t0r0nad0
Pattern Altitude
Hey All,
Well, today I went and got checked out in a 172N here in the Pittsburgh area, where I am this week to visit my family. Afterwards, I took my brother and his girlfriend, both of whom are visiting from Phoenix, and my father for sight-seeing rides around Pittsburgh, on separate flights, of course. I was flying out of Allegheny Valley Airport - KAGC, which is just south of downtown Pittsburgh. Weather was CAVU, with some gusting winds that made the ride a bit bumpy at times. Pittsburgh is a beautiful city with an amazing skyline, pictures of which I'll post tomorrow when I go through them and make some corrections.
However, I would like to share with everyone an interchange between the tower and I on my 2nd flight. This is to illustrate that if you're not sure about an instruction from ATC, or if something doesn't make sense to you, always ASK before you blindly follow. Here is the conversation as I remember it. The airport was actually operating on runway 28.
Me: "Allegheny Tower, Skyhawk four-seven-tree-niner-juliett is over Oakland [interjection: about 8 nm north of the airport] and would like to return to land."
ATC: "Cessna tree-niner-juliett, Allegheny Tower, make right traffic for runway one-zero."
Me: "Um, tower, confirm that was right traffic for runway one-zero?" (I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt that they were switching from 28 to 10 and that he just got right and left traffic mixed up.)
ATC: "Affirmative, right traffic for runway one-zero."
Me: "Roger, right traffic for runway one-zero, Skyhawk tree-niner-juliett." (So now I'm directly north of the airport, trying to figure out the best way to get to the south side to make right traffic for runway 10. Meanwhile, another plane is on final for 28 and has been cleared to land.)
Me: "Tower, tree-niner-juliett, I just want to confirm again, you want me to cross over midfield and join the right downwind for runway one-zero?"
ATC: "Tree-niner-juliett, you can just make a right base from your current position."
Me: "Sir, I'm north of the field, I can make a left base to one-zero if you'd like me to do that."
ATC: "Well, we're landing on the two-eights, if I said one-zero, that was my bad. Make a right base for runway two-eight."
Me: "That's why I double-checked... right base for runway two-eight, tree-niner-juliett."
So, ATC does make mistakes too. Just be professional and ask for clarification if something doesn't seem right to you.
The good news is that meanwhile, my old man was in the right seat, just enjoying the scenery while listening to this whole exchange in his headset
.
Well, today I went and got checked out in a 172N here in the Pittsburgh area, where I am this week to visit my family. Afterwards, I took my brother and his girlfriend, both of whom are visiting from Phoenix, and my father for sight-seeing rides around Pittsburgh, on separate flights, of course. I was flying out of Allegheny Valley Airport - KAGC, which is just south of downtown Pittsburgh. Weather was CAVU, with some gusting winds that made the ride a bit bumpy at times. Pittsburgh is a beautiful city with an amazing skyline, pictures of which I'll post tomorrow when I go through them and make some corrections.
However, I would like to share with everyone an interchange between the tower and I on my 2nd flight. This is to illustrate that if you're not sure about an instruction from ATC, or if something doesn't make sense to you, always ASK before you blindly follow. Here is the conversation as I remember it. The airport was actually operating on runway 28.
Me: "Allegheny Tower, Skyhawk four-seven-tree-niner-juliett is over Oakland [interjection: about 8 nm north of the airport] and would like to return to land."
ATC: "Cessna tree-niner-juliett, Allegheny Tower, make right traffic for runway one-zero."
Me: "Um, tower, confirm that was right traffic for runway one-zero?" (I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt that they were switching from 28 to 10 and that he just got right and left traffic mixed up.)
ATC: "Affirmative, right traffic for runway one-zero."
Me: "Roger, right traffic for runway one-zero, Skyhawk tree-niner-juliett." (So now I'm directly north of the airport, trying to figure out the best way to get to the south side to make right traffic for runway 10. Meanwhile, another plane is on final for 28 and has been cleared to land.)
Me: "Tower, tree-niner-juliett, I just want to confirm again, you want me to cross over midfield and join the right downwind for runway one-zero?"
ATC: "Tree-niner-juliett, you can just make a right base from your current position."
Me: "Sir, I'm north of the field, I can make a left base to one-zero if you'd like me to do that."
ATC: "Well, we're landing on the two-eights, if I said one-zero, that was my bad. Make a right base for runway two-eight."
Me: "That's why I double-checked... right base for runway two-eight, tree-niner-juliett."
So, ATC does make mistakes too. Just be professional and ask for clarification if something doesn't seem right to you.
The good news is that meanwhile, my old man was in the right seat, just enjoying the scenery while listening to this whole exchange in his headset
.
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