On Apr 20, 5:35 pm, (John Clear) wrote:
In article ,

Erik wrote:
Jose wrote:
I'm always afraid of sounding like a dumbs417 calling towers, though.
I avoid it at every opportunity.

You should practice it at every (reasonable) opportunity. They don't
bite.

Jose

Unless you do something really dumb.

Even when you do something really dumb, they don't bite.

I was flying into SAC one time, and the tower told me to report
left downwind. I had a brainfart and had my left and right confused,
so I flew a right pattern. The guys in the tower noticed my mistake,
but cleared me to land anyway. I'm sure they made some comments
about my intelligence to each other, but nothing was said over the
radio.

I heard someone else do something similar at PAO, and when it was
pointed out, they responded with "I always get confused when I fly
inverted" and tower replied with "happens to me all the time too".

Talking to tower or approach just takes practice to get comfortable
with it.

John
--
John Clear - http://www.clear-prop.org/

I've found that some tower folks can be very enjoyable to talk with.
Just don't be funny when there are more than one or two aircraft in
the area. The tower folks have to be on top of the job and
professional.