Steve-Findo and Y'all
First let me say thanks for an interesting thread and no off-the-wall answers. They are appreciated.
I actually think if the lday who jumped all over me last week and I were sitting in a bar (I hope I am still o.k.) that we could have talked it over and she would have told me her reasons for doing what she did. Maybe she had had some problems with Cessnas or Cherokees or one particular flight school or company.
Also, the Dakota in the Piper line is far from the slowest airplane on the block. I suppose if one uses a call sign of Cessna you could be a 150 or a Citation!
Do controllers actually have problems with one company versus another? So as not to incriminate anyone currently working, do people have problems with UAL,AA,USAIR, or Northwest or any particular company as being very cooperative or very uncooperative in general?
Also I never realized that anybody in Europe had trouble with an given nationality like the US guys. Many times a high pitched voice of a female is hard to understand(I'm in trouble now) ,but in almost every place in the world I have not noticed any controllers from any one country to be harder to understand than others. Often you have to say, "say again". I will say some controlelrs want immediate answers immediately otherwise they call again.
For the controllers...does it drive you crazy when airline or Civilian XXX says,"XXX123 request". Airline 123 go ahead. Airline 123 requests 350. Airline 123 climb to and maintain 350.
Couldn't this entire diatribe been done intially by the airline 123 and asked for 350?After all, this isn't Flight Service who generally want to establish a contact first before they start considering your request.
For west coast and anybody in California...(hard to know who is reading,but it is agood exchange).
Do you remember about 30-45 days agao when it rained, hailed, and sorta snowed in LAX? LAX closed for a while and the schools closed the next day and it was an very unusual weather day in LAX. We were coming from TPE and headed to LAX. We went by SFO which was clear (unusual) and LAX was the problem. We had a paper alternate of ONT and the Company did not want us there. Their choice was SFO where we fly daily. We came down the CA coast and the controller just acted as it was "no big deal" even though we had received messages from dispatch that LAX had "closed". Well, it had throughout the day and was open for anyone with fuel to come in and land. I asked if there were any holds between SFO and LAX and whether the LAX was really closed. It was a cynical answer and it certainly did not give me a warm, fuzzy feeling. The truth was we couldn't cruise down to LAX, Hold, consider ONT, make a go-around, and then head to SFO which was clear. I could do maybe 2/3rds of those.
We were given 250 kts. from SFO and that light a light. SO I asked about holds. The answer was no holds. I asked about whether it was 250 to LAX. The answer was probably.
Then out of the blue it was, "resume normal speed". Well that was MACH .86 or some 330. I just said that I didn't want to accelerate to this speed and then hold nor do 160 kts for the last 50 miles. Just the FACTS MAM.
Eventually, it was go fast. O.k. Great. then the next SECTOR (really) gave us 250 KTS and that is what started to worry us which was confidence in the system. About that time we came to the realization that it was not possible to get accurate information and the chances of getting on the ground and keeping SFO OR ONT were qauestionable at best,so I asked for a 180 degree turn to SFO. The guy assumed I knew every intersection in CA! Well I knew most only because of my past life. It was a true goat rope back to SFO and it was busy all of the way. It was a wise choice to divert. When the parties aren't sure nor comfortable on irregular operations nights,then you can't take chances.
Again, I appreciate those readin' and writin',but I wonder how the US is going to go to any type of FREE FLIGHT which was proposed years ago and doesn't appear to ever be possible in our busy environment. Controllers will have lifetime job security!!!!