Mummy knows best!

Once upon a time we were being marshalled into the stand on a clear dry night (744F- MUC. IIRC). Stand was well lit and clear, yellow centre line clearly visible, marshaller in 10 o'clock position doing a great job...except he wasn't. He was calling for a left turn, way off the centre line, entirely contrary to what we were doing and we were RIGHT - SkyGahd speaking. A long day/night was finally over and we set the brakes to park and shutdown. As we did so I caught sight of the marshaller out of the corner of my eye, throwing his batons down in disgust and walking huffily away. Odd.

The ground intercom crackled. 'Had we not seen the marshaller, why didn't we follow his instructions?' 'Was this an important discussion right now? (What about 'chocks in'). 'Well yes, cos as this is a pax a/c stand the way you've parked the light pole is directly in front of the a/c and we can't open the nose door!! Please keep the brakes set whilst we go to the other side of the airport, find a tug and crew, come back, re-position the a/c and then we can all get on with our jobs....

That was a few years ago now and I haven't knowingly ignored a marshaller's instructions since.

S

Crossed batons or arms means STOP!

Supposed to be both arms or batons held crossed in front of and above the head, but I often see in the USA, marshallers will hold both their crossed batons above their head in one hand, (while they are waiting for the tug to get clear or whatever).

My guess would be that this guy was getting tired arms and so was holding his crossed batons much too low. File an ASR - not to get them into trouble, but because it is important that signals to aircraft are correct and unambiguous.

If you can see crossed arms/batons directed towards you, then STOP ! There might be something going on that you cannot see !