Foreign Affairs

Away from the warm embrace of North Dakota, our hero takes on foreign ATC, poorly marked pavement, U.S. Customs and even Florida. Along the way, lessons were learned.

Matt Johnson

Thursday, February 06, 2025 at 04:57 AM ET

Verified

Edited By: Omar Filipovic

Key Takeaways:

Effective communication with foreign Air Traffic Control (ATC) is crucial due to language barriers and accents, necessitating the use of short, clear, and unambiguous English phrases.
Thorough pre-flight preparation and adaptation are essential for international operations, including studying airport diagrams, understanding local procedures, and being ready for diverse environmental conditions.
International flights involve significant bureaucratic hurdles, requiring pilots to meticulously manage customs paperwork, fees, aircraft equipment compliance, and maintain a professional demeanor when interacting with border agents.

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We listened very intently to the Spanish-speaking air traffic controller, coming in “double-broken”: broken radio transmission, broken English. The woman’s voice in Spanish in our earphones that night, high over Bogota, Colombia. It just sounds “high,” since the field elevation at Bogota is about 8400 feet, so they bring you in at like 13,000 feet on an initial leg for the approach.

Turns out 13,000 feet is lower there than 13,000 feet in Fargo, North Dakota, my home plate, thanks to mountainous terrain. I’m told this is because of the Coriolis effect, but I’m not sure about that.