Class D / Tower / ASOS only - Initial Call?

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Mr.T

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Silly question I'm sure, but my old brain can't come up with the answer...

Flying into a Class D airport with an operating control tower. ASOS is the only weather available. What do I say on the initial call?

"Podunk Tower, N12345 is 10 miles east, landing, with the weather" ?
"with ASOS" ?
nothing at all?
 
I usually say "Podunk Tower, N12345 is 10 miles east, full stop, with the numbers"
 
Mr.T said:
Silly question I'm sure, but my old brain can't come up with the answer...

Flying into a Class D airport with an operating control tower. ASOS is the only weather available. What do I say on the initial call?

"Podunk Tower, N12345 is 10 miles east, landing, with the weather" ?
"with ASOS" ?
nothing at all?
Click to expand...

I would modify MacFlier's recommendation to include the phonetic identifier of the ATIS you have received: "...with Information Echo." That assures the tower controller that "the numbers" that you have are the current ones.

Bob
 
bobmrg said:
I would modify MacFlier's recommendation to include the phonetic identifier of the ATIS you have received: "...with Information Echo." That assures the tower controller that "the numbers" that you have are the current ones.
Click to expand...

Except that, per my original post, there is no ATIS at this airport. Only ASOS.
 
Simply tell them you have the weather.
 
My class D is the same way (and it's probably the same one you are asking about) - no ATIS, just ASOS. It's always "...with the numbers" or "...with the weather".

Not a big deal, if you leave that out, tower will read them off to you.
 
Mr.T said:
Except that, per my original post, there is no ATIS at this airport. Only ASOS.
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So the tower is open but they are not cutting a new ATIS? Wonder what’s up with that.

I’d call up and say you have the “one minute weather” or you have the ASOS.

If there is a ATIS tell them you have information Bravo or whatever, the with the numbers thing kinda defeats the point of designation
 
Mr.T said:
Silly question I'm sure, but my old brain can't come up with the answer...

Flying into a Class D airport with an operating control tower. ASOS is the only weather available. What do I say on the initial call?

"Podunk Tower, N12345 is 10 miles east, landing, with the weather" ?
"with ASOS" ?
nothing at all?
Click to expand...

except you don't have "the numbers" ASOS doesn't include active runway etc...
 
@Mr.T

Apparently there are people here that can't understand your plain English explanations!

I used to be based at Cape Girardeau (KCGI) and it has no ATIS either...just ASOS. I'd typically say "with weather" and they got the meaning. I occasionally would use "with numbers" but is the same amount of syllables so it doesn't provide brevity.

At Cape, even if you told them you had the weather, they'd read it to you anyway...always. I assumed it was a requirement since they didn't have ATIS but don't think I ever asked. If I did, I don't recall their answer.
 
Mr.T said:
Nope, there's no ATIS on the field. I have no idea why.
View attachment 68858
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Ahh, NOT the airport I was thinking of, but yeah, that's another one. The folks in the tower at TOP are about the nicest, most helpful bunch I've ever run across.

IXD doesn't have ATIS either, just ASOS.

Heading out to TOP for breakfast some day?
 
Man I just learned something. I have only been to 9 Deltas and all have ATIS. I figured all Deltas have ATIS. One less surprise later on!
 
Sinistar said:
I could see this working. Maybe all the controllers will live next to all the drone pilots out in the desert somewhere.

BTW - Wow does that webpage suck, adds everywhere overlapping the story, etc.
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I hope it helps. They aren't doing the crosswind 6/24 yet and it won't be mandatory for at least a year.

It's from a local newspaper and I'm not a subscriber. Agree very bad page. It was a better update than the official page.
 
I so want to ask a light gun question :)
 
Heck, I would rather have the AWOS one minute weather and know what is happening real time over an ATIS that could be an hour old any day!
 
I was based at a Class D (KLAW) without ATIS 20+ years ago. When they finally got it, I had to get in the habit of remembering to use it. :D
 
The only time anybody has ever asked or cared is when coming in IFR. The last radar controller asks if I have the weather and notams at the destination.
 
The "normal" ATIS machine at KBED was out of service Saturday, they were playing the automated weather instead. When I checked in with Boston approach, I said I had the automated weather, and he said expect the visual runway XX
 
Wow, Austin Exec (KEDC) has an ATIS, a tower and no controlled airspace:eek::confused:
 
danhagan said:
Wow, Austin Exec (KEDC) has an ATIS, a tower and no controlled airspace:eek::confused:
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Until a couple of years ago, Pearson Field in Vancouver WA (VUO) had its own Class D area and an ASOS ... but no tower. VUO arrivals and departures were required to contact ATC ("Pearson Advisory" on the VUO CTAF), a dedicated position in the PDX tower three miles away, to get wake turbulence advisories. After that initial contact it's just self-reporting on CTAF like any other uncontrolled field.

It's been changed on paper to a Class E with a Part 93 SFRA, but the procedure is still the same.
 
I've been to a couple of class D airports without ATIS. They were both next to class D airports that were air force bases and had ATIS. I don't know if that's a common pattern or not. The third airport I've flown to that's next to an air force base has its own ATIS, but that's Grand Forks where they need an ATIS so the students learn how to get the ATIS.

I generally say "with the weather" when talking to ATC about an airport with ASOS or AWOS but no ATIS, whether or not there is a tower. Some people say "with the one-minute weather," but I don't know what that could possibly add to the discussion.
 
flyingron said:
The only time anybody has ever asked or cared is when coming in IFR. The last radar controller asks if I have the weather and notams at the destination.
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I have had that phrasing happening more frequently around DFW more frequently during VMC. :dunno:

So I've just gotten used to adding, "I have the weather at [airport name]" when I check on with the final approach controller, no matter if it's VMC or IMC.
 
bradg33 said:
Honestly, if there's no ATIS I just omit that portion of my call entirely. "Tower, N12345, 10miles east, inbound."
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This. They’ll give you the active runway and tell you where to enter the pattern and more than likely tell you to call again at 3 miles and they’ll give you current weather
 
iamtheari said:
Some people say "with the one-minute weather," but I don't know what that could possibly add to the discussion.
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"With the weather" or " with the numbers" does not confirm that you dialed up ASOS/AWOS/ATIS and actually listened. You could get that info from ADS-B...and miss other critical information.

While many would understand the intent, "with information XXX" or "with one minute weather" is the relevant information from a very specific source.

"one minute weather" is the lingo out in my parts
 
Shawn said:
"With the weather" or " with the numbers" does not confirm that you dialed up ASOS/AWOS/ATIS and actually listened. You could get that info from ADS-B...and miss other critical information.

While many would understand the intent, "with information XXX" or "with one minute weather" is the relevant information from a very specific source.

"one minute weather" is the lingo out in my parts
Click to expand...
We don’t even say anything weather related here. I’m based at a Class D with ASOS
 
Shawn said:
Heck, I would rather have the AWOS one minute weather and know what is happening real time over an ATIS that could be an hour old any day!
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If it's different enough to be significant they're supposed to update the ATIS earlier than an hour. Granted, you are at the mercy of someone else's judgement of "significant" but frankly it doesn't bother me much if the ATIS is an hour old.
 
James331 said:
So the tower is open but they are not cutting a new ATIS? Wonder what’s up with that.

I’d call up and say you have the “one minute weather” or you have the ASOS.

If there is a ATIS tell them you have information Bravo or whatever, the with the numbers thing kinda defeats the point of designation
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Not every towered airport has ATIS. Just like not every towered airport has a Clearance Delivery number. Those are just division of tower duties. It tend to be less busy airports which don't have them.
 
ktup-flyer said:
We don’t even say anything weather related here. I’m based at a Class D with ASOS
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If you are flying an instrument approach, the approach controller is supposed to verify you have the weather.
 
FlySince9 said:
except you don't have "the numbers" ASOS doesn't include active runway etc...
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Yep. From the AIM (4-1-13):
While it is a good operating practice for pilots to make use of the ATIS broadcast where it is available, some pilots use the phrase “have numbers” in communications with the control tower. Use of this phrase means that the pilot has received wind, runway, and altimeter information ONLY and the tower does not have to repeat this information. It does not indicate receipt of the ATIS broadcast and should never be used for this purpose.

I'd just say I "have ASOS" or omit any reference completely. The AIM doesn't address informing the controller of having ASOS information, just ATIS.
 
midlifeflyer said:
Not every towered airport has ATIS. Just like not every towered airport has a Clearance Delivery number. Those are just division of tower duties. It tend to be less busy airports which don't have them.
Click to expand...

Makes sense, just trying to recall a towered field that I’ve been to that didn’t have a ATIS
 
Mr.T said:
Last Saturday, pretty good food. I muddled through the radio work and nobody seemed to complain, but I figured the BrainTrust here would know for sure... ;-)
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Not too many years ago that airport had 3 rwys (OK, technically 6). One of the first times I landed there I ended up on a rwy other than the one I'd used the previous couple of times. They all sort of intersected in the middle and taxi instructions could be pretty tricky because there wasn't a single intersection so you have to move from rwy to rwy until you can get to the taxiway to the terminal. I had my airport diagram in my lap but it fell to the floor just before I landed and I couldn't reach it before I got to the first intersection. That might have been the first time I asked for progressive taxi instructions. Since then, I'm more familiar with the layout and it's simplified a lot because that third rwy is now closed.

It's a nice breakfast stop. For lunch, it can be a long wait because they are just...slow. There's a pretty good burger place a couple miles south, so you might be able to borrow a car or some other transportation for that. My brother used to live really close to FOE, but he'd pop up to TOP to meet me for lunch once in a while.

That odd shaped building next to the terminal is where the NWS releases sounding balloons.
 
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