copy of post on rotorheads

[md 600 driver]

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air trafic controllers

i know they have a hard job and most of them are excellent but there are a few of them that suck.

2 weeks ago i was passing by east mids zone going underneath their 1500 stub on the derby side i called them to tell them where i was and the usual height ,track callsign ect [as you do ] when i got the answer i did not want your life story , the next day i got a phone call from a caa examiner friend of mine saying he had heard the message to me from atc i asked him if i had said my radio wrong and he confirmed i was correct

the next week i went same track again and said i was a heli passing through[ no details given] he said he wanted all my details cant win can you next time i wont even speak to them.

passing under the stub of a approach in uncontrolled airspace does not require you to talk to atc but to all of the airliners that have tcas when approaching all they see is your transponder i would think that it would be good airmanship to report your position as they cant see your height what would you do in future

messages in a bottle please

i do know i cant spell and my grammar is cr*p

[ATCO Two]

Hi MD600 Driver,

See the thread about separation at the edge of CAS. I would certainly want to know of the presence of any traffic in the vicinity, but I agree with the sentiment about keeping the initial call short.

[almost professional]

600 driver
please do not let one, hopefully isolated, incident colour your opinion of both the unit concerned and the profession in general. We all have off days-I know I have in the past, and have been perhaps less than my normal jovial self! It may well be that the controller concerned was trying to give another aircraft an establishing turn, or talking to the tower on the intercom, or someother coordination that you could not be aware of-all reasons to ask you to be brief, but perhaps he did not come across as he would have wished.
I like to think that the unit has a pretty good working relationship with the many transits we work-though some summer days it can get close to hair pulling time!
Please be aware that at times at the moment also we are short staffed and cannot split the traffic the way we would like to-again this should be less of a problem shortly
On a personal note I believe I have worked you and your helicopter a number of times recently and would like to think that you got a satisfactory service from me-please though do call next time you are flying under/close to the zone-I think both you and the unit would benefit