Is announcing our tail number necessary?

I never announce either my make, model, tail #, or color in anything other than a heavy british accent. that way people take me seriously and think I'm a smart pilot.
 
MetalCloud said:
Or some jackhole will say “N4572B departing the active to the west” dude. Just don’t even make a radio call in that case.
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That's probably one example of when the tail number helps.

“N4572B departing the active to the west”

You can ask "N4572B what airport are you departing from"?

Otherwise, if you have to say "White Cessna what airport are you departing from"?, it could get really fun.
 
Skyrys62 said:
That's probably one example of when the tail number helps.

“N4572B departing the active to the west”

You can ask "N4572B what airport are you departing from"?

Otherwise, if you have to say "White Cessna what airport are you departing from"?, it could get really fun.
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Very true.
 
I've posted this before.
I regularly fly into a few non-towered airports where you don't EVER use your tail number.
I will post a cash bond and guarantee that if you do use your tail number, you will get a call from the FAA, sometimes before you get your plane parked.
Around these airports there are rich people, in big houses, who hate airplanes, who have nothing else to do except record your tail number and call the FAA to complain about the noise, crazy flying, dangerous maneuvers, terrorist activities. Seriously.
Guess what? The FAA is staffed with career idiots who haven't got the sense God gave a toadstool, and will never question the veracity of those reports. They have your number. Boy, oh boy, do they have your number.

Personally, I don't have time to deal that that crap. I'm too old and too crotchety, and don't have much patience for petty bureaucrats who feed at the public trough.
I'm "GBR, yellow Cub 111 (last 3 characters if there are more than 1 of us buzzing about), 4 miles out to the south at 2,000 feet inbound, GBR. or whichever of the airports I happen to be focusing my terrorist, noisy, dangerous, crazy activities that day.

If that offends anyone, I'll just turn the handheld off and really screw up your day. Most modern pilots can't cope at all with someone who is NORDO.
 
LoLPilot said:
I get what you're saying. Im along with the guy who said that he forms a mental picture using tail numbers. If I hear different tail numbers making calls I can imagine where they are. If I just hear four different 172's it doesn't help me.
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I get that. I'm the opposite but I get it. I form my mental picture based on type and position. For me the tail numbers, if given, are just extraneous data that I forget immediately. Just how my brain works.

When I'm driving, I get from A to B by visualizing that I go down this particular road to that particular point, then I turn left and go to that particular point, then I turn right and turn into the driveway of the blue building. I don't process or remember street names or house numbers. My wife is the opposite. She gets around by knowing that you take Main St and turn left on Elm and right on Oak and then turn the driveway of 904 But she doesn't really think about or process where those points are in space nor how they relate to one another. Together we make a pretty good team. ;)
 
When there are between 1 and n "Red and White Skywagons" you can believe I'd rather have your tail number. Ok, one called downwind and a bit later one called base, same one, different one, can't tell if it was the same voice or not, could have been pilot and copilot, could be 2 different planes, who the heck knows.

And, of course, using local landmarks like "The Tire Store" was not helping. I gave up and went elsewhere.
 
WannFly said:
are we there yet?
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Godwin.jpg
 
chartbundle said:
No, but the FCC is.
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Oh right right right. You're talking of course of 47 CFR 87.107(a)(1) which says that a holder of a radio operators license must use the aircraft radio station call sign when transmitting from an aircraft that has been granted a radiostation license. Yeah see that's my bad I guess. Because I only read up to 47 CFR 87.89(d)(4). Once I read that one, I didn't pay all that much attention to what followed after as it didn't apply to me.
 
Juliet Hotel said:
I get that. I'm the opposite but I get it. I form my mental picture based on type and position. For me the tail numbers, if given, are just extraneous data that I forget immediately. Just how my brain works.

When I'm driving, I get from A to B by visualizing that I go down this particular road to that particular point, then I turn left and go to that particular point, then I turn right and turn into the driveway of the blue building. I don't process or remember street names or house numbers. My wife is the opposite. She gets around by knowing that you take Main St and turn left on Elm and right on Oak and then turn the driveway of 904 But she doesn't really think about or process where those points are in space nor how they relate to one another. Together we make a pretty good team. ;)
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Yeah I'm more like your wife in that regard. In St. Louis if I'm giving someone directions I'll be like "okay take Lindell down to Vandeventer and then go south on Vandeventer til you hit Chouteau." Drives my friends nuts. But I see maps and and stuff rather than landmarks.
 
LoLPilot said:
Yeah I'm more like your wife in that regard. In St. Louis if I'm giving someone directions I'll be like "okay take Lindell down to Vandeventer and then go south on Vandeventer til you hit Chouteau." Drives my friends nuts. But I see maps and and stuff rather than landmarks.
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Maybe I'm a bit in between. I see the maps in my head, but its more like google maps when its zoomed out a bit so you can see the layout of the streets but they don't have any names showing. I can do just fine is someone writes me turn by turn with street names. But once I've done the route the first time, I don't much remember the street names anymore, I just know to turn when I get to the right road.
 
Shepherd said:
I've posted this before.
I regularly fly into a few non-towered airports where you don't EVER use your tail number.
I will post a cash bond and guarantee that if you do use your tail number, you will get a call from the FAA, sometimes before you get your plane parked.
Around these airports there are rich people, in big houses, who hate airplanes, who have nothing else to do except record your tail number and call the FAA to complain about the noise, crazy flying, dangerous maneuvers, terrorist activities. Seriously.
Guess what? The FAA is staffed with career idiots who haven't got the sense God gave a toadstool, and will never question the veracity of those reports. They have your number. Boy, oh boy, do they have your number.

Personally, I don't have time to deal that that crap. I'm too old and too crotchety, and don't have much patience for petty bureaucrats who feed at the public trough.
I'm "GBR, yellow Cub 111 (last 3 characters if there are more than 1 of us buzzing about), 4 miles out to the south at 2,000 feet inbound, GBR. or whichever of the airports I happen to be focusing my terrorist, noisy, dangerous, crazy activities that day.

If that offends anyone, I'll just turn the handheld off and really screw up your day. Most modern pilots can't cope at all with someone who is NORDO.
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THANK YOU!
 
Ben Diss said:
Do you turn off your cell phone before takeoff?
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The ban on cell phone use during flight originated during the analog phone days. A phone in a plane could lock onto numerous towers and occupy a channel on each one. A bunch of phones in a low altitude airliner could have completely shut down a quadrant of service as it passed overhead. Digital phones solved this problem.

The FCC proposed to change the rule a least once that I know of (2014? Maybe?) because the rule no longer serves a purpose. The public commentary was almost 100% against changing it. Not because of any legitimate safety issue but rather because people didn't want to be trapped in a commercial airliner for an hour listening to grandma talking to her grandkids at a 100dB because she forgot her hearing aids.

Identifying yourself as the radio broadcaster is required by the FCC of almost all people who send a message via radio signal. That regulation serves a purpose. The cellphone one no longer does.

With that said, I typically shut mine off. When I remember to. But I won't "Diss" anyone who doesn't...if you catch my drift. :)
 
JOhnH said:
Taking a que from this thread, when I go to a social event, I might introduce myself as the fat old white guy, instead of John N%&#*
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This almost perfectly helps show why a tail number helps. You walk into a group of pilots and say FOWG is here”. I look over and see 5 FOWG’s. I ask, “FOWG, is that you in the red shirt?”, and all FOWG’s answer at once and I can’t understand a thing any of you are saying.

You walk into a room of pilots and announce “JOhnH is here”. I look over and see 5 guys standing there but don’t know which one said it. So I ask “JOhnH, is that you on the left?” Only you answer me, and say “No, I’m over here”
 
Dave Theisen said:
This almost perfectly helps show why a tail number helps. You walk into a group of pilots and say FOWG is here”. I look over and see 5 FOWG’s. I ask, “FOWG, is that you in the red shirt?”, and all FOWG’s answer at once and I can’t understand a thing any of you are saying.

You walk into a room of pilots and announce “JOhnH is here”. I look over and see 5 guys standing there but don’t know which one said it. So I ask “JOhnH, is that you on the left?” Only you answer me, and say “No, I’m over here”
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Shepherd said:
I've posted this before.
I regularly fly into a few non-towered airports where you don't EVER use your tail number.
I will post a cash bond and guarantee that if you do use your tail number, you will get a call from the FAA, sometimes before you get your plane parked.
Around these airports there are rich people, in big houses, who hate airplanes, who have nothing else to do except record your tail number and call the FAA to complain about the noise, crazy flying, dangerous maneuvers, terrorist activities. Seriously.
Guess what? The FAA is staffed with career idiots who haven't got the sense God gave a toadstool, and will never question the veracity of those reports. They have your number. Boy, oh boy, do they have your number.

Personally, I don't have time to deal that that crap. I'm too old and too crotchety, and don't have much patience for petty bureaucrats who feed at the public trough.
I'm "GBR, yellow Cub 111 (last 3 characters if there are more than 1 of us buzzing about), 4 miles out to the south at 2,000 feet inbound, GBR. or whichever of the airports I happen to be focusing my terrorist, noisy, dangerous, crazy activities that day.

If that offends anyone, I'll just turn the handheld off and really screw up your day. Most modern pilots can't cope at all with someone who is NORDO.
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And how is a unfamiliar transient pilot supposed to know this?
 
eman1200 said:
"white and {I don't know what color that is} stripe cirrus is in the pattern"
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Just as helpful when 5 Cirri with an N number ending in CD arrive at a non-towered airport.
 
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