as a former atc in a vfr tower / fighter jet environment, we would have washed this controller out quite quickly down to base ops to file flight plans for a living. the amount of excess word salad coming from this guy is unreal. two words is all you need. EXTEND DOWNWIND
I am not a pilot but an aviation enthusiast, but in the situation where the pilot couldn’t see the aircraft on the base leg couldn’t the controller initially had him extend his downwind and call his base?
I think the tower at this airport (San Carlos Airport) was featured in another video about a year ago. Someone should look into this if there is a pattern of this behavior.
@@RubenThomas I believe the controllers there are contractors and not FAA employees. From what I've seen, there seem to be more issues when the controllers are contractors and not actual FAA employees.
@@RubenThomas It probably is. And he's not the only one. After a while you recognize their voice and just roll your eyes. It never fails to hear them bark at someone for something. Actually some pilots are like that on the Unicom freq. Once I had one yelling at me because I had to extend my downwind in a Seneca at Catalina Island because a 152 was ... whatever, not relevant... . Anyway, I had a good talk with him on the ground.
I agree, it's not a desirable trait in any line of work, but it is completely unacceptable in a safety sensitive position. If this is normal behavior for him he should be removed from the job. If it is not, then he needs to be given a break until he can sort it out.
I lived under a flight plan of an international airport. When everything was grounded during 911 I couldn't sleep. It's amazing how your body adapts to it's environment. VERY happy when airport reopened.
I worked for a defense contractor at that time. Our company building was near the flight lines of a Boeing company and commercial airlines. That's the first thing I noticed. Lack of aircraft noise. Soon enough all we saw was MIL aircraft training to go do their thing. They would fly low over our parking lot much of the day for a while.
@@Angelum_Band We got to see some nice maneuvers close up for sure! I think the pilots knew the regs were gone for a while and they were enjoying showing off. Most of our employees were ex MIL.
Can't agree more. We're on a flight path for landings on a medium airport here in France. Planes (A320 and B737) goes by, pretty low, engines at idle, mostly gliding. Not that noisy, pretty gracefully, and it's an airport we uses as passengers, and we're accustomed to the time table. And we notice where there are delays or canceled flight. It's "missing" in our day to day life, like a clock that stops ticking.
Kelsey talking about Torrance and Santa Monica is hilarious. I'm a pilot in the Marine Corps and we are constantly getting complaints about our jets. The air base has been here since WW2....
It's the same in every airport. Look at washington, they're trying to stop us from moving the rest of the growlers there. Burlington, Langley. They build / buy under a traffic pattern maybe at a low point in the training cycle and suddenly it kicks up. OMG it's their fault.
Long Island in the 60s - aviation development to the east. JFK and LaGuardia expansions to the west. Flying fed our economy and paid for cheaper houses near airfields. People sued to stop the noise! Crazy!
Camp Pendleton has not only flight hour restrictions, but they are required to follow the freeways from there to, say, Miramar. Hell, I was stationed at NAS IB in the early '70s, where there was nothing between the field and the beach. Then, they went and built condos between Ream Field and the beach, and "suddenly," it's a problem.
Reminded this old guy of a story I heard a long time ago. A long established farm that had a lot of animals doing animal things also making animals smells. Then people bought property next to that farm and then complain when the wind blows those 'smells' in their direction. Similar type of thing as you mentioned, it was there when they moved in, are people that stupid? On second thought, you don't need to answer that, I've seen a lot of stupid things in my 75 years.
Same in Wichita KS, McConnell airbase (established in 1924). In the 1970's 80's houses were sprouting up all around and then the started complaining about the jet noise. And the Wichita airport build west of town in 1954 had the same issue, out in the middle of nowhere then all of a sudden houses sprouted up around it and started complaining
Agree completely with all your assessments Kelsey. I flew a lot at the 2nd busiest airport in the country as a student and beyond and never experienced a controller behaving even remotely like that. Totally unacceptable. The student was far more professional, suggesting exiting the pattern. For safety, pilots & ATC need to have a cooperative and empathetic relationship. Unfortunately, this student got a dose of "ATC is the enemy". Sounds like the instructor was experienced and level-headed and hopefully debriefed his student so he understood such behaviour is abnormal and unacceptable. I hope the controller got pulled off active duty and had some retraining.
The airport is SQL (San Carlos, CA). This is a training airport for pilots, but also a training airport for controllers. That controller should not have been on his own in the tower -- sounds like he's still training himself and needs proper supervision.
I'm not convinced a tower should be manned by 1 man alone continuously for 8 hours. Between that and "call the company" makes me think some "company" probably needs to be put out of business and a government employee needs to sit in that tower.
I tried complaining about all the air traffic noise back when I lived EXTREMELY close to an airport but the Captain of the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) wouldn't listen...
Kelsey, my late husband was a complaints manager for Northern Trains (UK) & one of the regular complaints he dealt with (via email) was from residents complaining about the noise & frequency of the passing trains ... 90% of the people complaining were from new build housing estates - considering a lot of the routes are over 100 years old & these housing estates are less than 10 years old, my husband used to find diplomatic ways to say "You purchased the house knowing there was a train track behind it, so your complaint is not valid." ... Planes make a lot more noise than a train, so I wonder what the people living in those houses expected to hear 🤣😂🤣 The ATC guy needs to go back to the classroom and refresh his people skills. The instructor was within his rights to be unimpressed with the ATC controller, and I think he handled it very well. Having said that, this exchange was good for the students in one way because it means that they have experienced a less-than-helpful controller, and the instructor demonstrated how to deal with them. Incidentally, I am neither a pilot nor ATC, I'm merely a bus driver, but even I could tell that the controller needs to wind his neck in, the tower is no place for an arrogant a-hole 🤨
reminds me of a guy who moved into a house near train tracks then started posting videos complaining there was a train using the train tracks that had been there for decades
That won't do anything you could tell at the end he knew he was in the wrong. Most of these atcs are overworked. Sounds like he needs a long weekend and a woman.
Good morning Kelsey! I appreciate your rant about those who move near airports. I always roll my eyes when people complain about hearing trains, when they choose to live near the railroad tracks.
Sometimes they spend billions of dollars to move the airport many miles out of the city. I won't say the name, but the initials are DIA, and the whole damn city follows it out there. Some things just don't make sense, although money has a lot to do with it.
Airports, churches with bellringing, farms, schools, playgrounds... People will complain about all sorts of stuff that was there, sometimes for literal centuries before they moved in.
I remember about a decade ago we were looking at a condo in the Gaslamp district of San Diego. Nice neighborhood. Then while touring one found out that trains arriving and leaving the train station cross multiple grade level crossings and blow their horns at every one. We looked elsewhere.
My father was made Naval rep at the LTV A-6 plant in Arlington Texas where there would be many aircraft in the area. When he purchased his house in Arlington he had a map of the entire Dallas/Fort Worth area with multiple lines drawn on it. When I inquired about those lines he explained how he had laid out all the approach and departure routs so he could purchase his house in an area that would not be bothered by airplane noise.
When you described your job you missed eating snacks😀. I learned to fly at Blackbushe, UK. It's was an airport mainly used by the two flight schools there. The ATCs were great and very very patient. They were happy to have students visit them on quiet days to show students why and what they did. On one occasion, while I was flying solo circuits, touch and goes. Just after I touched down the controller just said numbers between one and ten. My instructor told me later the ATC was joking and was grading each of my landings.
I am neither a pilot nor a controller and have nothing to do with the air travel industry. But this ATC absolutely needs a number to call, because he was just a belligerent a-hole.
Props to the instructor, kept cool calm and collected and backed up his student. I do hope the student got at least a discount for being grounded early though lol
There's a lady off the departure end of the Billings, MT airport that has submitted grievances to fedex, ups, the airforce, etc. because their planes are too loud and "it should be illegal to fly over houses". She moved there just a few years ago, so it's completely on her.
Controller is stressed out, we all have bad days. You get paid the big bucks to be professional & leave your problems at the tower door. ATC might not be the job for him. Good job instructor for taking care of your student.
15:25 "I just don't have time to work this hard for a student" ????!!!!! This controller does not merit the courtesy of a phone call . Write him up in a report to the local FAA branch - wrap him real good in bureaucracy paper work and be done with him .... I did my PPL at LGIR - an international airport and never - ever a controller dare talked to me as a STU/PIC in that attitude - even in my first solo which was at July 2004 (in the middle of the tourist season) they were very helpful and accommodating for the stressed student soloing among the airliners (the captains were very supportive also) ....
This controller at SQL is infamous for his behavior, and I believe he is no longer working there. SQL is a contract tower, so "the company" might be the contracted company (not the FAA).
VFR controller here. Controller is being a complete dick. Sun in the eyes, wind drift, weather, etc. are all things I was taught to consider when passing traffic. Presumably extending their downwind would have been the simple solution. There is a chance there was other traffic/restrictions complicating things, but there were so many other ways to deconflict. Controller said he was working 8 hours by himself, which is ridiculous. 4 in the pattern for any amount of time working alone for a full day is a lot. I'd be restricting traffic .
ATC was alone, and was stressed, who knows what else he had on his mind. All should take care of each other more. It doesn't hurt and makes everybodys lives more pleasant. (Mental health professional here)
How nice and cuddly. ATCs haven’t the luxury of being given a break if they aren’t having a great day, it is about as safety critical a job as you can get. He also started to control the trainee pilot in mid air, telling him to turn in instead of allowing his request to exit the pattern. Would you fancy having a mid air collision just to be nice to a controller’s feelings?
@@M11TSthat should be done by the “company” once the controller is pulled out of the position at least temporarily. He must be evaluated for suitability for this very demanding job before he gets someone student pilot so flustered that the get killed. What if the student was on an early solo? This could have been A LOT worse
@@M11TS I sometimes get stressed and have a great deal on my mind, too. However, as a teacher, I do not take my negative emotions out on my students. Part of being a professional is being able to experience negative feelings without taking out your frustrations on others. This applies in non-safety critical positions as teachers and certainly applies to safety-critical positions as air traffic controllers. At some point we have to stop with the excuses.
I consider an experienced professional showing empathy for a fresh student, in any field, to be expected. If you don't do that you suck, and I wish your teachers from way back would show up and inform everyone of all the stupid crap you did as a newbie.
Well, Kelsey is a boss, for sure….his manner screams competence AND decency….and his bit about him being ATC and stretching out the pattern so he could refresh IG and eat his PBJ? Gawd. This guy needs a TV show!!!! (If anyone even watches TV anymore)
Absolutely unbelievable! Never thought that a) an ATC can work alone for 8 hours at a busy airport; b) an ATC can be so illogical, particularly when a); c) an ATC have the prerogative to modify the flight plan beyond simple rerouting. Mind blowing. It's like a doctor would be saying hey you probably have a stupid common cold and I'm here all alone for the last 8 hours with hypertension cases, go elsewhere or still better just go home. And on the bright side - the amount of likes tripled (and a half) while I was watching the video. Way to go Kelsey, thanks for your efforts!
By the sound of it, it was busy because training flights that he was packing in tight. A smallish airport with looping trainees and maybe the occasional regular take off or landing.
10:00 - Yeah, I agree. Don't buy a house next to an airport and then complain about the noise. Don't like it? Sell your house to _someone else_ who also didn't think about the noise. Good luck.
I relate to this strongly. This is why race tracks have been closing around the country for decades. And now we pretty much have street racing as the primary motorsports in the US. It's not as well known that, this has become the case. But it is far more dangerous and it's creating an environment where the professionals are aging out and that means they're becoming uncool and newer kids only know street racing. All because they keep shutting down race tracks. Most of which existed for decades before their track house HOA development was built
Another reason why there should NEVER be only ONE controller in the tower. There should be no less than TWO and if breaks are needed (they will be!), then there should be a third. One of these should be a designated supervisor.
Years ago I lived in a rural area. There was a gun range in the area with a lot of farm and ranch land surrounding it. Fast forward and developers buy up the land and build homes. People move into the homes. People complain about the gun range which had been in the same location for more than two decades. Range owner had to hire an attorney to fight off the idiots who moved next to a gun range they did not like.
Theres some really really old british common law you could cite. I don't remember the case name, but the short version is someone buys land next to a golf course and builds a house, then tries and fails to sue after a gold ball goes through their window. Gets laughed out of court.
As both a shooter and a pilot... Yeah, noise is a problem for both. At least with shooting there are suppressors. Sadly, here in Massachusetts, they're illegal...
Well said, Kelsey. For the pilot - "aircraft not in sight due to sun glare". For ATC - "roger, extend downwind and I will call your base". Simple professionalism needed, and leave all emotion off the freq. To the instructor - excellent work.
It's seems it would be an easy sell to get Kelsey to come to dinner. He should have a contest of who he has thanksgiving dinner with, of course he's the actual winner wherever he goes.
i think actually, albeit a bad one, this is a very good lesson for the student. In real life, yes, sometimes ATC can be an hole. The real lesson was from the instructor on how to manage that situation. Bravo Instructor. Well done.
I once lived on a busy street with a 35 mph speed limit and noisy log trucks going by outside every minute or two. It was pretty annoying at first. But what was really surprising was, after a short time, I hardly noticed the noise. I had totally adapted to it and no longer saw it as any sort of problem. Amazing what our minds can do. =PC=
Kelsey, your knowledge and skills are amazing. I admire the fact that you remember where you've been and know where you are heading. All pilots and controllers would benefit from watching your videos no matter how talented they think they are.
For the controller to say "I don't have to manage my expectations" is just insane. It shows that he thinks he's the commander of the skies and clearly doesn't have the mindset to keep pilots safe and give them useful instructions. While controllers tell pilots what to do, he obviously can't _make_ the pilot see another airplane. When the pilot is clearly telling him "no, I don't see that traffic" that's when the controller is supposed to adjust his instructions to account for that. "Okay, this guy has traffic turning base in front of him, but he can't see it, so I'm going to extend his downwind to make sure I maintain separation." Getting frustrated at the pilot being unable to see the traffic doesn't put the plane in sight; doesn't put the airplanes any farther apart than they are. A controller _has to_ manage expectations and adapt to what the pilots can actually do and what they report to the tower.
Also looking up a plane is much easier to see against a blue background than it is looking at it equal height or being above and looking downwards with a plane melding into a city background.
Years ago an attorney that lived off the approach to Stapleton airport in Colorado before it closed down filed multiple noise complaints about the GA aircraft. I believe it was the AOPA who had all her noise complaints registered with her property records so that when she went to sell her house they would have to be disclosed to the new buyer. Needless to say to say that really pissed her off. Karma.
I worked 40 years as a customer service rep in a variety of businesses; though none directly related to aviation, unless you would count one of the manufacturers that designed & sold gun grips for fighter jets to armed forces in other countries overseas (in the early to mid 1970’s). This controller failed in nearly every communication he had with the trainer & student pilot. He was beyond reasoning once his obvious impatience & irritability took over. He was even more hostile when the trainer tried to tone down the rhetoric. 5 stars to the trainer, & minus 5 stars to the ATC controller. He definitely needed a good amount of retraining to become an effective controller; or potentially face termination. He forgot who serves who in the ATC industry, & lost all flexibility in resolving this situation as simply as possible. It would have been a good day for him to call in sick.
@10:46, trying to see how fast you can fly a pattern. My older Champ was never as fast as the new Cherokees in the local flight school so I couldn't even qualify (let alone win) bragging rights, so it was a lot more fun to see how SLOW I could make a pattern, traffic permitting, of course. It did take some attention in the banks though. Let the other guys in the coffee shop try a pattern at 40 mph! A falling leaf down final was fun too.
A Reddit thread called "San Carlos (SQL) Tower in Crisis" describes how this location is run by a private ATC provider, and suffers from severe understaffing, partly because the high cost of living in the area isn't matched by livable wages. The FAA could step in and take over, but refuses to for whatever reason. Let's hope it doesn't take a serious incident to make them change their tune.
Something I learned relatively early when I was a tower controllers is that it was the weak controllers that heavily relied on “follow that traffic”. It has its place of course, but if someone doesn’t get someone in sight it’s really not a big deal, just give them positive control instructions like “extend downwind, tower will call base” and separate them, which is the entire point of the job.
For non-pilots watching this, getting overwhelmed as a new student pilot is real. In the beginning, there are too many inputs to process consciously and you just can’t do it. Over time, you learn how to process them in your subconscious and devote your real attention to the critical ones. Your instructor dials up the workload as you progress, finishing with manufacturing false distractions. That’s always fun.
Happened at my flight schools airport when a student from another school kept cutting into the pattern multiple times and didn’t listen to ATC. After many failed requests, failed go arounds and some dangerous maneuvers ATC ended up ordering the student to do a full stop. I think it was the right call at that time. But this controller seemed a pretty harsh. That being said working the tower can be very stressful. Keep up the great work and the blue side up.
Back when I did flight training in Southern California (about 25 years ago), some airport controllers would deny requests for touch and gos or low approaches (on a practice instrument approach). So we'd do a full stop and a taxi-back. Yeah, you use a bit more gas and time, but I never saw it as a big deal. Sometimes it was a good opportunity to gather your thoughts, evaluate and get yourself back together for the next segment of flight.
We shared a lot of the same sky: KLGB in 2002. Full stop and taxi-back was the policy of my flight school, so this is all we were permitted to do even when we were issued the option from the tower. Many pilot errors occur in the transition from flying to taxiing, and not practicing this makes for a less safe pilot (this was their reasoning at least).
While you are talking about Torrance and Santa Monica, I include Hawthorne - similarly surrounded by homes. My father flew out of Hawthorne in the sixties, just for the love of flying.
My father flew during during the war WW2, but was only allowed to do/fly certain planes, Spitfire/Harvard and to certain place, not allowed to fly overseas nor join RAF proper, as he was colour blind The funniest part was that when he met my mother he was in the army and her brother refused to let him marry her unless he joined the airforce, so he did! Left the army and transferred to the airforce!! Go figure, he's still the same person!!!
Imagine if the controller had to work at a major import with more than 4 GA aircraft lazily circling the traffic pattern. He would go into nuclear meltdown 5 minutes in.
They need to explain parallax before telling you to spot other traffic. Happens to me a lot too, you're looking for traffic, but if the angles and speeds are right, they may look stationary to you, and are eyes are better trained for picking up movement than specific shapes. On top of the silhouette of the aircraft is from the side, back, or front, not from the top or bottom, greatly minimizing the target size you're looking for.
I've rode jump seat in quite a few different aircraft... finding traffic, even large planes can be difficult. And this controller is a jerk. Once on the ground, the instructor should be talking to the tower manager about this incident.Poor excuse... I'm too busy.
9:17 Yep. We moved within a few miles of an Air Force base and we love hearing the jets. We knew when we bought this house what we were getting into and were happy. Don't people really don't think about all the parameters when buying a home, they just focus on the structure and not the area as a part of the equation.
The red Baron was the most successful fighter ace of ww1, counting up 80 victories. The most successful ace of all time, was Erich Hartmann or "black devil" or "Bubi". I do not know whose interview you saw though.
I am the same with trains, the last year is the first time in my life I haven't lived within earshot of a track, it took a while to get used to. I actually miss it.
I grew up where our house backed up to a major highway in Denver. I loved having cars and trucks driving by our backyard instead of neighbors with barking dogs, which I did for the next 30 years. Now I live where our nearest neighbor is over a 1/4 mile away… I love where I live once again.
I live near a small regional commercial airport. We have 2 planes come in from Seattle within twenty minutes of each other. One close to 5am and the other about 520 am. They are my backup alarm clocks. They load up another group of passengers and head back to Seattle. I know if I'm hearing them take off instead of land I'm officially on track for being late to work. At other times I don't mind the noise because I like watching them. I also knew that there would be some noise because I live 5 mi away from the airport when I signed my lease. If the noise bothered me that would have been my own fault.
Kelsi As a retired controller I want to shed some light on this. First of all this controller is way off. This is a contract tower and everything is done on the cheap. This is the reason he said “ call the company”. As a general rule Contract towers tend to be filled with people who what ever reason can’t work for the FAA. While they must meet FAA minimum standards there is no incentive for the company to go beyond this minimum. Hence a tower that would be best served with controllers at one time it is being worked by an individual. Non of this mitigates the controllers actions. Even in well staffed much busier facilities we occasionally get overwhelmed with traffic. During this time a true professional controller gives no hint other than the near continuous radio chatter that he is busy. If 4 planes in the pattern are too much for him I cannot see him working a center radar sector where he might have 20+ targets on his screen and talking to most of them vectoring every one of them for spacing for two hours continuously.
It's not just airports having noise problems. Laguna Seca a famous raceway in Monterey County California has been there 50+ years, rich people move in near it and are now trying to shut it down because they don't like the noise. Just stupid people moving somewhere without learning about it first.
Thank you Captain Kelsey! You bring such clarity to the cloudy skies of life situations. I love the instructor for standing up to the ATC. I’m sure his doing so boosted the young pilot’s confidence- way more than Mr. ATC Wonderful. Love ya, Captain…. Your videos always make my day. ✨❤️✨
Not all towers are FAA. Many smaller airports are run by contractors. Since the companies are profit driven they keep staffing low to make more profit. It was part of the Government effeciency program run by Al Gore in the mid 1990's. I used to work at CRG airport in Jacksonville Fl. We had 20 FAA controllers there in 1996. We were contracted out and replaced with 6 contractors and had 30 days to train them all and leave. Making government more efficient does not always leave to the best outcomes.
You're obviously correct; but I want to share something with you, Kelsey: In so many ways, you epitomize the fullest sense of INTEGRITY that can be imagined. Owning your own items; abundant generosity of spirit/kindness; a full self-confidence tempered to even be able to indulge in self-deprecating humor [a specific trait that I echo, myself]. You have a truly lucky family to have you.... straight up... and the best of wishes to you all for the holidays.
I control at a training airport, and this controller was kinda out of line. A simple "continue downwind I will call your base" would have been enough to keep that guy safe without spotting the traffic.
I am learning fly out of Torrance Airport! Cool to hear that it isn't only local pilots that find the noise abatement silly and unreasonable. I live near the airport myself and understand that planes make noise. That shouldn't stop us from doing touch and go's.
I did all of my flight training at KFFZ in Mesa, AZ, many moons ago. Lots of training activity there and the controllers were the best. This guy doesn’t have the mentality or self awareness necessary to be a good controller. Working for a 121 carrier now, I have even more respect for my controllers in my Class D airport when I was in training.
When I learned to fly privately (in a C-172), I never had a controller treat me this way. There were often times when I could not see the traffic I was being alerted to, but the controllers knew where we all were in the pattern, and were helpful and supportive, while maintaining safe separations. Also, I learned at a joint use military/civilian airport, with mostly USMC controllers, who were sharp and capable, but also helpful, supportive and patient, with private novices like me. Same case when I flew to a busy airport I was unfamiliar with.
If a controller ever did that to me, I have nine words for them. First is, "Extend your downwind, I'll call your base", quickly followed by, "You're fired." That's completely unacceptable, and he's clearly not qualified for the job. I've never had a moment of ATC training, and even *I* could handle a few students doing tng's.
8:52 In my flight school where I work as a instructor, during the first 15 traffic pattern flights we make full stop, exit the runway and then re-enter it again so that the students can get familiar with the before take-off checklist. But then again, we don't charge for taxi time, only for flight time.
Not a fan of towers with a single controller. Too many opportunities to make mistakes without someone else there to assist. Especially in fields that serve a lot of students, need a lot of patience and diplomacy on the radio. This guy needs a different job.
Another way to consider it: what circumstances led to him being alone in the tower for 8 hours straight doing that job? Was he a last-minute call in after many days straight? Sure, he should have kept a cooler head, but he was evidently at the end of his tether and possibly ought to have taken time out right there instead of having to continue for everyone's benefit.
Private pilot instrument rated, & an air traffic Controller with a total of 32 years of Military and Civil Service.....This controller needs a few weeks of remedial training, or fired, what a jackass!
as a former atc in a vfr tower / fighter jet environment, we would have washed this controller out quite quickly down to base ops to file flight plans for a living. the amount of excess word salad coming from this guy is unreal. two words is all you need. EXTEND DOWNWIND
👍👍👍
And he's a complete asshole.
Maybe he is a Trumper?
I am not a pilot but an aviation enthusiast, but in the situation where the pilot couldn’t see the aircraft on the base leg couldn’t the controller initially had him extend his downwind and call his base?
@@eriksjoberg8991 word salad Kamala? Knock it off doofus
Another missed opportunity to ask the Tower to write down a number for possibly ATC deviation
@@allan7817You absolutely can and people do and the controller will be brought up to management
@@allan7817 i hope so.
? allen7817❓️seems he's been terminated.😮@marzipanmouse
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
😂😂😂
That controller is a piece of work.
I think the tower at this airport (San Carlos Airport) was featured in another video about a year ago. Someone should look into this if there is a pattern of this behavior.
Yall believe in God?
Glad the pilot was not solo and had the instructor stand up for him.
@@RubenThomas I believe the controllers there are contractors and not FAA employees. From what I've seen, there seem to be more issues when the controllers are contractors and not actual FAA employees.
@@RubenThomas It probably is. And he's not the only one. After a while you recognize their voice and just roll your eyes. It never fails to hear them bark at someone for something. Actually some pilots are like that on the Unicom freq. Once I had one yelling at me because I had to extend my downwind in a Seneca at Catalina Island because a 152 was ... whatever, not relevant... . Anyway, I had a good talk with him on the ground.
Having an uncontrolled temper is not for an ATC. He needs to go back to school and work somewhere else.
I agree, it's not a desirable trait in any line of work, but it is completely unacceptable in a safety sensitive position. If this is normal behavior for him he should be removed from the job. If it is not, then he needs to be given a break until he can sort it out.
DEI ATC
@@cibularas3485good point.
@@johnnunn8688 More likely contractor .... not FAA (federal) employee
I lived under a flight plan of an international airport. When everything was grounded during 911 I couldn't sleep. It's amazing how your body adapts to it's environment. VERY happy when airport reopened.
I worked for a defense contractor at that time. Our company building was near the flight lines of a Boeing company and commercial airlines. That's the first thing I noticed. Lack of aircraft noise. Soon enough all we saw was MIL aircraft training to go do their thing. They would fly low over our parking lot much of the day for a while.
The purrring of the Hellcats... 😂
@@Angelum_Band We got to see some nice maneuvers close up for sure! I think the pilots knew the regs were gone for a while and they were enjoying showing off. Most of our employees were ex MIL.
Can't agree more. We're on a flight path for landings on a medium airport here in France. Planes (A320 and B737) goes by, pretty low, engines at idle, mostly gliding. Not that noisy, pretty gracefully, and it's an airport we uses as passengers, and we're accustomed to the time table.
And we notice where there are delays or canceled flight. It's "missing" in our day to day life, like a clock that stops ticking.
Kelsey talking about Torrance and Santa Monica is hilarious. I'm a pilot in the Marine Corps and we are constantly getting complaints about our jets. The air base has been here since WW2....
It's the same in every airport. Look at washington, they're trying to stop us from moving the rest of the growlers there. Burlington, Langley. They build / buy under a traffic pattern maybe at a low point in the training cycle and suddenly it kicks up. OMG it's their fault.
Long Island in the 60s - aviation development to the east. JFK and LaGuardia expansions to the west. Flying fed our economy and paid for cheaper houses near airfields. People sued to stop the noise! Crazy!
Camp Pendleton has not only flight hour restrictions, but they are required to follow the freeways from there to, say, Miramar.
Hell, I was stationed at NAS IB in the early '70s, where there was nothing between the field and the beach. Then, they went and built condos between Ream Field and the beach, and "suddenly," it's a problem.
Reminded this old guy of a story I heard a long time ago. A long established farm that had a lot of animals doing animal things also making animals smells. Then people bought property next to that farm and then complain when the wind blows those 'smells' in their direction. Similar type of thing as you mentioned, it was there when they moved in, are people that stupid? On second thought, you don't need to answer that, I've seen a lot of stupid things in my 75 years.
Same in Wichita KS, McConnell airbase (established in 1924). In the 1970's 80's houses were sprouting up all around and then the started complaining about the jet noise. And the Wichita airport build west of town in 1954 had the same issue, out in the middle of nowhere then all of a sudden houses sprouted up around it and started complaining
Agree completely with all your assessments Kelsey. I flew a lot at the 2nd busiest airport in the country as a student and beyond and never experienced a controller behaving even remotely like that. Totally unacceptable. The student was far more professional, suggesting exiting the pattern. For safety, pilots & ATC need to have a cooperative and empathetic relationship. Unfortunately, this student got a dose of "ATC is the enemy". Sounds like the instructor was experienced and level-headed and hopefully debriefed his student so he understood such behaviour is abnormal and unacceptable. I hope the controller got pulled off active duty and had some retraining.
Great comment from the pilot about managing expectations.
The airport is SQL (San Carlos, CA). This is a training airport for pilots, but also a training airport for controllers. That controller should not have been on his own in the tower -- sounds like he's still training himself and needs proper supervision.
I'm not convinced a tower should be manned by 1 man alone continuously for 8 hours. Between that and "call the company" makes me think some "company" probably needs to be put out of business and a government employee needs to sit in that tower.
Yup - I knew it was SQL as soon as I saw the map. No surprise. The controllers there are awful - VASAviation has entire videos on them.
I tried complaining about all the air traffic noise back when I lived EXTREMELY close to an airport but the Captain of the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) wouldn't listen...
😂😂😂
😂😂
The Tower needs to copy a number.
Kelsey, my late husband was a complaints manager for Northern Trains (UK) & one of the regular complaints he dealt with (via email) was from residents complaining about the noise & frequency of the passing trains ... 90% of the people complaining were from new build housing estates - considering a lot of the routes are over 100 years old & these housing estates are less than 10 years old, my husband used to find diplomatic ways to say "You purchased the house knowing there was a train track behind it, so your complaint is not valid." ... Planes make a lot more noise than a train, so I wonder what the people living in those houses expected to hear 🤣😂🤣
The ATC guy needs to go back to the classroom and refresh his people skills. The instructor was within his rights to be unimpressed with the ATC controller, and I think he handled it very well. Having said that, this exchange was good for the students in one way because it means that they have experienced a less-than-helpful controller, and the instructor demonstrated how to deal with them.
Incidentally, I am neither a pilot nor ATC, I'm merely a bus driver, but even I could tell that the controller needs to wind his neck in, the tower is no place for an arrogant a-hole 🤨
Half the time: 'There are too many trains!'
The other half: 'Where's my flippin train!'
reminds me of a guy who moved into a house near train tracks then started posting videos complaining there was a train using the train tracks that had been there for decades
Controller should go back to training.
That won't do anything you could tell at the end he knew he was in the wrong. Most of these atcs are overworked. Sounds like he needs a long weekend and a woman.
Is a bad attitude fixable?
If this is typical of controller’s performance, he needs a career change.
@@xcalibertrekker6693Looking at your comment about "needing a woman" you don't seem to be that much better.
He needs a different career. Unless this is one off with him, he's not cut out for the job.
Good morning Kelsey! I appreciate your rant about those who move near airports. I always roll my eyes when people complain about hearing trains, when they choose to live near the railroad tracks.
Sometimes they spend billions of dollars to move the airport many miles out of the city. I won't say the name, but the initials are DIA, and the whole damn city follows it out there. Some things just don't make sense, although money has a lot to do with it.
Airports, churches with bellringing, farms, schools, playgrounds... People will complain about all sorts of stuff that was there, sometimes for literal centuries before they moved in.
I remember about a decade ago we were looking at a condo in the Gaslamp district of San Diego. Nice neighborhood. Then while touring one found out that trains arriving and leaving the train station cross multiple grade level crossings and blow their horns at every one. We looked elsewhere.
Controller: “This will be a full stop landing. You’re done.” Instructor: “Goose, it’s time to buzz the tower!”
Nothing says I'm a badass like buzzing at 60 knots
😂😂😂
@@GhostHostMemories well I guess it depends how close you get.
@@GhostHostMemories Unless the tower is looking at the underside of your plane as you go by.
lmao
My father was made Naval rep at the LTV A-6 plant in Arlington Texas where there would be many aircraft in the area. When he purchased his house in Arlington he had a map of the entire Dallas/Fort Worth area with multiple lines drawn on it. When I inquired about those lines he explained how he had laid out all the approach and departure routs so he could purchase his house in an area that would not be bothered by airplane noise.
Intruder - my favorite plane
I live about halfway between the downwind/upwind leg of our small airport. I’ll never get tired of hearing aircraft coming in.
When you described your job you missed eating snacks😀. I learned to fly at Blackbushe, UK. It's was an airport mainly used by the two flight schools there. The ATCs were great and very very patient. They were happy to have students visit them on quiet days to show students why and what they did. On one occasion, while I was flying solo circuits, touch and goes. Just after I touched down the controller just said numbers between one and ten. My instructor told me later the ATC was joking and was grading each of my landings.
There's a difference between being busy and being overwhelmed. This controller was unnecessarily overwhelmed and needs to update his resume.
I am neither a pilot nor a controller and have nothing to do with the air travel industry. But this ATC absolutely needs a number to call, because he was just a belligerent a-hole.
Props to the instructor, kept cool calm and collected and backed up his student. I do hope the student got at least a discount for being grounded early though lol
And that part of the instructors pay and aircraft rental paid for by the controller or the “company”.
There's a lady off the departure end of the Billings, MT airport that has submitted grievances to fedex, ups, the airforce, etc. because their planes are too loud and "it should be illegal to fly over houses". She moved there just a few years ago, so it's completely on her.
Kelsey, I absolutely love how civil you are and truly explain the situation. You are an example my friend!
Controller is stressed out, we all have bad days. You get paid the big bucks to be professional & leave your problems at the tower door. ATC might not be the job for him.
Good job instructor for taking care of your student.
74 Gear..The elite of aviation channel's. Always.#1
15:25 "I just don't have time to work this hard for a student" ????!!!!! This controller does not merit the courtesy of a phone call . Write him up in a report to the local FAA branch - wrap him real good in bureaucracy paper work and be done with him .... I did my PPL at LGIR - an international airport and never - ever a controller dare talked to me as a STU/PIC in that attitude - even in my first solo which was at July 2004 (in the middle of the tourist season) they were very helpful and accommodating for the stressed student soloing among the airliners (the captains were very supportive also) ....
This controller at SQL is infamous for his behavior, and I believe he is no longer working there. SQL is a contract tower, so "the company" might be the contracted company (not the FAA).
VFR controller here. Controller is being a complete dick. Sun in the eyes, wind drift, weather, etc. are all things I was taught to consider when passing traffic. Presumably extending their downwind would have been the simple solution.
There is a chance there was other traffic/restrictions complicating things, but there were so many other ways to deconflict.
Controller said he was working 8 hours by himself, which is ridiculous. 4 in the pattern for any amount of time working alone for a full day is a lot. I'd be restricting traffic .
Wow, Kelsey, this air traffic controller should not be in that type of job😮 this is a great video thanks
Agree 100%
ATC was alone, and was stressed, who knows what else he had on his mind. All should take care of each other more. It doesn't hurt and makes everybodys lives more pleasant. (Mental health professional here)
How nice and cuddly.
ATCs haven’t the luxury of being given a break if they aren’t having a great day, it is about as safety critical a job as you can get. He also started to control the trainee pilot in mid air, telling him to turn in instead of allowing his request to exit the pattern. Would you fancy having a mid air collision just to be nice to a controller’s feelings?
@@M11TSthat should be done by the “company” once the controller is pulled out of the position at least temporarily. He must be evaluated for suitability for this very demanding job before he gets someone student pilot so flustered that the get killed. What if the student was on an early solo? This could have been A LOT worse
@@M11TS I sometimes get stressed and have a great deal on my mind, too. However, as a teacher, I do not take my negative emotions out on my students. Part of being a professional is being able to experience negative feelings without taking out your frustrations on others. This applies in non-safety critical positions as teachers and certainly applies to safety-critical positions as air traffic controllers.
At some point we have to stop with the excuses.
I'm impressed that Kelsey, a 747 captain, shows empathy for a brand new student pilot.
I consider an experienced professional showing empathy for a fresh student, in any field, to be expected. If you don't do that you suck, and I wish your teachers from way back would show up and inform everyone of all the stupid crap you did as a newbie.
Well, Kelsey is a boss, for sure….his manner screams competence AND decency….and his bit about him being ATC and stretching out the pattern so he could refresh IG and eat his PBJ? Gawd. This guy needs a TV show!!!! (If anyone even watches TV anymore)
Like in any trade, we've all had to start somewhere, we've all done it
Absolutely unbelievable! Never thought that a) an ATC can work alone for 8 hours at a busy airport; b) an ATC can be so illogical, particularly when a); c) an ATC have the prerogative to modify the flight plan beyond simple rerouting. Mind blowing.
It's like a doctor would be saying hey you probably have a stupid common cold and I'm here all alone for the last 8 hours with hypertension cases, go elsewhere or still better just go home.
And on the bright side - the amount of likes tripled (and a half) while I was watching the video. Way to go Kelsey, thanks for your efforts!
By the sound of it, it was busy because training flights that he was packing in tight. A smallish airport with looping trainees and maybe the occasional regular take off or landing.
Its a contract tower, FAA contracts out small airport towers to private companies and you get this kind of asshole controlers..
Always a good day when Captain Kelsey uploads.
The controller was angry because the tower ran out of snacks.
He probably missed free breakfast 😂
A distinct possibility, close to lunchtime and possibly hangry.
He needs a Snickers
Running out of snacks? Now THAT'S a good reason for his behavior. And one Kelsey can relate to.
Sounds more like he was upset because they ran out of tampons in the mens bathroom.
10:00 - Yeah, I agree. Don't buy a house next to an airport and then complain about the noise. Don't like it? Sell your house to _someone else_ who also didn't think about the noise. Good luck.
Exactly! Which was there first, the airport or your house?
I relate to this strongly. This is why race tracks have been closing around the country for decades.
And now we pretty much have street racing as the primary motorsports in the US. It's not as well known that, this has become the case. But it is far more dangerous and it's creating an environment where the professionals are aging out and that means they're becoming uncool and newer kids only know street racing.
All because they keep shutting down race tracks. Most of which existed for decades before their track house HOA development was built
Another reason why there should NEVER be only ONE controller in the tower. There should be no less than TWO and if breaks are needed (they will be!), then there should be a third. One of these should be a designated supervisor.
Years ago I lived in a rural area. There was a gun range in the area with a lot of farm and ranch land surrounding it. Fast forward and developers buy up the land and build homes. People move into the homes. People complain about the gun range which had been in the same location for more than two decades. Range owner had to hire an attorney to fight off the idiots who moved next to a gun range they did not like.
Theres some really really old british common law you could cite. I don't remember the case name, but the short version is someone buys land next to a golf course and builds a house, then tries and fails to sue after a gold ball goes through their window. Gets laughed out of court.
As both a shooter and a pilot... Yeah, noise is a problem for both. At least with shooting there are suppressors. Sadly, here in Massachusetts, they're illegal...
As you rightly said, If that controller didn't want to handle the situation, then he should probably find a different job!
Well said, Kelsey. For the pilot - "aircraft not in sight due to sun glare". For ATC - "roger, extend downwind and I will call your base". Simple professionalism needed, and leave all emotion off the freq. To the instructor - excellent work.
Love your videos! Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences with us! I wish someone like you could be at my Thanksgiving dinner.
It's seems it would be an easy sell to get Kelsey to come to dinner. He should have a contest of who he has thanksgiving dinner with, of course he's the actual winner wherever he goes.
Wow!!! “We’re in the 21st century” what a prick! He would have a hard time with me
Honest, officer, he kept falling on the ground, and I kept trying to help him up.
That is when you just wait by the tower exit …. 🤪😆😵💫😵😖
"People live next to a volcano and then wonder why they have lava in their living room!!!" George Carlin
i think actually, albeit a bad one, this is a very good lesson for the student. In real life, yes, sometimes ATC can be an hole. The real lesson was from the instructor on how to manage that situation. Bravo Instructor. Well done.
2:45 The Red Baron might not have had the greatest sight vision, but his was great enough to make a reasonably flavorful for its price frozen pizza.
No kidding, those frozen pizzas are better than they have any right to be at that cost.
@@tehlaserwith the demise of Yelloh (formerly Schwann’s)
Will red Barron pizza still exist? 🤔
@@tanya5322 The Red Baron will fly to another company, to deliver all those wonderful (for its price) pizza joys.
This dude sounds like a "Controller in Training", I mean Wow!😳
I once lived on a busy street with a 35 mph speed limit and noisy log trucks going by outside every minute or two. It was pretty annoying at first. But what was really surprising was, after a short time, I hardly noticed the noise. I had totally adapted to it and no longer saw it as any sort of problem. Amazing what our minds can do. =PC=
big fan of your videos!
keep up the good work man!
I know that controller! I think he's called Richard Head.
😂
😂
That's Richard Noggin to you.
Kelsey, your knowledge and skills are amazing. I admire the fact that you remember where you've been and know where you are heading. All pilots and controllers would benefit from watching your videos no matter how talented they think they are.
I truly admire your airmanship Kelsey, particularly your fabulous sense of humour 😊
For the controller to say "I don't have to manage my expectations" is just insane. It shows that he thinks he's the commander of the skies and clearly doesn't have the mindset to keep pilots safe and give them useful instructions. While controllers tell pilots what to do, he obviously can't _make_ the pilot see another airplane. When the pilot is clearly telling him "no, I don't see that traffic" that's when the controller is supposed to adjust his instructions to account for that. "Okay, this guy has traffic turning base in front of him, but he can't see it, so I'm going to extend his downwind to make sure I maintain separation." Getting frustrated at the pilot being unable to see the traffic doesn't put the plane in sight; doesn't put the airplanes any farther apart than they are. A controller _has to_ manage expectations and adapt to what the pilots can actually do and what they report to the tower.
Everyone in every position in life has to manage their unreasonable expectations of others!
Also looking up a plane is much easier to see against a blue background than it is looking at it equal height or being above and looking downwards with a plane melding into a city background.
Years ago an attorney that lived off the approach to Stapleton airport in Colorado before it closed down filed multiple noise complaints about the GA aircraft. I believe it was the AOPA who had all her noise complaints registered with her property records so that when she went to sell her house they would have to be disclosed to the new buyer. Needless to say to say that really pissed her off. Karma.
I worked 40 years as a customer service rep in a variety of businesses; though none directly related to aviation, unless you would count one of the manufacturers that designed & sold gun grips for fighter jets to armed forces in other countries overseas (in the early to mid 1970’s).
This controller failed in nearly every communication he had with the trainer & student pilot. He was beyond reasoning once his obvious impatience & irritability took over. He was even more hostile when the trainer tried to tone down the rhetoric. 5 stars to the trainer, & minus 5 stars to the ATC controller. He definitely needed a good amount of retraining to become an effective controller; or potentially face termination. He forgot who serves who in the ATC industry, & lost all flexibility in resolving this situation as simply as possible.
It would have been a good day for him to call in sick.
@10:46, trying to see how fast you can fly a pattern. My older Champ was never as fast as the new Cherokees in the local flight school so I couldn't even qualify (let alone win) bragging rights, so it was a lot more fun to see how SLOW I could make a pattern, traffic permitting, of course. It did take some attention in the banks though. Let the other guys in the coffee shop try a pattern at 40 mph! A falling leaf down final was fun too.
A Reddit thread called "San Carlos (SQL) Tower in Crisis" describes how this location is run by a private ATC provider, and suffers from severe understaffing, partly because the high cost of living in the area isn't matched by livable wages. The FAA could step in and take over, but refuses to for whatever reason. Let's hope it doesn't take a serious incident to make them change their tune.
The ATC dude needs to be FIRED.
I don't remember who said it but "people have got to comfortable running their mouth on a screen and not getting a broke nose after" basically
Supposedly Mike Tyson said, "Social media made y'all way too comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the face for it."
Something I learned relatively early when I was a tower controllers is that it was the weak controllers that heavily relied on “follow that traffic”. It has its place of course, but if someone doesn’t get someone in sight it’s really not a big deal, just give them positive control instructions like “extend downwind, tower will call base” and separate them, which is the entire point of the job.
🎵You had a bad day, you're taking one down, you sing a sad song just to turn it around....🎶 Tower Controller
For non-pilots watching this, getting overwhelmed as a new student pilot is real. In the beginning, there are too many inputs to process consciously and you just can’t do it. Over time, you learn how to process them in your subconscious and devote your real attention to the critical ones. Your instructor dials up the workload as you progress, finishing with manufacturing false distractions. That’s always fun.
Happened at my flight schools airport when a student from another school kept cutting into the pattern multiple times and didn’t listen to ATC. After many failed requests, failed go arounds and some dangerous maneuvers ATC ended up ordering the student to do a full stop. I think it was the right call at that time. But this controller seemed a pretty harsh. That being said working the tower can be very stressful. Keep up the great work and the blue side up.
Back when I did flight training in Southern California (about 25 years ago), some airport controllers would deny requests for touch and gos or low approaches (on a practice instrument approach). So we'd do a full stop and a taxi-back. Yeah, you use a bit more gas and time, but I never saw it as a big deal. Sometimes it was a good opportunity to gather your thoughts, evaluate and get yourself back together for the next segment of flight.
We shared a lot of the same sky: KLGB in 2002. Full stop and taxi-back was the policy of my flight school, so this is all we were permitted to do even when we were issued the option from the tower. Many pilot errors occur in the transition from flying to taxiing, and not practicing this makes for a less safe pilot (this was their reasoning at least).
While you are talking about Torrance and Santa Monica, I include Hawthorne - similarly surrounded by homes. My father flew out of Hawthorne in the sixties, just for the love of flying.
Yall believe in God?
My father flew during during the war WW2, but was only allowed to do/fly certain planes, Spitfire/Harvard and to certain place, not allowed to fly overseas nor join RAF proper, as he was colour blind
The funniest part was that when he met my mother he was in the army and her brother refused to let him marry her unless he joined the airforce, so he did! Left the army and transferred to the airforce!! Go figure, he's still the same person!!!
The first person he needs to control is himself.
Imagine if the controller had to work at a major import with more than 4 GA aircraft lazily circling the traffic pattern. He would go into nuclear meltdown 5 minutes in.
They need to explain parallax before telling you to spot other traffic. Happens to me a lot too, you're looking for traffic, but if the angles and speeds are right, they may look stationary to you, and are eyes are better trained for picking up movement than specific shapes. On top of the silhouette of the aircraft is from the side, back, or front, not from the top or bottom, greatly minimizing the target size you're looking for.
I've rode jump seat in quite a few different aircraft... finding traffic, even large planes can be difficult. And this controller is a jerk. Once on the ground, the instructor should be talking to the tower manager about this incident.Poor excuse... I'm too busy.
9:17 Yep. We moved within a few miles of an Air Force base and we love hearing the jets. We knew when we bought this house what we were getting into and were happy. Don't people really don't think about all the parameters when buying a home, they just focus on the structure and not the area as a part of the equation.
This controller has moved on and is no longer at SQL.
The red Baron was the most successful fighter ace of ww1, counting up 80 victories. The most successful ace of all time, was Erich Hartmann or "black devil" or "Bubi". I do not know whose interview you saw though.
I’ve lived near airports my entire life. I can’t sleep at night if there aren’t airplanes landing and taking off. I find it so calming and comforting.
I am the same with trains, the last year is the first time in my life I haven't lived within earshot of a track, it took a while to get used to. I actually miss it.
Ditto! Air Force Brat here and ...the whining of a C-5 engine is heaven to me!~
I grew up where our house backed up to a major highway in Denver. I loved having cars and trucks driving by our backyard instead of neighbors with barking dogs, which I did for the next 30 years. Now I live where our nearest neighbor is over a 1/4 mile away… I love where I live once again.
I live near a small regional commercial airport. We have 2 planes come in from Seattle within twenty minutes of each other. One close to 5am and the other about 520 am. They are my backup alarm clocks. They load up another group of passengers and head back to Seattle. I know if I'm hearing them take off instead of land I'm officially on track for being late to work. At other times I don't mind the noise because I like watching them. I also knew that there would be some noise because I live 5 mi away from the airport when I signed my lease. If the noise bothered me that would have been my own fault.
Cool 😎
Kelsi
As a retired controller I want to shed some light on this.
First of all this controller is way off.
This is a contract tower and everything is done on the cheap. This is the reason he said “ call the company”. As a general rule Contract towers tend to be filled with people who what ever reason can’t work for the FAA. While they must meet FAA minimum standards there is no incentive for the company to go beyond this minimum. Hence a tower that would be best served with controllers at one time it is being worked by an individual.
Non of this mitigates the controllers actions. Even in well staffed much busier facilities we occasionally get overwhelmed with traffic. During this time a true professional controller gives no hint other than the near continuous radio chatter that he is busy. If 4 planes in the pattern are too much for him I cannot see him working a center radar sector where he might have 20+ targets on his screen and talking to most of them vectoring every one of them for spacing for two hours continuously.
It's not just airports having noise problems. Laguna Seca a famous raceway in Monterey County California has been there 50+ years, rich people move in near it and are now trying to shut it down because they don't like the noise. Just stupid people moving somewhere without learning about it first.
10:44 Kelsey was an un-credited helmsman on the stolen Klingon ship in Star Trek 4.
Thank you Captain Kelsey! You bring such clarity to the cloudy skies of life situations. I love the instructor for standing up to the ATC. I’m sure his doing so boosted the young pilot’s confidence- way more than Mr. ATC Wonderful. Love ya, Captain…. Your videos always make my day. ✨❤️✨
Not all towers are FAA. Many smaller airports are run by contractors. Since the companies are profit driven they keep staffing low to make more profit. It was part of the Government effeciency program run by Al Gore in the mid 1990's. I used to work at CRG airport in Jacksonville Fl. We had 20 FAA controllers there in 1996. We were contracted out and replaced with 6 contractors and had 30 days to train them all and leave. Making government more efficient does not always leave to the best outcomes.
You're obviously correct; but I want to share something with you, Kelsey: In so many ways, you epitomize the fullest sense of INTEGRITY that can be imagined. Owning your own items; abundant generosity of spirit/kindness; a full self-confidence tempered to even be able to indulge in self-deprecating humor [a specific trait that I echo, myself]. You have a truly lucky family to have you.... straight up... and the best of wishes to you all for the holidays.
Thanks for uploading!
I control at a training airport, and this controller was kinda out of line. A simple "continue downwind I will call your base" would have been enough to keep that guy safe without spotting the traffic.
This ATC is not a slice in the Swiss cheese model, he is just an full on air pocket.
Why did I hear this in blancolirio's voice?
@Anna_Xor haha. Now I cannot unhear this. Lol.
Controller clearly did not have a free breakfast that morning.
I can relate to that feeling, when you're trying to maintain all the parameters and then suddenly you find yourself 100ft of your initial altitude
I am learning fly out of Torrance Airport! Cool to hear that it isn't only local pilots that find the noise abatement silly and unreasonable. I live near the airport myself and understand that planes make noise. That shouldn't stop us from doing touch and go's.
I did all of my flight training at KFFZ in Mesa, AZ, many moons ago. Lots of training activity there and the controllers were the best. This guy doesn’t have the mentality or self awareness necessary to be a good controller. Working for a 121 carrier now, I have even more respect for my controllers in my Class D airport when I was in training.
So many cases today where people have just lost the art of communication.
When I learned to fly privately (in a C-172), I never had a controller treat me this way. There were often times when I could not see the traffic I was being alerted to, but the controllers knew where we all were in the pattern, and were helpful and supportive, while maintaining safe separations. Also, I learned at a joint use military/civilian airport, with mostly USMC controllers, who were sharp and capable, but also helpful, supportive and patient, with private novices like me. Same case when I flew to a busy airport I was unfamiliar with.
I was searching for a video to watch and I got this notification!! Thanks!!!
that was a great fishing expedition you went on in the middle of your lesson,LOL hope it works, great video.
If a controller ever did that to me, I have nine words for them. First is, "Extend your downwind, I'll call your base", quickly followed by, "You're fired." That's completely unacceptable, and he's clearly not qualified for the job. I've never had a moment of ATC training, and even *I* could handle a few students doing tng's.
8:52 In my flight school where I work as a instructor, during the first 15 traffic pattern flights we make full stop, exit the runway and then re-enter it again so that the students can get familiar with the before take-off checklist. But then again, we don't charge for taxi time, only for flight time.
That ATC would crumble at a major airport
For him he IS at a major airport……
Very good visuals for the field - Nice job . Thanks for good animation +
Not a fan of towers with a single controller. Too many opportunities to make mistakes without someone else there to assist. Especially in fields that serve a lot of students, need a lot of patience and diplomacy on the radio. This guy needs a different job.
Another way to consider it: what circumstances led to him being alone in the tower for 8 hours straight doing that job? Was he a last-minute call in after many days straight? Sure, he should have kept a cooler head, but he was evidently at the end of his tether and possibly ought to have taken time out right there instead of having to continue for everyone's benefit.
I always enjoy your content on Sunday mornings living right next to SMO ;) Keep up the good work!
Wow. Did the controller face any consequences? This is unacceptable.
I would also would like know.
He is a goner; FAA staffs the tower with FAA controllers.
Private pilot instrument rated, & an air traffic Controller with a total of 32 years of Military and Civil Service.....This controller needs a few weeks of remedial training, or fired, what a jackass!
"You call base" problem solved
The ATC needs a "vacation"...