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

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.

It's great to be an American.

I stopped in Bacon County, GA to fill up at a self-service pump ---
2.90 a gallon --- and met a nice Georgian there, who also commented
that Jax Approach were the nicest folks around.
He was traveling with his German Shorthaired Pointer in a Bonanza, and
told me where to go to get a Coca-Cola, since I was about dehydrated.

Ain't life just grand, and that much grander that we can fly!

Ain't life just grand, and that much grander that we can fly!

Amen, brother!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I often feel the same way along that same route. Everybody is a pro.
The folks down in Savannah approach sometimes get out of the wrong side
of the bed but Jax is the best in my little book. When the storms come
up, they just get busy and better.

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.

It's great to be an American.

I stopped in Bacon County, GA to fill up at a self-service pump ---
2.90 a gallon --- and met a nice Georgian there, who also commented
that Jax Approach were the nicest folks around.
He was traveling with his German Shorthaired Pointer in a Bonanza, and
told me where to go to get a Coca-Cola, since I was about dehydrated.

Ain't life just grand, and that much grander that we can fly!

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.

"jls" == jls writes:

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

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

Same here. I fly in Northern California, VFR, and have avoided flying
into Southern California for years, mainly because of ATC. Finally
last spring I flew into John Wayne (Orange County) with some advice
from a friend who operated out of there for years. This was with an
Aircoupe and GPS.

ATC couldn't have been more helpful. Of course it helps to appear
somewhat competent, but my fear of getting yelled at and so on was
completely wrong. Even on takeoff after the weekend visit, when I
left my transponder on the old code for a while, was handled
gracefully. Good folks.

"kontiki" wrote

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.

Man, you're really close to me!

Want a flying buddy and an extra pair of eyes, next time (or whenever) you
want to punch some holes in the air? I would love to ride along, if you are
interested. I'll take any reason to get into the air, since I am currently
stuck on the ground. :-(

I'm about 45 minutes away, and if you give me a call, I'll attempt to get
free!

Drop me a line at jsmorgan a t charter dot n e t
--
Jim in NC

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

I had the same experience a while back flying down to Miami from
the midwest. Went down the west side of the state and across
over I-75. Then down the west side of Miami to Tamiami. All the Center,
Approach, and local controllers were great. Well with the exception
of the local controllers at Lakeland. I thought they were snippy
and rude .. like I was bothering them stopping to eat and
buy gas. Don't know if it's a contract tower or FAA.



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.

It's great to be an American.

I stopped in Bacon County, GA to fill up at a self-service pump ---
2.90 a gallon --- and met a nice Georgian there, who also commented
that Jax Approach were the nicest folks around.
He was traveling with his German Shorthaired Pointer in a Bonanza, and
told me where to go to get a Coca-Cola, since I was about dehydrated.

Ain't life just grand, and that much grander that we can fly!