I think they forgot about me....

cowman

cowman

Final Approach
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Cowman
This is a new one...

I was on a ~130nm cross country tonight, night VFR on flight following. Very quiet night... not a peep on the radio after "radar contact" was established. My wife and I were having good conversation and the time flew by pretty quick. I suddenly noted that I was getting very close to my destination and I really ought to have been moved to a new frequency, then passed on to a different center by then(I fly this route frequently so I know about where it happens). Fearing I missed a call or had a radio issue I keyed my mic...

"Center, bugsmasher 12345...."

pause.....


(discombobulated sounding) "UHh.. yeah bugsmasher 12345 uhh squawk VFR, frequency change approved. If you want further flight following you can call other center on ____"

I honestly found it funny... they're human too. I wonder how often that happens though... I bet that guy was reading/watching something or just zoned out as quiet as the radio was.
 
Watching either NFL or the debate probably,

Happened to me once as well, thought maybe my radio was not working, just called them for a time check, just to check.
 
I've been forgotten on IFR vectors twice now. Once on approach, once on departure. I called when it became obvious I should have turned.
 
cowman said:
I suddenly noted that I was getting very close to my destination and I really ought to have been moved to a new frequency, then passed on to a different center by then(I fly this route frequently so I know about where it happens). Fearing I missed a call or had a radio issue I keyed my mic...

.
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During periods of slow traffic (not as busy) ATC will combine positions. IOW an area may be divided up into say, 3 areas w/ 3 different controllers working them. During slow periods, one controller may be working the whole thing. You may or may not hear that controller talking to other controllers depending on whether he has all the frequencies keyed up. Or, he was watching the debate. :D
 
I got forgotten about almost religiously in the Grumman on VFR FF. Not so much with the Venture.
 
one of my first long-ish solo PnP trips after PPL'd I was on FF and hadn't heard from them in a while. it was rather busy and I just wasn't sure if they forgot about me so I checked in with them. they hadn't forgot about me but oh well, I checked in anyways just to make sure.
 
eman1200 said:
they hadn't forgot about me but oh well, I checked in anyways just to make sure.
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ATC doesn't mind you checking. Used to fly checks (when people used them) to the MEM Federal Reserve at night and after around 11pm it gets quiet and you won't hear much. If it's been awhile I'll do the same, just checking you're still there.
 
Unfortunately been in that controller's shoes but it was an IFR. Late night, TV was on and his transponder dropped...idiot. :mad:
 
MAKG1 said:
I've been forgotten on IFR vectors twice now. Once on approach, once on departure. I called when it became obvious I should have turned.
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Back in the 1990s, I think it was, a West Valley Flying Club instructor whom I had flown with and liked got vectored into a mountain ridge near Calaveras Reservoir one night. He was under the hood on some sort of recurrent training flight for Ameriflight. I don't know whether the controller forgot about him, or forgot about the mountains. Unfortunately, the check pilot/safety pilot apparently also forgot about the mountains, or at least didn't keep sufficient track of the aircraft's location relative to the high terrain. The next day, as I was flying north out of the Bay Area, I heard the ELT and did wing shadowing, which pointed in that general direction. :sad:
 
Palmpilot said:
Back in the 1990s, I think it was, a West Valley Flying Club instructor whom I had flown with and liked got vectored into a mountain ridge near Calaveras Reservoir one night. He was under the hood on some sort of recurrent training flight for Ameriflight. I don't know whether the controller forgot about him, or forgot about the mountains. Unfortunately, the check pilot/safety pilot apparently also forgot about the mountains, or at least didn't keep sufficient track of the aircraft's location relative to the high terrain. The next day, as I was flying north out of the Bay Area, I heard the ELT and did wing shadowing, which pointed in that general direction. :sad:
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The approach "forget" was on VTF for the Salinas ILS. Lots of terrain around there. Passing through the final approach course is not recommended. I was not happy. Fortunately, it was bright day VFR with an instructor in the right seat and we were never in any danger of CFIT. Even in IMC, it's kinda obvious from the approach plate that you don't want to stray southwest of the localizer. It's one of those things where I'd intercept the localizer without clearance if this happened in IMC.

The departure was at 9000, high enough to clear anything in the area.
 
Had a similar experience this past weekend. I was on with ATL Center returning from North Carolina and I was cruising along and thought to myself... It's been quite awhile since I heard anyone. Keyed up the mic "Atlanta N123, just checking to make sure we're still with ya" still didn't hear anything for a few seconds "...who was this calling", "Yes sir, its N123 just checking to make sure we're still with ya, been a quiet ride for awhile" "N123 affirmative, I still have you LC" just ended up being a quiet evening in that sector, but if you go for an extended period of time without hearing anyone over ATC, just give them a shout and make sure you still have them. The radio might've crapped or they might've fallen asleep. ;)
 
MAKG1 said:
The approach "forget" was on VTF for the Salinas ILS. Lots of terrain around there. Passing through the final approach course is not recommended. I was not happy. Fortunately, it was bright day VFR with an instructor in the right seat and we were never in any danger of CFIT. Even in IMC, it's kinda obvious from the approach plate that you don't want to stray southwest of the localizer. It's one of those things where I'd intercept the localizer without clearance if this happened in IMC.

The departure was at 9000, high enough to clear anything in the area.
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That kind of thing really makes me appreciate terrain display on a GPS moving map.
 
Palmpilot said:
That kind of thing really makes me appreciate terrain display on a GPS moving map.
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It wouldn't hurt, but it's pretty clear where the terrain is in that approach plate. And the localizer will tell you which side you're on. Localizer left of center = good. Right of center = bad.
 
Fairly common if you fly long enough. Ideally, you want to catch it before moving out of radio range, which then makes it trickier to get back on track.
After you get some experience flying the system, you get an internal alarm clock that goes off in your head after a certain period of silence. When this happens to me, I immediately transmit, "Center Smasher 123 radio check", which normally results in "Smasher 123 Cleveland loud and clear, how me?". Another time to call Center/Approach is when you hear their transmissions gradually getting weaker/scratchier.
Bottom line: be proactive, don't fall asleep (literally or figuratively).
 
Ha I think I have woken up controllers at Oshkosh, and Timmerman in the past.
 
I've had the weak transmission issue happen before after we both forgot about each other and I ended up looking up an alternate frequency to get back on track.
 
My last trip I got the "Bonanza 85Y, this is Cleveland Center on Guard, if you can hear this call Cleveland Center on 126.5". Glad I didn't turn the Guard radio off during the ELT test period.
 
Grum.Man said:
I got forgotten about almost religiously in the Grumman on VFR FF. Not so much with the Venture.
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This is funny ---- got dropped numerous times in the Grumman on FF and twice on long XC IFR ----- last time from FL to KBTR / very busy airspace. However it has not happened in the Columbia 400 ---- yet.
 
I had a controller forget when I was going in to Paducah, KY once. After I realized I was getting very close to the field and not cleared. I'm barrelling down on the airport and can see other traffic in the pattern when I inquired. This gave me a rapid cleared for the visual, contact tower. I apologized to the tower controller for the late handoff and he said that's OK, that's why they call them "enroute controllers."
 
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