One of the most disturbing and time-consuming communications sit- uations takes place on the ramp at any busy tower-controlled airport, where the ground controller reels off the active runway, taxi instruc- tions, and the altimeter setting to a departing aircraft and then hears, “Barnburner 1234 Alpha, ready to taxi.” Faced with this set of cir- cumstances, the controller has little choice but to go through the whole bit again, and the needless repetitions build into frustrating numbers in the course of a day. When you get the engine started, turn on the radio, monitor Ground Control, and listen. Unless you’re the only pilot getting ready to go, you can copy the appropriate in- structions, and when you are ready to move out, save tempers and time by saying, “Barnburner 1234 Alpha, ready to taxi with the num-
bers.” (If you’re on a large airport with several locations from which
aircraft might taxi for takeoff, don’t make the controller guess where you are. State your position in the original call: “Barnburner 1234 Alpha at Acme Aviation, ready to taxi with the numbers.”)
When approaching for landing, the same principle applies; you can usually monitor the tower frequency from a considerable dis- tance, learn what runway and traffic pattern are in use, and tell the tower you “have the numbers” on the initial call: “Downtown Tower, Barnburner 1234 Alpha 6 miles northwest with the numbers, will call you on downwind for Runway 36.” If the controller would prefer some other pattern entry or another runway, you’ll be advised. The beauty of this procedure is that the controller will usually only need to acknowledge your thoughtful, preplanned transmission with “roger, 1234 Alpha,” again making the most of communication time.
Both of these situations — before taxi and prior to landing — have been vastly improved wherever Automatic Terminal Information Ser- vice (ATIS) is installed. Take a few seconds to took up the ATIS fre- quency and get all the pertinent airport information before reporting “ready to taxi” or before contacting the approach controller. There’s just no excuse for controllers having to spend time reciting the active runway, altimeter setting, and other pertinent information when it is waiting for you on a continuous ATIS recording. It’s even more im- portant for IFR operations, since the ATIS broadcast usually includes weather, winds, and the approach procedures in use. At most large terminals, ground controllers don’t have the time to cater to unin- formed pilots and will refer you back to ATIS if you call for taxi instructions without the current information. “Kennedy Ground,
Chapter Eight
Barnburner 1234 Alpha at Gate 4B ready to taxi” would no doubt be rejoined crisply with, “34 Alpha, information Bravo is current,” and the controller will go on about more pressing business, leaving you to find out for yourself what information Bravo is all about.
Inbound to a busy airport in solid IFR, there’s still time to tune the ATIS frequency and get yourself set for the approach segment of your flight. Granted, doing this requires listening with each ear tuned to a different frequency, and ATC instructions certainly take precedence. But if you start listening to ATIS far enough out, you can pick up por- tions of the broadcast in between the calls from Center (use the audio switch to cut out ATIS when you hear your call sign on the primary radio), and by the time you are handed off to Approach Con- trol, you should have the complete message.
When you’re trying to obtain ATIS information as much in ad- vance as possible, altitude always helps (another good reason for fly- ing high whenever you can). Here’s another technique you can use to increase reception distance: Open the squelch control, put up with the static for a couple of minutes, and you can often sort out the important parts of an ATIS broadcast much farther away from the ter- minal than you thought was possible. (The TEST position on a radio with automatic squelch control will produce the same result.)
When the terminal weather is very good, so good that it’s in- significant to instrument pilots, there will likely be no mention of it on the ATIS broadcast, or perhaps the simple statement, “Weather is VFR.” But when the meteorological situation is changing so rapidly that the controllers can’t keep up with it, the ATIS will sometimes contain the words “weather will be issued by Approach Control,” and you should expect to get the good (or bad) news from that facility at the appropriate time.
Good pilot practice calls for you to inform Approach Control or Tower on initial contact that you have received “information Fox- trot” (or whatever is current). To illustrate, when Center hands you off to Approach Control, the exchange should sound something like this:
CENTER: 1234 Alpha, descend to and maintain 5000, contact Bay Ap- proach on one two five point three.
YOU: Roger, 1234 Alpha cleared 5000, leaving 8000, Approach on one two five point three.
YOU AGAIN: Bay Approach, 1234 Alpha descending 5000, with Foxtrot.
And the Bay Approach controller will figure that you’re a pilot who knows which end is up.
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