearance to land" - Cirrus "Blairstown traffic, Mooney 45 left downwind 25. Got the departing Bonanaza, will slow up behind the skyhawk number 2, commanche on final no factor, looking for the Cirrus. Blairstown" - Mooney

It could be worse... I listened for 10 minutes inbound on KGED Unicom to a pilot that was telling his passenger (and the rest of the world due to his stuck mic) all about how fast his Piper was.

[201er]

a pilot that was telling his passenger (and the rest of the world due to his stuck mic) all about how fast his Piper was.

lmfao, good one

[Joe Zuffoletto]

I'll take my crazy-busy home field of Denver Centennial and its awesome controllers over most uncontrolled fields any day. The incompetence and negligence I've heard over the radio at uncontrolled fields around here is breathtaking.

[John Pleisse]

"Taking the active" is the worst. Avoiding this one phrase alone could cut uncontrolled airport chatter in half.

[RJBrown]

I'll take my crazy-busy home field of Denver Centennial and its awesome controllers over most uncontrolled fields any day. The incompetence and negligence I've heard over the radio at uncontrolled fields around here is breathtaking.

 

You don't remember Narzel do you?

[fantom]

"Taking the active" is the worst. Avoiding this one phrase alone could cut uncontrolled airport chatter in half.

 

Second worst, IMO. The winner is:

 

"Any traffic in the pattern, please report".

[201er]

My pet peave is IFR traffic that makes VFR position reports under VMC that only reference an IFR approach.  For example, "Army helicopter on NDB Alpha approach, Tri County". 

On a VMC day I agree it's silly. But on an IFR day, I figure everyone else is IFR and knows what those are or sure as heck shouldn't be up flying.

[John Pleisse]

My pet peave is IFR traffic that makes VFR position reports under VMC that only reference an IFR approach.  For example, "Army helicopter on NDB Alpha approach, Tri County". 

 

"Taking (or clear of) the active" and "any traffic, please advise" are far more common, but at least you have a general idea of what the guy is doing without having pull up an approach plate. 

 

Jim 

 

 

I agree. This is always problematic. What's funny is, people in real IMC are often smart enough to give position reports everyone can understand. It is the weekend warrior types doing multiple practice approaches in VMC that seem to always give position reports in IFR speak.

[201er]

Agreed, Mike.  I think some guys just get in the habit of doing it this way in IMC and then forget that it is far from an ideal position report when sharing the pattern with pilots who may be unfamiliar with the approach.  I've only heard it from military training traffic, but we have a lot of that in my area.

 

Jim

Honestly though, one problem is that when you're shooting some instrument approaches, it's actually hard to tell how far you really are from the airport! On a GPS approach the GPS shows you the distance to the next fix and not the airport so it takes a lot of math to figure it out. That's why I used to just ballpark and announce in VFR speak but now my IPad shows me direct distance so I can quickly use that without trying to do math.

[TWinter]

Second worst, IMO. The winner is:

 

"Any traffic in the pattern, please report".

 

"Taking the active" is the worst. Avoiding this one phrase alone could cut uncontrolled airport chatter in half.

My thoughts are I just hope they put it back after they take it

[chrisk]

My pet peave is IFR traffic that makes VFR position reports under VMC that only reference an IFR approach.  For example, "Army helicopter on NDB Alpha approach, Tri County". 

 

This is why I give my "10  mile final for xx".  A VFR pilot should know where to look for me and should not be surprised when he gets the 5, 3, and 1 mile report. 

 

Now if someone else is practicing in the same area, I try to amend it with more specifics, like the approach and relationship to navaids.

[Marauder]

My favorite is "Cessna 1234A, departing northwest bound, LAST CALL". I don't know whether to order another beer or go to the guy's funeral!

[FloridaMan]

My favorite is "Cessna 1234A, departing northwest bound, LAST CALL". I don't know whether to order another beer or go to the guy's funeral!

 

...to which you're supposed to respond: "Oh man, I hate last call." I was trained that both calls were correct. 

[Cruiser]

The one that get me the most is calling any runway at an uncontrolled field "active" 

It is not unusual here to have landing traffic on perpendicular runways or planes departing on one runway while landing on the other. 

It is much more appropriate for the FBO to call "last used" instead of "active" and for pilots to call the runway number instead of "taking" or "clear of" the active.

[DonMuncy]

It is amazing how difficult it is to break the habits we were taught in our initial training. I stlll have to fight myself not to tell ATC I am "with you".

[Joe Zuffoletto]

You don't remember Narzel do you?

 

Don't know who/what that is. Please enlighten me....

[jetdriven]

Honestly though, one problem is that when you're shooting some instrument approaches, it's actually hard to tell how far you really are from the airport! On a GPS approach the GPS shows you the distance to the next fix and not the airport so it takes a lot of math to figure it out. That's why I used to just ballpark and announce in VFR speak but now my IPad shows me direct distance so I can quickly use that without trying to do math.

I use the Aera for the approach and the KLN for DME to the airport.  One thing I noticed in Aspen/Garmin or just single Garmin airplanes, nothing in the cockpit shows you direct distance to the airport. Thats not ideal.

[jetdriven]

It is amazing how difficult it is to break the habits we were taught in our initial training. I stlll have to fight myself not to tell ATC I am "with you".

 

I finally went all out, not only did I drop the "with you" I also dropped the ".....AND, Fort Worth" from the "Good Morning Ft Worth Center" initial call.   Now its just "Good morning Center, Ascot 224, FL 360."  They know who they are,  I am tired of reminding them. Nobody has commented yet.

[NotarPilot]

I finally went all out, not only did I drop the "with you" I also dropped the ".....AND, Fort Worth" from the "Good Morning Ft Worth Center" initial call.   Now its just "Good morning Center, Ascot 224, FL 360."  They know who they are,  I am tired of reminding them. Nobody has commented yet.

 

I hear SOOOOOO many pilots use "And" at the beginning of their transmission.  Everyone from SouthWest pilots to guys I work with.  The more I notice it the more it's come to bug me.  Call me the "Anal retentive pilot" I guess.  Same as GA pilots who use "Tally-ho" and "No joy."  I think that verbiage should only be allowed by those who fly very fast and noisy turbine aircraft painted in matte gray colors.

[Hank]

"No joy" is so much easier to say than "negative contact" when looking for traffic. "Tallyho" should be reserved for Spitfire pilots diving out of the sun on Nazi aircraft . . .

 

Didn't take me much real travel to drop "with you," either, since nobody was saying it. I try to include the Approach/Center name when I call but sometimes the handoff isn't clear and I miss it. Be nice to ATC, add "please," "would like to" and "thank you" to stay on their good side; after all, they are helping me.

 

Around the pattern, keep a close eye peeled and always add "number 2" or "number 3" to position reports when needed. I also tell landing traffic ahead of me "no rush" so they don't get paranoid about having someone breathing down their neck. It's not hard to extend downwind a little bit, and the extra minute at low power costs pretty much nothing . . . .

[201er]

I finally went all out, not only did I drop the "with you" I also dropped the ".....AND, Fort Worth" from the "Good Morning Ft Worth Center" initial call.   Now its just "Good morning Center, Ascot 224, FL 360."  They know who they are,  I am tired of reminding them. Nobody has commented yet.

Saying the name of the center you're talking to is a good checksum for sticky swap button! You push swap twice by accident and say the name of the next facility to the prior and everyone immediately knows what happened. Same thing with a wrong frequency change. You check in with approach abc when you're really on frequency for xyz, they can inform you and case closed. Otherwise everyone has to scramble to figure out who the heck you are and why you're calling them.