The rules defining the phraseology to be used between pilots and air traffic controller are strigent and well defined. But sometimes we hear strange things on the radio, in both very relaxed and very tense situations…

A quite famous one reportedly happened in Frankfurt:

Allegedly the German air controllers at Frankfurt Airport are renowned as a short-tempered lot. They, it is alleged, not only expect one to know one’s gate parking location, but how to get there without any assistance from them. So it was with some amusement that we (a Pan Am 747) listened to the following exchange between Frankfurt ground control and a British Airways 747, call sign Speedbird 206.
Speedbird 206: “Frankfurt, Speedbird 206 clear of active runway.”
Ground: “Speedbird 206. Taxi to gate Alpha One-Seven.” The BA 747 pulled onto the main taxiway and slowed to a stop.
Ground: “Speedbird, do you not know where you are going?”
Speedbird 206: “Stand by, Ground, I’m looking up our gate location now.”
Ground (with quite arrogant impatience): “Speedbird 206, have you not been to Frankfurt before?”
Speedbird 206 (coolly): “Yes, twice in 1944, but it was dark,… and I didn’t land.”

Some of the best ATC jokes also involve student pilots, or private pilots with less experience:

A controller at the Nashville, Tennessee airport told me about an incident from several years ago when he cleared a Cessna 172 (4 seater small aircraft) for landing. As the Cessna turned to final approach, an airliner called in ‘over the marker’ (5 miles from the airport). The Cessna was about a half mile from the runway, and the controller knew he could land and clear the runway well before the airliner would land, so he cleared the airliner to land as well. A few seconds later, the Cessna pilot asked the controller, “How far behind me is that 737?” Before the controller could respond, the airline pilot keyed his mike, and in a deep bass voice said, “Don’t look back!…”

The two ones above are extracted from the Funny Air Traffic Control Quotes from businessballs.com, which contains much more, and is updated frequently.

But now, very special Hat Tip to Aviatrix, from Cockpit Conversation, for reporting and publishing this one in one of her latest posts:

STL approach: “United XXX best forward speed to the marker, you’re number one.”
United XXX (male): “Roger, balls to the wall.”
STL approach: “American XXXX, you’re number two behind a 737, follow him, cleared visual, best forward speed.”
American XXXX (female): “Well I can’t do ‘balls to the wall’ but I can go ‘wide open’.”
-Radio silence-
Unknown Pilot (male): “Is American hiring?”

Sorry… well, not really

Aviation will never die. This is the title of this post I published here two and a half year ago, back in September 2007, explaining why and how passionate persons working in the aviation industry will always be the key for its future. I still strongly believe in what I wrote then, and would not change a single word.

A recent post published on Around the Pattern did bring these feelings back to me. This post’s title is “The End of an Era” and is about the last flight Northwest Cargo filght out of Narita. It conatins a very lively description of how ground staff there reacted to this event, and spontaneously organized a small gathering to wave the last Boeing 747-200 good bye.

I was really moved by this article and strongly advise that you read it as well: click here to read “The End of an Era“, from Around the Pattern.

I read a lot of aviation blogs, and feeds from aviation information sources. When everything goes fine, I do it daily. But for the last three weeks, I had less time because job happens, and when I came back to my feeds reader, I saw 1000+ unread items. Ouch. I bravely checked them today and selected the best of them for you.

Most of the unread posts were not from personal blogs but from news source like AOPA news, aviation in Google News, Planetalking.com, AvWeb current issue and Aero-News network. In this section, I used the “Mark All as Read button” a lot…

The hottest topic in the aviation blogosphere recently is the NWA flight 188 which lost radio contact and overflew its destination by 150 miles. There’s a lot of speculation around this incident. You can read more about it from Airlinerblog. Aviation-safety.net confirmed that the licences of both pilots were revoked. As often, the voice of reason and experience can be heard on flightlevel390.blogspot.com. Both Jetwhine and Cockpit Conversation listed their top 10 reasons why the crew missed the destination. Max Trescott also brings interesting arguments in his post on the NWA flight 188.

Another incident got my attention: a Cessna 400 cruising at 23.500 feet had a problem with oxygen and the pilot got incapacitated. The non-flying passenger got help from ATC and other pilots flying in the area. A great lesson of solidarity. Click here to read more about this incident and the dangers of hypoxia.

Still in the aviation accidents category, the Brazillian investigators released the final report about the A320 runway excursion at Sao-Paulo Congonhas airport. Click here to read more about their findings, and here to read an older post about this accident.

Lots of good posts also have to do with pilots training. Here are a lot of tips and training stories, in no particular order:

• Useful icing resources for pilots
• Why flight planning matters even more at night
• Holding pattern entries made easy (podcast)
• 72 years young lady gets her pilot certificate
• List of aviation don’ts

By the way, I noted that two blogging instructors I like have a new design at their blogs: www.askacfi.com and www.m0a.com. Congrats guys, nice job.

One impressive video appeared in several blogs. It shows a VFR aircraft entering IMC and continuing. At one point, the wingtip hits terrain, in the closest call I ever saw. I’m not sure this pilot learned anything from this mishap, but I share Rob’s opinion: be very afraid of this pilot.

MyFlightBlog.com also has a great, but not scary, post on flying in the Rocky Mountains. Todd made his first mountain flying experiences, and came back with nice pictures, a great video and big smile.

Sylvia, from fearoflanding.com, found incredible picture of a Piper Supercub attacked by a bear. But the most incredible part is that the pilot repared it with duct tape. Lots of duct tape. Click here to see in which state this aircraft flew back home.

Technical problems also occur at the other side of aviation, in the airlines. Dave from flightlevel390 related how one of his departures got delayed twice, because of two different problems. On the same day, he got an alarm about a thrust reverser, making an interesting link to the accident at Sao-Paulo Congonhas airport. Click here to read Dave’s post about how he handled technical problems with his maintenance, co-pilot and dispatcher.

Finally, with Chritmas in sight, the season of product reviews started. AviationMentor made a review of ForeFlight mobile for iPhone. I like his reviews because they are always very deep, detailled, and rather objective. Max Trescott has read Captain Sullenberger’s book, “Highest Duty”. Max also had a personal meeting with Sully and tells all about it in this post.

Messages frequently land into my mailbox, asking me to post about another blog, project or website. I like to read them and discover new fellow bloggers and pilots. Here are the latest – I hope you’ll enjoy discovering these sites as I did.

Gabe has blogging at greenpilot.blogspot.com since July 2009. His blog is about his training towards a pilot career. I don’t know about his flying skills, but he’s definitely good as writing. Here’s an extract of his very first post:

In just over 24 hours, my life will turn upside down and everything I know and have begun to expect and appreciate about my existence will cease to be as I embark on a new adventure in pursuit of a deep rooted dream. I’ll be saying goodbye to my closest friends and family as I move to Dallas to begin flight school. Am I nervous? Scared?

Visit greenpilot.blogspot.com to know the answers and read more about this training in progress.

Mark contacted me after my post on Flyabout. He’s been living in Australia and took some time for a fun trip before leaving. The two months trip was planned around the continent. It started so:

I’m not sure exactly when the idea was really born, when it took shape, or when it changed from an idle pipedream to something serious; A combination of inspiration from various sources, but particularly from Shaun Lunt’s blog.

Visit upsidedownmark.blogspot.com to read the rest of The Big Aussie Trip.

The next is not a blog but the site Johnny, a fellow pilot who produces in-flight videos. From light aircraft cockpits, but also from Boeing 737 cockpits. The simulator, but also the real one. The following DVDs can be bought from www.aviafilms.com:

Boeing 737 Cockpit vs. Simulator (Includes a free bonus)
General Aviation Special (Featuring 3 different aircraft)
Boeing 737-300 Classic + Bonus (Incl. EFIS Sim. & An-2 Colt)
Boeing 737 Simulator (Both 737 EFIS & 737NG versions)
Cessna 152 + Piper Arrow (2 different flight scenarios)
The Boeing 737 Film (Dedicated to this awesome aircraft)

Most of the movies include sounds from ATC communication. Click here to see the trailers.

As you know, I’m a fan of diesel aviation engines. This post from Av8rdan’s World of Flying recently brought my attention about an interesting point, relating to ecology. Aviation and ecology? Yes, because most of automotive diesel engine can be run using bio fuel! I don’t exactly know how close is the end, but it seems certain that TDI engine fitted aircraft will continue to fly after that. Quoting Dan:

If the day ever comes when we can buy new GA airframes with turbodiesels or retrofit Cherokees and Skyhawks with same, then I believe those engines should also be certified to run on biodiesel fuel. I have always been a fan of biofuels, but after watching The Fuel Film – an excellent documentary that won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival – I am more convinced than ever that our country can ween itself off foreign oil if we just push forward with alternative fuels and sustainable energy sources.

Visit Av8rdan’s World of Flying to read more about bio diesels and The Fuel Film.

Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have other resources you want to share.

The coolest thing in editing this blog is to get in touch with other aviation fans worldwide. Some are only brief contacts but other evolve in real, long term friendship. I’m not talking about www.flyingacrossamerica.com – the project I’m launching with Jason of www.m0a.com, but about a pilot, instructor, and web-entrepreneur.

I already linked a couple of times to Paul Tocknell’s website, www.askacfi.com. This is where Paul answers any question relating to flight training. The site has been up for quite a while now and is well known. Wether you’re envisaging to get flying lessons, are a student, or are already a seasoned pilot, there’s surely something you can learn there.

One of the things I like with Paul is that he can’t refrain from starting new project. I don’t really know how he manages that, in parallel to being a corporate pilot, flight instructor, husband and father, but the fact is here: he’s a real web-entrepreneur. He runs several websites and collaborates to many others.

His last creation targets pilots under training, whatever the aim is. Sport pilot certificate, private pilot, instrument rating, commercial, airline, intructor, even helicopter and glider pilots will find what they look for. www.flighttrainingbooks.com is a directory of the best aviation training books selected by Paul. It contains links to the best books from the best authors for each category. It is possible to order the books directly from the website. No need to search for books, note the references and then search in your favorite (online) bookstrore.

I have the highest respect for people like Paul. He does his best to offer good services to the aviation community, without anyone asking. Long life to www.flighttrainingbooks.com !

Google tools
The google search engine is great to get pilot reports and find more information about your destination airport. Searching by ICAO code or location indicator in Google Earth and Google Maps gives good geographical insights of the destination and the route. If you’re wondering how hard a landmark will be to find, give it a try in Google Earth or Google Maps. One note though, some of the pictures are more than 10 years old…

YouTube
YouTube for flight planning ? Yes, definitely. When I fly to an airport for the first time I like to have as  much information as possible. Looking at videos of the approach taken by other pilots gives additional information and is kind of a preview. Here again, seaching by ICAO code or location indicator is the most efficient way to find what you’re looking for.

Airliners.net
Just like YouTube gives information in video, airliners.net gives information via photos. What does the airport look like ? Even if charts are quite accurate, a photo gives much more information.

liveatc.net
If your new destination is in a different country or has specific procedures, what about test-driving the local ATC ? liveatc.net provides live audio feeds of ATC almost worldwide. If you think ATC is the same everywhere, try listening to New-York JFK (KJFK) and then Geneva (LSGG). Some preparation can only help.

Official AIP online
Several European countries offer their AIP online, some for free. Here is a short list: French AIP, UK AIP, Belgian AIP. The Swiss AIP can’t be accessed online but you can subscribe to the paper version here.

Less official information online
Different websites managed by aviation enthusiasts provide extensive but unofficial information databases. Nav2000 (French only) covers France, Switzerland and Belgium. It offers chart extracts, photos, price of fuel, contact information, pilot reports and much more about airports and ultralight bases.

www.fl95.de (German only) offers flight planning and weight and balance online. It contains a database of en-route points and of aircraft for the weight and balance.

Flight plan filing
Several sites offer flight plan online. Some require that the flight starts or ends in the country operating the website, other are more flexible. Olivia, the French system (also in English) allows for NOTAM, weather and flight plan filing. The German DFS AIS (German and English) provides flight plan filing as well as TAF / METAR / NOTAM briefings. eurofpl.eu offers the possibility to send a flight plan directly to the EUROCONTROL systems. www.homebriefing.com offers full service, but users have to pay for flight plans.

Aircraft manuals
Many aircraft manuals and checklists can be found online. They can not be used as replacement of the official documents of YOUR aircraft, but can be helpful. Click here to access the download page of Diamond Aircraft.

Your link here
If you know about great online resources for flight preparation leave a comment and I’ll update this post.

There are pilot blogs, there are ATC blogs, and there are blogs from corners of the aviation world that are less frequently chronicled and well worth a read.

Ever wondered who’s the guy with the headset and the very long cord who walks alongside an airliner as it is being pushed back from the gate? In the US they call them dispatchers, and they are responsible for coordinating the whole aircraft turnaround. Nothing like reading past entries on this blog to form an appreciation for a stressful, safety-critical and badly underpaid job.

Blogs written by pilots’ partners have really opened my eyes to the receiving end of the pilot lifestyle. Not that the pilot lifestyle is as glamorous as it used to be anyway. Partner of a Pilot says it like it is, and private pilots who may be thinking about going for CPL and making a career of their passion should read this and think twice before making a decision, or at least have their partner read this if the decision is already made! Jetgirls.net has tons of information for pilot’s girlfriends and wifes. I couldn’t find any blog written by a male partner of a pilot though.

Blogs written by flight attendants are often hilarious, but this will be the topic of a future post. There’s way too many good stories from the other side of the cockpit door to do flight attendants justice in the space left here. Aircraft mechanics do not blog much, with the exception of Chad at In the Overshoot. Chad has found a job as a pilot, and now reports mostly on his flying in remote areas of Canada, while through his older posts about aircraft engines vs automobile engines or questioning the wisdom of always trusting the instruments you can really hear the aircraft mechanic in him speak and enlighten us all on what’s happening under the hood.

I’m happy, I solved one of my old problems. I often find cool, funny, passionating information on the web that I’d like to share here but which are not sufficient to build a full post. Compilations are a possible way to cope with that but some of these links loose their interest after a couple of days or can not easily be grouped with other ones. I also don’t like to publish short posts on this blog but longer, elaborated ones. Mixing mini-posts in the middle does not match with what I try to build here.

The posts from other blogs and other pilots blogging pages do not really solve the problem: what about links not coming through a feed, what about news, what about videos founds while browsing YouTube or nice pictures that friends and readers send me ?

The solution is now here: Stall warning ! This is a new mini-blog, made of short posts only, all relating to aviation. It has been online for a couple of weeks and has already more than 60 posts in various categories: News, Blog post, Fun, Video, Photo, … There are a handful of updates daily… from a handful of contributors. If you have something to share or want to join as a contributor and eventually share the revenue, feel free to contact me.

I really hope you will enjoy stall warning as I enjoy to animate it and that we’ll make it a success together ! Visit it, enjoy it, talke about it, and feel free to comment about it here, or there.

The Web is a fascinating tool for learning to fly and connecting with fellow pilots, but where it becomes absolutely irreplaceable is in giving access to the other side of the VHF: Air Traffic Control.

Web sites such as liveatc.net provide real-time audio feeds for a number of ATC frequencies around the world. It’s a great way to train you ear to different accents and phraseologies. Listen to a busy GA airport such as Archerfield near Brisbane, Australia, and try to pick the students from the pros. It’s not really hard. That’s after listening to liveatc.net and cringing at less-than-ideal requests and readbacks that I decided to seriously work on my radio skills.

atcmonitor.com goes further and provides a real-time radar scope for the Atlanta area, with the busiest En Route Air Traffic Control Corridor in the world: the Northeast Atlanta Arrival. Speaking of Atlanta, Don Brown at Get the Flick spent 25 years working there as an ATC and has been blogging about air traffic control issues and a few other topics ever since he retired.  There’s always gems hidden in the links of Don’s post, such as this very impressive voiced-over video showing what happens to arrivals at Newark Airport when a runway change takes place, or his tips for ATC phraseology.

At the other end of the ATC career path is ATC trainee Wicked Penguin in Florida. It’s not just the very detailed, but never too nerdy, descriptions of what’s going on in his facility, or what happens when you leave training behind and enter the real world that make it worth reading, it’s really in the posts written for pilots that his love for his job and writing shine through.

I’m sure I missed plenty of ATC blogs, so please share your links through the comments. I realised I haven’t yet come across any blog written by a tower controller for example, so if you know of one, just send it in. Oh yes, and just one last link and two words: situational awareness.

TangoZulu is a pilot and aircraft owner in the Washington D.C. area. His IFR training started in January 2009 and is still in progress. As a blogger, he documents everything and publishes one post per lesson. This is full of lessons for IFR pilots wannabes and potential owners. Use the links below to read more from each post.

Lesson One
We started with straight-and-level flight on the gauges.   I practiced my “scan”, looking successively at each of the main “6-pack” of gauges. Each gauge tells me somewhat different information.  And each has a different set of possible errors.  Pitch or heading information is shared across multiple gauges.

Lesson Two
My instrument scan isn’t consistent. I’m getting fixated on one or another instrument. I’m told that I need to split my attention across the instruments. But, it’s more like time sharing of software in a computer. Check each in turn and move on to the next.

New Starter
My airplane’s starter wouldn’t start the engine. It’s been a couple weeks now, but the starter’s replaced. I also asked them to check and signed off an AD (airworthiness directive) on the alternate static air valve. But they found out the valve was stuck and needed replacement. This a good thing to fix, but it’s just one more expense unfortunately. After all, the starter wasn’t cheap either!

Lesson Three: Sysiphus the Pilot
My headings were pretty much on target as were my altitudes, I had a few “excursions”, but not too large. I’m pleased to find the airplane was more stable than the simulator. I was worried about my ability when on the sim. But not I’m sure I can learn to do this. (…) The airplane is more sensitive in pitch than in heading. I seemed to oscillate between 200 feet per minute and 700 fpm when I was trying to pin it on 500 fpm descent or climb.

Four: Back to the Sim

We scheduled the simulator again tonight. I’m not looking forward to this, I have a hate vs tepid friendship with that simulator. (…) Now, I’ve never managed to land a simulator very well. I can land a plane in a gusty crosswind, but not a simulator in no wind. Go figure. And I didn’t manage to exceed my past experience in this sim either.

Five: Unusual Attitudes and My First (Real) Localizer

Next, I was to fly with my eyes closed.  This was to teach me to trust the instruments and not my own sense of balance.  I knew how this would go, pretty soon I’d fall off the left or right, and loose track of level flight as well. (…) M then took control of the plane and I kept my head down and eyes closed.  He flew up and down and turned various directions to disorient me, the gave me back control and said, “Recover!”

Six: Partial Panel, Unusual Attitudes, and Helicopters

We did some self-induced unusual attitudes next. I flew with my eyes shut to get a feel for what happens if I don’t pay attention. I proved again that humans can’t fly like a bird does. I need to trust and use my instruments. (…) After one or two of these then instructor R takes the plane and I get a closed-eye E ticket ride. Well, not quite. Nothing as bad as a roller coaster, but enough to make me loose touch with what the plane’s doing. Then, “Recover”.

Seven: BAI Stage Check

The tolerance in the FAA’s test standards is 100 feet in altitude and 10 degrees in heading. I seem to have taken that as permission to be 100 feet off altitude. M is expecting better of me, “Own that altitude, don’t let it change from 3000 ft!” This gets more interesting crossing the ridge with some temporary light turbulence. I do a little better and I’ll get a lot more practice in future lessons.

Eight: VOR and Towbar

The VOR tracking went well we all do this in the private pilot training.  And I’ve used VORs since too, I use Campbell’s method which works and is simpler, but tends to confuse others.  All was uneventful as I have to demonstrate practical competence rather than follow a certain method.

Nine: NDBs

I’m flying with instructor R today. He briefs the lesson and it all seems so straightforward right now, here on the ground with no turbulence and no plane to fly. My job as a pilot with NDBs is to maintain the necessary heading to or from that beacon. In a crosswind I need to adjust for the wind direction by angling the plane toward the wind somewhat. (…) Once R and I are in the plane and I’m tracking toward the NDB this all becomes harder. I’m still having to keep the plane straight and upright by instruments alone. And we’re getting bounced around a bit.

Ten: Holding and Brain Freeze

I’ve been diagramming ADF and DGs from the last lesson.  I’ve been reading up on holding patterns, and I think I’m really prepared now. (…) I see a bunch of numbers and can’t make sense of them.  I find the heading for the VOR and turn to it.  But I have no idea how to enter a hold or where to head in the hold.

Eleven: Holding in the Simulator

Back to the sim today. After the last lesson Instructor R and I start the sim to practice VOR and ADF holds and hold entries. Afterwards it is clearer to me. Also, using the sim is getting a little easier. The sim, or more accurately, the PC flight training device, is more sensitive in the controls from the real airplane.

Twelve: In the Clouds! – ATTENTION ORIGINAL LINK IS WRONG

It seems the weather forecast is for a no-fly day for VFR flights, but would be a good day for a beginner IFR student like me. Clouds, but not too much, some ground visibility, but not very much, and freezing conditions not likely. (…) This approach worked well enough, the airport came out of the haze about three miles out and we landed normally.

What’s real? (Simulator)

I’m banking on the idea that practice with x-plane and the controls I have attached to my computer will make me more accurate on the controls in the real plane and improve my scan. So while I can’t log this home simulator time, as far as the real goal of flying better it seems to be working.

Twelve b: DME Arcs

We track that around the arc and I’m late on wind correction as we swing around the VOR.  I slide out of the 7 mile arc past 8 miles.  I tell M, “I just busted my checkride, I’m over a mile off.”  I start working to get back in, but I’m also turning in as well.  So it takes a pretty big turn to get re-established.  By then I’m almost on my outbound radial so start turning outbound.

Thirteen: GPS and Stage Check Two

The annual is finally finished. Not that it took very long in the scheme of things; only three days. But when you’re waiting it can seem longer. (…) My altitude control is pretty good too, most of the time it’s well within the +- 100 feet. I make an excursion later on the GPS approach that’s not good, but the sim work at home is helping.