Play Nice Together

Call me an optimist, but I like to think pilots and air traffic controllers get along pretty well. If both parties communicate and respect each others needs, planes flow smoothly through the national airspace system.

Editorial Staff

Tuesday, July 29, 2014 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Pilots should always clearly and proactively communicate their intentions to ATC, avoiding "secrets" and last-minute requests, to enable effective air traffic management and ensure safety.
Unauthorized actions (going "rogue") or discourteous behavior ("being a jerk") from pilots create dangerous distractions and can lead to safety incidents or denial of service.
ATC, like pilots, can make mistakes; pilots experiencing poor or unsafe ATC service should report incidents to facility management for investigation and corrective action.

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Call me an optimist, but I like to think pilots and air traffic controllers get along pretty well. If both parties communicate and respect each other’s needs, planes flow smoothly through the national airspace system.
Of course, there isn’t always sunshine in paradise. Those are humans on either side of the radios. We hairless apes tend to be rather imperfect.
I hadn’t been working air traffic long before I already started noticing trends in the issues my coworkers and I were having with certain pilots. Call them recurring frustrations or pet peeves if you will. These little problems throw wrenches in our traffic flow and distract us from providing services to other aircraft.