On the Air

On the way out of Florida for Hurricane Irma, it was very, very busy on frequency with everyone trying to get out of the state. ATC was doing a great job of handling very heavy traffic loads, and still managing to provide flight following to the greatest extent possible, when I happened to overhear the following exchange:

In Valdez, Alaska for the annual fly-in and STOL competition, a Lake amphibian (not known for its STOL capability), in town for the fly-in, departed early to beat the weather just before the last round of the competition. Heard on the temporary tower frequency as the competition continued and the Lake departed:

Some things are inevitable. Sunrises and sunsets. A character in every Star Wars movie saying, Ive got a bad feeling about this. Also… at some point during your instrument flying career, youre going to get your first of many reroutes.

After about eight months, as of early November, according to AOPA, approximately 25,000 pilots had taken advantage of BasicMed since the official roll-out on May 1, 2017. Since the FAA does not track this, we dont know the exact percentage of pilots who did not have a current medical after a multi-year hiatus from flying and decided to get back into flying with BasicMed, as opposed to pilots with medicals who renewed expiring medicals with BasicMed. AOPA estimates about 50% for each group. It will probably take at least two years for the BasicMed numbers to stabilize as pilots with current medicals decide to renew with BasicMed, but at this time it seems to be working.

Pilots around Lake Michigan know theres a popular route down the lakeshore with the Chicago skyline just off the wingtip. This offers fantastic views of downtown Chicago and is a practical way to transit from eastern Wisconsin to anywhere southeast of Windy City. You might even have a reason to stop at Chicago Midway and get a really close look at that famous skyline.

I was on an IFR arrival into Houston a while ago with busy Approach Control, when I heard the following exchange:Approach Control: N1234 say altitude.N1234: Altitude.Approach without hesitation and very patiently: N1234 say the altitude you are flying.N1234: Oh, 5500 feet.Approach: Thank you. Altimeter 29.93.

Many of you have written to express confusion and disbelief about my ILS Nuances article in November. A couple of you even caught an important mistake I made. First, thanks to all of you for your notes. Now, let me recap a few things to hopefully help you (and me) better understand.

Some of the best remote scenery is in northernmost Utah, well away from the hubbub of Salt Lake City. Dozens of mountain peaks, ranges, national forests and year-round resorts all make the mid-size city of Logan a nice destination. Logan-Cache airport offers everything you need to fly in and enjoy the area. While travel choices abound once youre there, flying back out is a different matter.

En route to Leesburg Executive around 1:00 a.m. inside Dulles Class Bravo, I heard a controller ask a United flight, United XXX your choice 19R or 19C.The pilot came back with 19C and once cleared for the visual he responded, Cleared for visual. 19C United XXX. Over to tower, nighty-night dont let the bed bugs bite!

American 154, affirmative, flight level 230 at POGGI. Break. Piper 12S, you are definitely not with me or you would be monitoring before breaking into my transmission. All I want from you is your full call sign and altitude a er you listen up. Cancel flight following. Squawk 1200. Frequency change approved.