Air traffic control vs pilots.
For 89H was that airliner meant to be underneath
me, holding short or just on short final?
N9HU negative. He's holding short of runway 20L. You landed on Charlie.
Coming up!
Hey, 74 crew! Welcome back!
If you don't know me, my name's Kelsey.
I'm a 747 pilot.
My channel 74 gear is all about aviation.
First, I want to thank all of you in the 74 crew who have been sending me videos.
I appreciate all of you.
If you have a video of Air traffic control
or any other video that you want to see in one of these videos,
the easiest place to send it to me is on my Instagram
or send it to the free forum 74gear.com
Before we get in this first video, it's important to
understand something about the airport in this first video.
Typically, when pilots are taxing around,
each taxiway that we use has a letter to it.
A, B, C and so on.
Well, normally D is Delta except in Atlanta.
Because Delta's home base is Atlanta, taxiway D is referred to as Dixie.
Now that you understand that, let's get into this video.
Delta 2422 behind the MD88 from your right,
runway 27R taxi via M and hold short of Dixie.
Okay behind the 88 from the right 27R, Mike short of Dixie Delta 2422.
Delta 2422, they won't let you go to Charlie until 57 minutes after the hour.
Okay, copy 57 Delta2422.
Delta 2422, you're supposed to be on Mike.
Yes, sir. We're going out there right now.
Looks like you joined Lima.
Hey you know what? We'll tax you out there anyway. We want when you tell us to.
I don't like your attitude.
I don't have an attitude, sir. I'm just saying
looks like you joined Lima instead of Mike
I'm just trying to correct you before you stay on Lima.
Okay, because my god, there's another plane out there like six miles away.
Your attitude is really something, sir.
We're out here on Mike. Good morning.
Good morning. There was no attitude. I was just trying to correct you.
That's my job correct you if you mess up. I'm trying to make sure everybody is doing
what I asked him to do for certain reasons.
I make a mistake every 2 to 3 minutes but my attitude is not like yours.
We're out on Mike and you didn't tell us how to
get there so next time you can try doing that.
Settle down, Captain happy.
I would love to spend four days with that captain.
He seems like such a great and pleasant person to be around.
First, I'm going to make an assumption here
and that this person that's talking on the radio
to Air traffic control is the captain.
And the reason that I say that is because
typically in this scenario, if you had a first officer
that was talking on the radio like this guy is here,
the captain would interrupt him and stop them
from communicating in such a rude and forceful way.
But as a first officer, if you're in a plane and a guy is acting like this
it's easier just to let him hang himself out there.
You're not going to be in trouble for letting the captain talk on the radio
and sound like a total
****
And besides, a pilot that's talking like this with Air traffic control is
probably not going to take any feedback or opinions
of the way he could do it better, very well.
I mentioned before that taxing is honestly
one of the more stressful times for pilots.
There's a lot going on, they're talking to a lot of different people
and not every taxiway is very clearly marked or very easy to see.
If you're at your home base, sometimes you can get very comfortable
and you don't always listen to what Air traffic control says.
Clearly, this pilot made the decision that he was going to go left early
and went on the wrong taxiway.
The plane is right here at Three South.
The controller wants him to go left on this second taxiway, Mike.
But the pilot got confused and makes the first left-hand turn here on Lima.
And that is where the controller corrected him.
And I think the pilots probably realized at
the same time or very similar to the same time
that they were on the wrong taxiway.
Because then, they said they were moving over to Mike.
Yes, sir. We're going out there right now.
So, they probably took one of these little side taxiways here to slide over.
Have I made the mistake of taxing on the wrong taxiway before? Absolutely.
I think every pilot makes mistakes. We're human at the end of the day.
What I do now though,
I write shorthand all the different taxiways that we're given.
Especially in really difficult big or complex airports
where they're going to give you three or four different taxiways.
And a hold short for example.
I'll write that down and shorthand.
I have a little shorthand that I'll write it down in.
And then, I'll use that as we're moving so that way I can say:
"Okay, left here, right here"
Obviously, when I'm the pilot taxing the aircraft,
I don't write it down because I'm busy taxing.
But I'll use them.
"Hey, is it this right here or where is this taxiway?"
I asked those things to make sure and then I confirm:
"Hey, we're clear on the right and we're turning to the left right here".
I say that as I'm doing it for two reasons.
One, if that's not the right way to turn, I want them to tell me before we turn on
so we don't have this particular situation where we're on the taxiway.
And two, I want the other pilot to know what I'm doing.
And so he's not or she's not confused of when I'm making a turn or what I'm doing.
So that's the reason why I talk out loud while I'm taxing.
Once the pilot got corrected, instead of saying:
"I apologize, sir. I'll slide right over".
He goes into Pilot toddler temper tantrum syndrome.
Try to say that three times fast.
The other thing that I wanted to mention here
he said: "You didn't tell us how to get out here"
We're out on Mike and you didn't tell us how to
get there so next time you can try doing that.
Well, if they didn't tell you how to get out there,
how did you know you needed to be on Mike?
There's basically nothing that this pilot said that I agreed with, except one part:
My attitude is not like yours.
Obviously, your two attitudes are not the same.
As a pilot, it's very important that you rely on your crew.
You always have at least another pilot up there
unless you're flying a general aircraft.
You always have another pilot that's there to help you out.
Now, in this particular scenario,
I don't know how this captain was interacting with the first officer
at the beginning of the flight.
It's possible that he was just very rude
and any input that the first officer wanted to say to him
got cut off with a "Yeah, I know".
It's one of the worst things that you can say to your crew.
I just recently was coming in and we were landing at about 175 knots.
We were dodging thunderstorms and we had a lot that was going on.
We had a second first officer that was sitting behind me,
I was the one that was flying.
We had forgotten to complete a checklist as we were getting ready to land.
This guy that was sitting behind us said:
"You guys didn't complete this checklist".
I said: "Oh man, thanks"
We completed the checklist, we landed, we got off the plane and
when we got in the van I said:
"Hey man, I really appreciate your help"
Now here's why that's important
If I had just said: "Yeah, I know"
that cuts him out.
Now, they don't want to speak up.
So you want to always make sure that everybody on the flight deck
feels comfortable to say if they see something that isn't right
or that's out of place.
Now, had we failed to complete that checklist would have been a major problem?
No, not really.
It's not like we didn't have landing gear down or something like that
but it's important that they feel comfortable to speak up and say something.
Because in this scenario, if this captain,
hypothetically, was like that with the first officer
and he turned on the wrong taxiway
that first officer may be like trying to verify
that they're on the right taxiway or wrong taxiway
before they say something because they don't feel comfortable to speak up.
This was a minor mistake that the pilot lashed out with ATC on.
This next one by Harrison Ford is a major mistake.
1300 over the tower, left traffic 20L for 89HU
Wind check please for 89HU
Wind 220 at 18 Husky 9HU contact tower 119.9
19-9 HU
And John Wayne tower husky 89H crossing over at 1300 for the left
Husky 89HU John Wayne Tower make left traffic runway 20 left
Traffic on a 2 mile final for 20R is an Airbus report in sight.
Got the Airbus in sight 89HU
Husky 9HU, maintain visual separation caution
wake turbulence, runway 20L cleared to land
Cleared to land 20L 89HU
I want to pause this real quick because this wind check thing
that Harrison Ford is doing
I want to mention this to all of you up and coming airline pilots.
Wind check please for 89HU
Asking for a wind check is really only relevant
if you think you're exceeding a limitation of the aircraft
or there's some type a gusty winds that's going to cause you to change
some of the settings or speeds or things like that.
That's really the only time that it's relevant to ask for a wind check.
Yet, I see a lot of student pilots doing it and some airline pilots doing it
and it's totally not necessary to jam up the airways with that question.
Here's why.
I was a new pilot flying corporate and we were coming into, I think, Pittsburgh.
We were coming in to land and I said: "Hey, let's get a wind check".
And he looks over me and he says:
"Okay, I can do that but I have a quick question,
If it's windy, are we not going to land?"
I said: "No, we're going to land".
He said: "So, then just keep the plane going down the middle
of the runway and don't worry about what the wind is".
Just go land the plane.
That was the last time I ever asked for a wind check.
So unless you think that you're gonna have a limitation where it's a tailwind
or you need to add some extra speed on your landing because it's gusty
those are really the only two scenarios that you need to wind check.
Otherwise, you're just jamming up the radio.
It doesn't matter what the wind is 10 seconds before you land
because it might be different once you land.
Now, that is obviously just my opinion.
If you feel that you're safer by getting a wind check, do it.
But it's really not necessary.
Harrison has to land on the left side which is this one right here.
And he has an airliner landing on the bigger
runway on the right side, this one right here.
Overall, he sounds pretty confident and aware of his situation
and everything that's going around him.
So that's good.
But listen to what happens next.
For 89HU was that airliner meant to be underneath
me, holding short or just on short final?
N9HU negative. He's holding short of runway 20L. You landed on Charlie.
I landed on Charlie?
Affirmative, sir. And say parking.
I'm going to signature east.
And Husky 9HU possible pilot deviation and I need you to call the tower.
Advise when you have a pen ready to copy a number.
I'm ready to copy, sir.
You never want to have Air traffic control tell you that you have a number to copy.
I've had it happen once in my career
and my stomach dropped and I knew exactly what had happened.
It is extremely rare for a plane to ever land on a taxiway.
But just recently, an airliner, an Air Canada plane
they almost landed on a taxiway.
Now, for those of you who are scared about flying,
in the daytime, the runway markings on a runway
and on a taxiway are totally different.
At night, there's different lights and all kinds of different things
to prevent you from landing on a taxiway.
It has happened but it's just not very common
and you have to have a bunch of people not paying attention.
I'm not sure what Harrison was doing over here landing on a taxiway
but it is a mistake and it happens.
Something that is very important that I want you to listen to
because everybody makes mistakes,
I want you to listen to how the communication goes
when he calls into Air traffic control on a regular land line to talk to him.
Listen to this.
John Wayne tower James.
Yeah, hi. It's Husky 89HU. I'm the schmuck that landed on the taxiway earlier.
Hi yeah, James. Just a couple quick things, one I'm going
I was distracted by the... I'm sorry, distracted
by the airliner. It wasn't when I turned to the...
to the runway and also the wake turbulence from the landing Airbus on the parallel.
Ok, all right. So just a couple of things. Possible
pilot deviation because you were cleared to land left and
I understand. Totally understand.
Right, so I just need to get some stuff. I got to
fill out some paperwork and it will go to FSDO.
So can I just get your name and your pilot license?
The name is Harrison Ford and my pilot's license, it's in my backpack.
Take your time, no big deal.
It's a big deal for me. Hold on, Ok my certificate number is...
Sir, I will pass that information on to them and
somebody from their office will get in contact with you, ok?
Ok, no doubt. Thank you very much. Sorry about that.
Have a great day, no worries. Bye.
I wanted to show you that because sometimes
you just have to take it on the chin.
Instead of Harrison making excuses,
even though he was talking about, he was a little confused what's going on,
he wasn't trying to blame anybody else or put the responsibility on anyone else.
Obviously, if you land on Charlie, there's really
no one you could blame that on, except yourself.
But he took it like a man.
Sometimes, you just gotta take responsibility for your actions.
And that's a great thing to learn the way he talked with Air traffic control here.
He said: "Hey, I messed up"
Now obviously in this particular scenario, it's a little hard to blame anybody else.
You got cleared to land on the left side and you landed on taxiway Charlie.
It's a mistake, people make mistakes
but he took it like a man.
Now, you heard me talk about the time that I got told to call Air traffic control.
Here's what happened.
I was flying with a guy named PJ.
PJ and I are still friends of this day.
He's a older guy, he was in his late 60s, I think, when we were flying.
He had flown all kinds of cool planes
from B-52s, military fighters, all kinds of trainers and things like that.
A really great guy to fly with.
He taught me a lot of stuff that you can read about in textbooks
but you just have to see in real life.
If you watch the radio interview that I did about a year ago down in San Diego,
I talked about it briefly.
Well, here's what happened in this scenario.
We got told to report a five mile final
because these military fighters were doing these training exercises
at the airport we were going to land at.
Well, as we got brought in, we got fast and
high and we were kind of diving to get in
and we forgot to report that five mile final
which is what they were needed from us to get cleared to land.
So, we didn't get cleared to land.
We came in and there was no other traffic.
We were busy getting configured or something like that
I don't remember exactly what is happening.
But I was the one that was flying and he was working the radios.
What happened is we didn't get cleared to land and we landed.
As soon as we touched down, we were on the roll out, tower says:
"Hey guys, I'm going to need you to call the tower as soon as you land".
As soon as he said that, I looked over to Pj and I said:
"PJ, did you call the three mile or five mile final?"
He goes: "No, I don't think I did".
And my stomach dropped, I couldn't believe it.
Here I was kind of a new pilot at this corporate airline and I thought:
"This is it. I'm gonna get fired. This is how it all ends for me".
So I got the passengers into the terminal,
came back and I was walking up to the plane and he was inside the plane still.
And I don't know if he knew I was coming up or not
but I don't think he knew.
As I came on board, I could hear him saying: "Listen,
100%, I was the one that was working the radios.
I'm the captain, this was 100% my fault".
"My co-pilot was the one flying. He had told me to call.
"I forgot to call, I messed up, this is 100% on me"
Blah, blah, blah.
And he just had this long explanation
but as a commander, as a previous military commander
his responsibility and the way he sees thing is
he's not going to blame the people below him.
And I thought, as I was walking up: "Man, that's really cool".
Because I've seen in other scenarios that people
always want to blame the people below them.
And he wasn't going to let that happen.
And my respect for him went up a thousand percent right there.
Because like most people, they want to shift the blame onto somebody else
and he wasn't going to let anybody shift the blame onto me.
Now, it ended up not being a massive problem
but we just ended up talking with them,
we filed a report.
There was never any problem about it.
But it was two things that were really important for me to learn.
One, after that happened, I created kind of a mental check and balance.
I would turn on certain lights or turn on something
or two something that would remind me once we got cleared to land
or once we needed to do something
I would hit this button or flip this switch,
turn this light on
and to this day, I still do that.
Because there's a lot that's going on
so you need to have a reminder of what's happening.
So that was the first thing that I learned.
And the second thing that I learned is
you ought to always take care of your crew.
And you hear me talk about that when people
are saying things to flight attendants
or other people or other pilots that are on my crew.
I want to 100% take their back.
And that I learned from PJ and different people in my life.
But that was a great example of that in aviation.
And I want you guys to have that as something to remember
as you go through your aviation career,
you need to take care of people behind you.
Okay, this next one is real short.
Ground Southwest 1633 with a quick question.
What you got (muffled)
Was that a yes?
I said, what you got?
Oh, what I got. How do you pronounce the departure we're on?
What departure are you on?
SWTSR
Switzer. Like the very mediocre overrated Dallas Cowboys coach.
Got it.
Somebody's not a Cowboys fan.
No, someone's a Jimmy Johnson fan and that Super Bowl is not Barry Switzer's.
Air traffic control communication is meant to be very brief and concise.
When you say: "Do you have time for a question?"
It says: "Hey, this is kind of like off the record".
It's on the record but it's like off the record like you can casually talk.
Because if they have time to do that,
they'll say: "Yeah, sure. I've got time for a question".
For example, I've had it where they say:
"Hey, tail number blah blah blah, do you have time for a question?"
And now you just say: "Yeah, what's up?"
What's up it's not something you'd ever hear me normally saying on the radio.
But a couple of years ago I was flying about
400 troops and we were flying overseas.
Obviously, when I'm flying military troops,
I don't ever talk about who I'm flying
and where and all those things
because I'm not allowed to talk about that on social media.
As we're flying up the coast getting ready for
everything to go overseas, the controller says:
"Hey, do you have time for a question?"
And me, being a total dork,
which I normally would never say this, I go: "Affirmative".
Like I don't know why I even said that.
The controller goes: "Hey, are you Kelsey from the YouTube channel 74 gear?"
I'm like maybe thinking:
"Why have I just acted like a total dork now
and the guy recognizes my voice?"
He just wanted to say thanks that he really enjoyed the video
so I'm having this quick conversation with the guy.
The captain's looking at me, he's like:
"How does he know your name is Kelsey?"
And I'm like: "I don't know".
But it just goes to show you that you never know who you're going to run into.
If you want to hear some stories about some pilots
who wouldn't be so dorky to say "Affirmative"
when someone asked if you have time for a question,
you're going to want to watch this video here.
And if you want to hear a pilot have a total breakdown
when Air traffic control tells me he has a number to call,
you're going to want to watch this video up here.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Until then,
keep the blue side up.