Impressed with the Courtesy of ATC from NC to Miami and Back

On Mon, 30 Jan 2006 22:13:40 GMT, kontiki
wrote:

jls wrote:
It's been a while since I did much radio work with ATC and was dreading
it but found ATC very courteous, helpful, and professional.

Those people work in pressure cookers, and yet they manage to be so
nice.

One thing I noticed. The controllers have widely differing
personalilties and voices--and are quick with the words --- a real
treat to listen to.

Jax center is nice to work with, not too many big egos to deal with fer sure.
One time I was flying back IFR from Vero Beach up the east coast. I was
listening to one guy chatting with a Jax Center controller, rambling on about
different guys they knew and years gone by... it was pretty interesting but
approaching Savannah I realized I hadn't been handed off. After calling
JAX center and getting no response I switched to Savannah Approach freq
and called them up. They were waiting for me and and when I mentioned never
receiving a hand-off from Center they said .."no problem, want to go direct
Statesboro?" and sent me on my merry way.


I was stationed at Statesboro when I was in the Air Force. We had a
direct telephone line to JAX center and Savannah. We coordinated with
them because we had bombers on a low level route (OB-17) that would
use our fire control radars for training and evaluation.

One day, a couple of JAX controllers just showed up at our site. I
would not do that now, but you've got to realize that times were
different back then. I knew them by voice and name. We had dinner
and I showed them our equipment. For some reason, we were just birds
of the same breed.

Thirty years later I still seem to like being turned over to JAX
Center.

Mike Weller

I also still like saying "Hello Houston" when I'm handed off to them.

Mike Weller wrote:
I was stationed at Statesboro when I was in the Air Force. We had a
direct telephone line to JAX center and Savannah. We coordinated with
them because we had bombers on a low level route (OB-17) that would
use our fire control radars for training and evaluation.

Interesting, I'd love to hear more about all of of that.
What's an OB-17? Statesboro was an Army Airfield during WWII,
then a SAC base later on (maybe when you were here). I have done
Google searches and generally find little info about this
airfield under military use. I'd like to have a few interesting
tidbits to put up on the walls here if I could find it.

On Tue, 31 Jan 2006 17:20:54 GMT, ktbr wrote:

Mike Weller wrote:
I was stationed at Statesboro when I was in the Air Force. We had a
direct telephone line to JAX center and Savannah. We coordinated with
them because we had bombers on a low level route (OB-17) that would
use our fire control radars for training and evaluation.

Interesting, I'd love to hear more about all of of that.
What's an OB-17? Statesboro was an Army Airfield during WWII,
then a SAC base later on (maybe when you were here). I have done
Google searches and generally find little info about this
airfield under military use. I'd like to have a few interesting
tidbits to put up on the walls here if I could find it.

OK

When I was stationed there, I was in SAC. The airport was Statesboro
Municipal and we just leased the spot from them.

OB-17 was called an Oil Burner (Oh maybe that was an Olive Branch)
route. Number 17 obviously.

They would do qualification and training with our stolen SA-2 radars,
and would also do what we called a "Pop Up" and get scored on their
bombing accuracy. Considering that they had simulated nuclear
weapons, they and I wondered what good it would do to "Pop Up" from
200 feet to 500 feet.

In Kansas, I saw a B-52 pull up slightly to go over the only tree for
miles around there. There's just not many trees in those wheat fields
that go on forever.

B-52s were allowed to fly at incredibly low altitudes on the OB routes
and they had what was called terrain avoidance. It wasn't as good as
the FB-111 that had terrain following. I guess that was why SAC never
lost a B-52 while they were doing that stuff.

Now Linebacker II was a whole different matter. The dumb ****ers at
USAG, or where ever, sent them day after day on the same route, at the
same altitude, and with the same jamming equipment. A monkey could
have figured out how to shoot them down. And did.

The only FB-111s that SAC lost were when they were joining up after a
low level mission, and "got too close together". They had these
really cool ejection pods for each of them, neither of which worked.

Mike Weller

Fascinating info, Thanks Mike.
Mike Weller wrote:

When I was stationed there, I was in SAC. The airport was Statesboro
Municipal and we just leased the spot from them.

OB-17 was called an Oil Burner (Oh maybe that was an Olive Branch)
route. Number 17 obviously.

They would do qualification and training with our stolen SA-2 radars,
and would also do what we called a "Pop Up" and get scored on their
bombing accuracy. Considering that they had simulated nuclear
weapons, they and I wondered what good it would do to "Pop Up" from
200 feet to 500 feet.

In Kansas, I saw a B-52 pull up slightly to go over the only tree for
miles around there. There's just not many trees in those wheat fields
that go on forever.

B-52s were allowed to fly at incredibly low altitudes on the OB routes
and they had what was called terrain avoidance. It wasn't as good as
the FB-111 that had terrain following. I guess that was why SAC never
lost a B-52 while they were doing that stuff.

Now Linebacker II was a whole different matter. The dumb ****ers at
USAG, or where ever, sent them day after day on the same route, at the
same altitude, and with the same jamming equipment. A monkey could
have figured out how to shoot them down. And did.

The only FB-111s that SAC lost were when they were joining up after a
low level mission, and "got too close together". They had these
really cool ejection pods for each of them, neither of which worked.

Mike Weller

OB-17 was called an Oil Burner (Oh maybe that was an Olive Branch)
route. Number 17 obviously.

Originally Oil Burner. Renamed to the more Politically Correct just
about the time of the 70's gas crunch. Pure coincidence, of course.
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