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The United flight from London to Denver was using one of the newer Boeing 777. One of the audio channels was the current air traffic frequency. It was so fun to listen so I spent all second half of the flight (nearly 4 hours) paying attention to the life exchange between traffic control and pilots of the planes who were flying in the same zone.
So this was the first flight which number I'll remember for a long time. "United 939, requesting 380" and such was repeated so many times so I will have this in my ears for a while.
The first thing that practically stunned me is inefficiency of these voice exchanges. Mostly 4 things seemed weird for my unprofessional view. Here are my points sorted by importance:
1. So many times traffic controller had to call some aircraft repeatedly. Fortunately, our captain always replied promptly. But some times it took 3 times and about 2 minutes to make a pilot reply to the tower.
2. Very frequently a long sequence of numbers needs to be transmitted through the air. In a middle of the sequence some noise could appear, making both parties repeat many times. This takes a lot of time, there are also confirmation messages involved. May be these numbers become less relevant as time flows, esp. considering current airplane's speed. Isn't there any way to transfer numbers in some digital form?
3. When flying in the Montreal's air control zone I've noticed some of the flights used French and some English. Aren't they on the same frequency for a reason, so everyone understands what others are doing? I wonder how many pilots understand French?
4. Nearly 50% of exchanges were:
- I am flight XYZ, [what is my] position?
- Flight XYZ, you are [...]
Don't they all have a GPS now?
This time I also took few pics when flying. It all started in LHR. I always wonder what is the purpose of this green plane?
Few pictures up to Denver follow under cut.
( Read more... )
And finally we had reached Denver. Looks like Hurghada airport.
( Read more... )
The flight Denver - Phoenix was also fun. When approaching Phoenix, there was a famous Arizona's thunderstorm close to the airport. It was not the worst approach I've experienced, but a lot of pax's were scared. One Mexican lady was loudly praying in Spanish, an emo looking guy next to me was composing a "last I love you message" to his girlfriend, which he later erased and wrote that "captain has just saved our lives". I was having a lot of fun. I like the feeling and sight from a window when pilot has to do a lot of fast manual maneuvers.
So this was the first flight which number I'll remember for a long time. "United 939, requesting 380" and such was repeated so many times so I will have this in my ears for a while.
The first thing that practically stunned me is inefficiency of these voice exchanges. Mostly 4 things seemed weird for my unprofessional view. Here are my points sorted by importance:
1. So many times traffic controller had to call some aircraft repeatedly. Fortunately, our captain always replied promptly. But some times it took 3 times and about 2 minutes to make a pilot reply to the tower.
2. Very frequently a long sequence of numbers needs to be transmitted through the air. In a middle of the sequence some noise could appear, making both parties repeat many times. This takes a lot of time, there are also confirmation messages involved. May be these numbers become less relevant as time flows, esp. considering current airplane's speed. Isn't there any way to transfer numbers in some digital form?
3. When flying in the Montreal's air control zone I've noticed some of the flights used French and some English. Aren't they on the same frequency for a reason, so everyone understands what others are doing? I wonder how many pilots understand French?
4. Nearly 50% of exchanges were:
- I am flight XYZ, [what is my] position?
- Flight XYZ, you are [...]
Don't they all have a GPS now?
This time I also took few pics when flying. It all started in LHR. I always wonder what is the purpose of this green plane?
Few pictures up to Denver follow under cut.
( Read more... )
And finally we had reached Denver. Looks like Hurghada airport.
( Read more... )
The flight Denver - Phoenix was also fun. When approaching Phoenix, there was a famous Arizona's thunderstorm close to the airport. It was not the worst approach I've experienced, but a lot of pax's were scared. One Mexican lady was loudly praying in Spanish, an emo looking guy next to me was composing a "last I love you message" to his girlfriend, which he later erased and wrote that "captain has just saved our lives". I was having a lot of fun. I like the feeling and sight from a window when pilot has to do a lot of fast manual maneuvers.
