When to acknowledge ATC

"George Patterson" wrote in message
news:vaNee.26$Ws6.6@trndny07...

I rarely get an altimeter setting from a controller anyway. I make a point
of picking up the setting from AWOS stations in flight and from ATIS
before arrival or departure. As long as you tell the controller you have
the ATIS, about the only time they'll give you the setting is as a gentle
notice that you don't seem to be flying at the altitude at which you're
supposed to be.


Yup, if you choose not to talk to controllers you won't be getting altimeter
settings from them. But if you fly IFR or use flight following you'll get
an altimeter setting when you check in with a new controller.

Steven P. McNicoll wrote:

But if you fly IFR or use flight following you'll get
an altimeter setting when you check in with a new controller.

Understood. I don't have an instrument rating and didn't get far enough on that
training to have run into this. I have a personal dislike of flight following,
so I don't take advantage of this service.

George Patterson
There's plenty of room for all of God's creatures. Right next to the
mashed potatoes.

"George Patterson"

Understood. I don't have an instrument rating and didn't get far enough on
that training to have run into this. I have a personal dislike of flight
following, so I don't take advantage of this service.

Lordy, why? VFR in low ceilings means that almost everyone is flying just
below the clouds. Why wouldn't you want to have flight following in those
conditions? It's free. What's the issue?

moo

Happy Dog wrote:

Lordy, why? VFR in low ceilings means that almost everyone is flying just
below the clouds. Why wouldn't you want to have flight following in those
conditions? It's free. What's the issue?

I do not hear well. This is the result of early use of firearms and a lifetime
of working with power tools. To some extent that is taken care of by a decent
radio, excellent intercom, and a set of Bose-X headsets, but, in addition to
that, I don't "snap to attention" when someone addresses me. I'm typically
thinking, sightseeing, or daydreaming. I also spend a fair amount of any long
flight listening to music (though not when I'm near something like class-D
airspace).

That creates a cycle in which I get little practice in talking to ATC, so my
communications are awkward. So I avoid situtations in which I have to talk with
them, so I get less practice. The first time I enter controlled airspace each
season is certainly entertaining for any outsider on the channel, and the last
few years I've not had occassion to speak to ATC at all.

The result is that I find keeping an erratic conversation going with ATC to be a
lot of unpleasant work. As I said, that's a personal decision. I would never
recommend against using flight following, I just prefer to avoid it myself. If
I'm close to a major airport (for example, passing Roanoke on a Tennessee run),
I'll be listening but not talking to them.

George Patterson
There's plenty of room for all of God's creatures. Right next to the
mashed potatoes.

George Patterson wrote:
.... in addition to that, I don't "snap to attention" when someone
addresses me. I'm typically thinking, sightseeing, or daydreaming. I
also spend a fair amount of any long flight listening to music (though
not when I'm near something like class-D airspace).

George,

From what you describe above I wonder if you actually may have some
form of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).(?) I myself had similar
attention type problems that I assumed were due to my ears fading as a
result of all the rock n' roll concerts, guns, getting older, loud women
I've dated(ha!), and other noise that inundated my ears as a younger man.

I discovered just a few years ago that the problems were not that I
*couldn't* hear but that I *didn't* hear because my brain did not kick
in immediately when being addressed. I would constantly miss the
beginning of a conversation and sometimes drift off in the middle of it.
I could not concentrate on anything that was mundane, repetitious, or
"colorless" regardless of how important it was to me. I was often
distracted away by my own thoughts from a conversation or the task at hand.

I did some training and, vol la! I found out that there really was never
anything wrong with my hearing in the first place! I just wasn't paying
attention.

Just thinking out loud....hope that's not distracting. ;-)

Antonio

On Sun, 08 May 2005 02:32:08 GMT, George Patterson
wrote in ISefe.3205$EC6.1616@trndny06:

I have a personal dislike of flight following, so I don't take
advantage of this service.

The thought of ATC's intrusion into the reverie of our aerial
operations is displeasing. But anyone who fails to avail themselves
of Radar Traffic Advisory Service in the Los Angeles basin just
doesn't appreciate the magnitude of aerial congestion in the vicinity.

I have a personal dislike for scanning for traffic, but it is
preferable to a MAC.

"Larry Dighera"
On Sun, 08 May 2005 02:32:08 GMT, George Patterson
wrote in ISefe.3205$EC6.1616@trndny06:

I have a personal dislike of flight following, so I don't take
advantage of this service.

The thought of ATC's intrusion into the reverie of our aerial
operations is displeasing. But anyone who fails to avail themselves
of Radar Traffic Advisory Service in the Los Angeles basin just
doesn't appreciate the magnitude of aerial congestion in the vicinity.

The first time you see an in-cockpit traffic display, it's pretty sobering.
It's not as lonely out there as it appears!

moo

On Sun, 8 May 2005 11:27:10 -0400, "Happy Dog"
wrote in ::

It's not as lonely out there as it appears!

Right. The Big Sky Theory belongs right up there with the Tooth
Fairy, Easter Bunny, and other childish notions. Just because you
can't see 'em, doesn't mean they're not there.

Larry Dighera wrote:

The thought of ATC's intrusion into the reverie of our aerial
operations is displeasing. But anyone who fails to avail themselves
of Radar Traffic Advisory Service in the Los Angeles basin just
doesn't appreciate the magnitude of aerial congestion in the vicinity.

And I might use flight following there. I didn't lose anything on the shaky
side, however.

George Patterson
There's plenty of room for all of God's creatures. Right next to the
mashed potatoes.

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote:

Altimeter settings don't tend to vary a great deal from one controller to
the next. If you're issued one that differs by more than a few points from
the previous then it's a good idea to check on it.

During my short three years in the air, I had one IFR flight about a month
ago where the pressure difference between three approach facilities
(Syracuse to Buffalo, actual distance around 150nm) was almost 3/4's of an
inch. That equated to about 700 feet difference in altitude from start to
finish.

I recall a few of the airline pilots that morning were doing double-takes
and commenting on this dropping pressure as they flew west.

--
Peter


















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