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

Antoñio wrote:

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.

Tests show that I have lost the higher frequencies in both ears. I also have a
condition (I don't remember the name) which causes distant conversations (say,
20 feet away) to sound about as loud as the person across the table from me.
That doesn't interfere with radio work, of course, but it makes it very
difficult for me to converse in a public place or noisy party. I do a lot of lip
reading.

I can't do that over the radio, and NAV/COMs don't have treble and bass
controls. Thankfully, there are very few controllers with soprano voices.

And it's not a disorder to prefer to be doing something else than concentrating
on listening for your N-number in the static and other conversation.

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

George Patterson wrote:

And it's not a disorder to prefer to be doing something else than
concentrating on listening for your N-number in the static and other
conversation.

Unfortunately, the phemomena I was speaking of is called "Attention
Deficit *Disorder* ". I hope you realize that I meant no disrespect.

Antonio

"Antoñio" wrote

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.

What was that? I was reading it, but I lost track of it somewhere. Who
were you talking to, anyway? ;-)
--
Jim in NC

Morgans wrote:

What was that? I was reading it, but I lost track of it somewhere. Who
were you talking to, anyway? ;-)

Ha! ....obviously MYSELF ! Remember that old saying; "No good deed goes
unpunished"?

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.