Reamed out by Approach

On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 17:51:05 -0500, "Bob Chilcoat"
wrote:

I was flying into OSU airport at Columbus, OH on Friday. I contacted
Columbus approach at the appropriate time, was given a squawk, and continued
on inbound for OSU. The controller tried to call traffic for "Archer 411" a
couple of times,

Two comments:

1. Anytime I hear a callsign remotely like mine go answered and get
repeated, I will speak up. Always better to ask a question than to go
on confused.

2. Controllers are human too, and therefore make mistakes.
Sometimes, pilots get blamed for the controllers' mistakes. Since we
pilots strive for excellence in all aspects of our flying - we want to
be exonerated on the air, but it just doesn't work that way. Better
to shrug it off, stay in command of the plane, and learn what you can
from the situation.

I don't think you can fault the controllers for occasionally
misdirecting blame at a GA pilot. It is a learned response - driven
heavily by their interaction with the those GA pilots who have no clue
how to go about flying in B,C,D airspace and/or interact with ATC.
Spend enough time listening to ATC and you will be amazed at some of
the things GA pilots say and do.

-Nathan