Airport name on CTAF

[Adam Weiss]

Ever go to an airport you’ve never been to before and announce “XXX traffic”, only to hear other traffic say “YYY”?

Two examples I’ve had:
“Stearman Traffic”....nope “Benton Traffic”
“Branson Traffic”....nope “Point Lookout Traffic”

Sometimes it’s not obvious at all.
How do you figure it out if you’ve never been there?

 

[Timbeck2]

"Port Aransas traffic"

nope

"Rockport traffic"

 

[wilkersk]

say whats printed on the sectional, or chart supplement. The guys with the "local knowledge" will correct you and, thats OK. No acknowledgment is necessary.

*****Edit****

Except for KBVS. Its pronounced "Skad-jit", not "Skag-it" dangit, ....knock that silly stuff off!

Oh, and for the real 'old-timers', its ok to call it "Bayview". We understand.

 

[Adam Weiss]

say whats printed on the sectional, or chart supplement. The guys with the "local knowledge" will correct you and, thats OK. No acknowledgment is necessary.

Agreed. And that’s usually what I do.
It was confusing at Point Lookout because there were a few airports in the area with the same UNICOM, and it took me a while to figure out they weren’t at a different airport.

 

[asicer]

"Any traffic"
(in the area, please...)

 

[Stan Cooper]

KSTS is labeled "Charles M Schulz - Sonoma Co" on the sectional, but on CTAF when the tower is closed it's "Santa Rosa Traffic."

If you want to say "Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Traffic" nobody will correct you.

 

[smv]

Then there is KMOT. "Magic City" when the tower is open. "Minot Area Traffic" when the tower is closed (Do not forget to make mandatory postition reports on CTAF). Never "Minot International", regardless what the sectional says.

 

[Pilawt]

Then there's 1L8, Hurricane Utah. Except it's not 'Hurry-kayne' ... it's 'Herkin'.

 

[woodchucker]

Then there's 1L8, Hurricane Utah. Except it's not 'Hurry-kayne' ... it's 'Herkin'.

Yeah, I’m a transplant here circa 2001. They have all sorts of weird pronunciations. Good luck saying the name of U69.

 

[luvflyin]

Ever go to an airport you’ve never been to before and announce “XXX traffic”, only to hear other traffic say “YYY”?

Two examples I’ve had:
“Stearman Traffic”....nope “Benton Traffic”
“Branson Traffic”....nope “Point Lookout Traffic”

Sometimes it’s not obvious at all.
How do you figure it out if you’ve never been there?

Just like that. Check in, listen, figure out what language the natives are speaking. But yeah, whaddaya check in with the first time. It's on the Charts and in the AF/D.

 

[Salty]

The one that got me was Pahokee / palm beach county (PHK). I tuned in to listen about 20 miles out saw another plane headed for the airport and then heard a couple calls that sounded just about exactly where the other plane was, but from this “Pahokee” place. I keyed the mic and asked if they were the same, and got a yes, mystery solved.

 

[flyingron]

A lot of this is the municipality tinkering with the name. Central New Jersey International Spaceport (or whatever the name is now) will always be Kupper to me.

 

[Cluemeister]

Flew into KPXE, Perry-Houston, south of Atlanta a few years ago. "Perry-Houston traffic, blah blah". A moment later someone responds "It's Perry-Howston". If he was messing with me, I didn't second guess, and said "Howston" the rest of the way in and then out.

 

[saracelica]

My local airport changed from Metcalf to Toledo executive. It's about 50/50 on what you hear. When pilots say Metcalf we understand

 

[timwinters]

Point Lookout and Branson are two different airports. Well, to everyone except two certain SW Airlines pilots, anyway. PLK is titled "Clark Downtown" on the sectional so you might occasionally hear it called that also. IIRC, that's a relatively recent name change that happened when College of the Ozarks sold it to the county. I believe that previously is was officially Point Lookout hence the designator PLK.

Stearman? Can't comment on that one. The only time I was there I called it Stearman...don't recall how others referred to it...it was a busy day though. Met Ted, Laurie, and a few others there for lunch a few years back. Great stop.

Used to hear quite a bit of confusion on the radio between St. Simons Island and Brunswick when I frequented that area. I think that was literally confusion though...idiot pilots not knowing where they were.

Lebanon MO's "official name" is "Floyd W. Jones". No one uses that on CTAF. Everyone simply says Lebanon...anyone from Missouri anyway.

 

[Dana]

A lot of this is the municipality tinkering with the name. Central New Jersey International Spaceport (or whatever the name is now) will always be Kupper to me.

Wow, that's a blast from the past! I bought my first plane, a '41 T-Craft, from a guy at Kupper sometime around 1983 or so.

 

[wrbix]

Cedar Key, aka George T Lewis.........can always tell who’s new to KCDK.

 

[Hang 4]

GA2 - Peach State, Candler Field, Alexander Memorial. The last one is on the AFD.

 

[RyanB]

say whats printed on the sectional, or chart supplement. The guys with the "local knowledge" will correct you and, thats OK. No acknowledgment is necessary.

 

[Shepherd]

Then there is the committee of fools at the FAA who decide to change the name of the airport.
KPOU has been there since the 5th day of creation. It didn't "officially" exist until 1941, when it was conscripted for use during WWII.
It was always know as "Dutchess County Airport". "Dutchess" for short.
Then someone decided to change the name to "Hudson Valley Regional Airport". Try getting all of that out without getting stepped on, or stepping on someone else.
I still say "Dutchess". Usually no one says anything, but there is one guy in the tower.....
He really needs to meditate or something, learn to chill out.

 

[flyingron]

Then there is the committee of fools at the FAA who decide to change the name of the airport.

It's rarely the FAA, but rather the local governmental bodies that tinker with the names. Of course, we got the unfunded mandate when congress decided to rename National when the feds didn't own it anymore (it had been handed over to a regional authority a decade earlier).

 

[Kenny Phillips]

KHAO = "Hamilton" for oldsters, "Butler County" for newbies, and "Hogan" for nobody.

 

[Dana]

Then there is the committee of fools at the FAA who decide to change the name of the airport.
KPOU has been there since the 5th day of creation. It didn't "officially" exist until 1941, when it was conscripted for use during WWII.
It was always know as "Dutchess County Airport". "Dutchess" for short.
Then someone decided to change the name to "Hudson Valley Regional Airport". Try getting all of that out without getting stepped on, or stepping on someone else.
I still say "Dutchess". Usually no one says anything, but there is one guy in the tower.....
He really needs to meditate or something, learn to chill out.

Count your blessings, you could be dealing with out of towners trying to pronounce "Poughkeepsie"...

I used to fly out of CPS... back then it was "Bi-State Parks" and you called, "Bi-State tower", but nowadays do you call it "St Louis" (it's not in St. Louis) or "Downtown"? "St Louis Downtown tower" sounds like a lot to say.

 

[Groundpounder]

KEEN is located in Keene, NH. Technically its Dillant-Hopkins. "Keene traffic" is way easier to say than "Dillant-Hopkins traffic".

 

[Salty]

Heck, I live on an airpark called "Pilot Country". I often hear simply, "****ry traffic" and less common, but fairly frequently, "county traffic"

 

[Salty]

Heck, I live on an airpark called "Pilot Country". I often hear simply, "****ry traffic" and less common, but fairly frequently, "county traffic"

The censor didn't like my spelling of country with no 'o'. But that's how it's pronounced by some of the hillbillies around here.

 

[iamtheari]

Then there is KMOT. "Magic City" when the tower is open. "Minot Area Traffic" when the tower is closed (Do not forget to make mandatory postition reports on CTAF). Never "Minot International", regardless what the sectional says.

For those not from the area, KMOT's tower is called MAGIC CITY TOWER because MINOT TOWER is located at the nearby KMIB Minot Air Force Base. And the Chart Supplement provides that name. It pays to actually read the Chart Supplement before you fly to any airport for the first time.

Is there an actual regulation that makes CTAF calls mandatory in Class D-reverted-to-E airspace when the tower is closed? I have always made them and I know that a lot of people are passionate about their importance in the world, but are they actually mandatory, in a legally enforceable sense?

For choosing a name to call a place on CTAF, I usually look at the Chart Supplement, which sometimes gives a different name than the sectional. And I usually just default to the name of the town unless it's ambiguous. If anyone corrects me, I'll just change to "NORDO traffic, I'm coming in hot."

I never say "area" because I don't think it adds useful information for anyone. I have never heard "Podunk Traffic" and thought "well, I'm not actually inside the fence at Podunk Municipal, I'm just in the area, so I can disregard that one." I suspect nobody else has done that, either.

Similarly, there's rarely a need to say International, Municipal, or the like. At KGGW Glasgow International, you can say "Glasgow Traffic" and nobody think will think you're talking about the private Glasgow Industrial airport north of town (former Air Force Base).

That said, I give props (get it?) to the Cape Air guys who sometimes compete for the silliest name for KGDV Dawson Community on CTAF. It's like the Aristocrats joke, trying to say as many different things without repeating one. I think one of them called it "Glendive Dawson County Community Intercontinental Municipal International Field Airport Traffic" before he had to unkey the mic to laugh. And he didn't even say "any traffic in the area please advise" afterward. A true professional.

 

[Domenick]

...
Except for KBVS. Its pronounced "Skad-jit", not "Skag-it" dangit, ....knock that silly stuff off!
Oh, and for the real 'old-timers', its ok to call it "Bayview". We understand.

How about Sekiu (11S)?
Sequim (W28)?
Or one of my personal favorites, Quillayute (UIL). Always reminds me of Stephen King's "Langoliers."

 

[Will Kumley]

say whats printed on the sectional, or chart supplement. The guys with the "local knowledge" will correct you and, thats OK. No acknowledgment is necessary.

*****Edit****

Except for KBVS. Its pronounced "Skad-jit", not "Skag-it" dangit, ....knock that silly stuff off!

Oh, and for the real 'old-timers', its ok to call it "Bayview". We understand.

And half the pilots that land at Jefferson County up in Port Townsend call it Jeffco on the radio. Turns out, its a pet peeve of my DPE, thankfully my instructor told me after we flew there and he kept calling it Jeffco.

 

[Will Kumley]

How about Sekiu (11S)?
Sequim (W28)?
Or one of my personal favorites, Quillayute (UIL). Always reminds me of Stephen King's "Langoliers."

I actually want to fly to Walla Walla (ALW) one day just o I can say Walla Walla on the radio. I've only been in Washington a year and a half and some of these names are quite entertaining to me. Others are downright confusing. Quillayute is one I'd have to look up the pronunciation before I planned to fly there for sure. Of course, I flew to Hoqium and called it Hoqium on the radio instead of Bowerman, oops.

 

[wilkersk]

How about Sekiu (11S)?
Sequim (W28)?
Or one of my personal favorites, Quillayute (UIL). Always reminds me of Stephen King's "Langoliers."

OK, we need to have a PNW language primer. Sekiu is "CQ", Sequim is "Squim" (like Squid, but with an M). And Quillayute (kwi-lee-yute), ...I believe that's a word that crazy French-Canadian-Norwegian-Russian settlers kinda-sorta interpreted from it's indian name for the tribe of Chimacuan indians that were invaded and basically assimilated by the Makah indians under Chief Seattle.

 

[luvflyin]

When Thermal, KTRM, got named after Jacqueline Cochran, calling Johhnie Cochran(of 'if don't fit, you must acquit' fame) Traffic was fun for awhile.

 

[Deelee]

At least folks at these airports are announcing on CTAF instead of barreling in on a straight-in final in an aircraft that I know has two working radios that probably cost more than my car.

 

[sarangan]

Ever go to an airport you’ve never been to before and announce “XXX traffic”, only to hear other traffic say “YYY”?

Two examples I’ve had:
“Stearman Traffic”....nope “Benton Traffic”
“Branson Traffic”....nope “Point Lookout Traffic”

Sometimes it’s not obvious at all.
How do you figure it out if you’ve never been there?

A bigger issue I see is that pilots start talking before the PTT really engages, and the airport name becomes garbled or chopped off entirely, leading to a transmission such as "traffic, Cessna 123 turning left downwind blah blah..."

 

[wanttaja]

Count your blessings, you could be dealing with out of towners trying to pronounce "Poughkeepsie"....

Or "Puyallup", AKA Thun Field, AKA Pierce County. Others have commented on the joys involved in pronouncing the names of other Pacific Northwest airports.

One local airpark recently renamed itself... so you'll hear a mixture of "Crest Traffic" and "Grier Traffic" and "Norm Grier Traffic."

Ron Wanttaja

 

[Doug Reid]

Carthage traffic...Gilliam McConnell traffic...BQ1 traffic..... Barbecue One traffic...all the same airport...airport is BQ1 on the chart.

For 50 years we flew into Rowan County Airport...now Mid-Carolina regional.

 

[Zeldman]

A bigger issue I see is that pilots start talking before the PTT really engages,

That is the one thing that really grinds my gears..

 

[flyingron]

That is the one thing that really grinds my gears..

What grinds my gears is pilots that push the PTT before their brain engages.

 

[jbDC9]

A bigger issue I see is that pilots start talking before the PTT really engages, and the airport name becomes garbled or chopped off entirely, leading to a transmission such as "traffic, Cessna 123 turning left downwind blah blah..."

THIS!!!

Another thing that bugs the cr@p out of me are the people on the radio that talk too fast or talk with a mushmouth; more often than not they do both at the same time to become a fast talking mushmouth. Couple this with the above PTT "technique" and you have no idea what they're saying, it's just wasted radio airtime, so then I have to ask "what airport did you say?" which further clogs up the airwaves because these clowns can't speak proper or understandable English. Sorry for the rant, but that stuff just drives me nuts...

 

[danhagan]

Please use what's on the sectional. When I was bringing the RV7 home, a Cessna 210 called out a different airport name then on the sectional and transmitted "descending into the pattern" ... he indeed was and was at high speed ... luckily I have a glass canopy ... not a close call as I saw him, but he was directly over me about 100 feet higher. He indicated that he used the "local" airport identifier ... I told him I was on long cross country and there was no way for me to know the name he called out (FBO uses that name, but nothing else).