Live ATC

[jgf]

Anyone ever eavesdrop here?

 

https://www.liveatc.net/

[PhrogPhlyer]

I would have students listen here on the busiest days possible. Helped them "tune" their ears for when actually flying. Good site.

[lnuss]

I didn't see anything to listen to, except to download an app to a phone, but listening to ATC, whether on your computer or over the air on the radio, can be, as Phrog says, an excellent aid for students, and especially valuable for students in instrument training since half of the IFR experience is ATC related, and it often takes a trained ear to catch all of what they say at some of the busy times and places (JFK, ORD, etc.). And copying a clearance, wow, you really need to learn that shorthand and practicing that while listening to clearance delivery can help a lot too.

 

But it can sometimes be interesting in off times, since neither the controllers nor the pilots feel the time pressure and you'll occasionally hear some humor. Just for example, One night (long, long ago) I was in a Cessna 182 coming back to Albuquerque from Santa Fe, and hardly anything was going on on approach. It perhaps may help to recognize that the Sunport (ABQ) is actually a joint use facility since it also is the airfield portion of Kirtland AFB.

 

In any case, I was just rounding the corner of the Sandias (S.W. bound) descending rapidly from 9,500 ft to the 7,000 I'd need for the pattern. During the descent on this quiet night with such smooth air, I'd left the power up so my airspeed was in the yellow arc. Keeping in mind that, with no flight plan filed (just using flight following) ATC didn't know what type of Cessna so apparently they assumed it must be a 210. Or maybe the following clearance was  just out of the habit that the USAF requires of ATC to always remind the pilots to put their gear down.

 

In any case, with so little traffic, Tower gave me my landing clearance a bit early, while I was still moving at a pretty good clip. So Tower said, "Cessna 34542, check wheels down, clear to land." Of course I couldn't resist, so I said, "Roger, gear down and welded." You might note, though, that that wasn't the first time someone has used such terms, and I seriously doubt it was the last.

 

So yes, there can be all kinds of benefits for a student listening to ATC with the aim of understanding everything said and getting procedures commonly used by the pros (both military and airline) cemented in their brain, including the necessary understanding that you want to minimize your talk time while still being very clear on your replies, especially in busy times.

[PhrogPhlyer]

7 minutes ago, lnuss said:

"Roger, gear down and welded."

Too funny, been there, done that.

And in case people don't think it happens, I was flying from Yuma AZ when I heard my callsign with directions completely different from what I was doing and where I was in reference to the airport. I was a Marine CH-46 and a USAF F-16 had my IDENTICAL call sign/number (Rocketpilot 25).  Thank heaven it was not in the IFR environment.

[lnuss]

2 hours ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

I was a Marine CH-46 and a USAF F-16 had my IDENTICAL call sign/number (Rocketpilot 25).

Yes, that's rather curious. But I can't count the number of times I've heard ATC warn someone of a similar sounding call sign on the same freq, though I've never come across something identical like that. Sounds as if the services need to do better at coordinating call signs.

[jgf]

On my desktop i didn't have to d/l anything, just click a "listen" button for whichever airport you're interested in.

 

Spent a while this afternoon listening to ground communications at JFK, at times must have been a half dozen people talking at once.  At one point someone was apparently towing something (not an airplane) and had mechanical issues;  numerous plans discussed (forklift?  small crane? tilt bed?) til someone came on with a rather stern, "I don't care if you hitch a jackass to it, just get it out of the damn way!"

 

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

6 hours ago, lnuss said:

services need to do better at coordinating call signs

Well, our actual call sign was Greyhawk, but for an exercise it was changed to Rocketpilot. I'll wager that someone didn't clear that properly. 

[lnuss]

1 hour ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

Well, our actual call sign was Greyhawk, but for an exercise it was changed to Rocketpilot. I'll wager that someone didn't clear that properly. 

The human factor...

[Nels_Anderson]

8 hours ago, lnuss said:

Yes, that's rather curious. But I can't count the number of times I've heard ATC warn someone of a similar sounding call sign on the same freq, though I've never come across something identical like that. Sounds as if the services need to do better at coordinating call signs.

 

Years ago when I was based at KOWD I frequently ran into similar confusion, as I was Cherokee 39T and Twin Cessna 39T was based at the same field so you do have to pay attention!

[PhrogPhlyer]

5 hours ago, jgf said:

just get it out of the damn way!

Getting to the solution! That's someone I'd fly with.