This quote from the article made me smile:
>> Another pilot chimed in: "Only in LA."
Ground control also works in the tower, after all they have to be able to see the airport taxiways. They may also have a separate ground radar. They are only talking to planes on the ground.
At a busy airport, these will be separate individuals working each of these duties.
At a less busy airport, or during quieter hours, the same controller may work both tower and ground simultaneously.
There are also "center" controllers who work in the enroute traffic centers. They are not in towers and often not at any airport, as they talk with planes at altitude and work by radar and voice communication, not visual.
For example, in a typical departure, you first talk to ground control for taxi clearance and instructions. When you are ready for departure (near but not yet on the runway!) ground will say "contact tower on 123.45" (or whatever frequency), and tower will clear you for takeoff. After you've taken off, tower may say "contact center on 124.56" (again, whatever the frequency is).
While you're flying, each center controller will hand you off to a different center (and different frequency) which you cross between the different areas that the different centers cover.
For landing, it's the same thing in reverse order: center hands you off to tower as you approach the airport, and after you're on the runway, tower hands you off to ground (who again is up in the tower, but only talking to planes on the ground) for taxi instructions.
When the weather cleared, EVERYONE flew in. It was chaos.
I am unable to find the recording, but ATC was like "high wing, low wing, if you have a wing, turn left"
https://www.reddit.com/r/flying/comments/910sge/the_adsb_at_...
Tune into LGA or JFK on any given Thursday; examples for miles
The key reason for why ATC don't lose their cool has nothing to do with who is more stressed or has more "skin in the game" and everything to do with the fact that if ATC lose their cool then the pilot is more likely to die... and possibly other planes and their passengers and crew too. In order to save lives ATC have to keep their cool even when everyone else around them panics. That's the real crux of the matter.
Being the belayer means you don't have much control and are mostly just watching closely and hoping your buddy doesn't get hurt. Being in a scary lead situation forces you to concentrate which pushes a lot of the fear emotions aside. Worry and fear take a lot of energy, energy which often can't be spared in an emergency where you have some control over the situation.
One example is WWII commanders would sometimes continue to bring ammunition to machine gun nests even when just adding it to large piles. It may have been the best option when they start, but they never revisit that choice. The same thing happens to pilots where people investigate a crash and find pilots keep doing the exact same thing that’s not working for several minutes without considering that perhaps some assumption they have is wrong.
Finally, some people don’t seem to react much at all to such personal risks.
ATC can have a larger stake than any single pilot. Consider a mid air collision scenario, for instance.
They will handle more lives daily than a pilot. Don't dismiss it.
ATC involved in incidents can suffer from severe PTSD.
/kidding, I know this is an absurd stretch of the terms, appreciate all the explanations.
> ”The chicken is involved but the pig is committed.”
That is, while both are needed to make breakfast, the pig has a bigger stake in the project.
The chicken may be providing the eggs but the pig is being eaten!
The SR71 radio speed check was in LA too.
I heard a Cessna ask for a readout of its ground speed.
'90 knots Center replied.
Moments later,a Twin Beech required the same.
'120 knots' Center answered.
We weren’t the only ones proud of our ground speed that day
as almost instantly an F-18 smugly transmitted:
'Ah, Center, Dusty 52 requests ground speed readout.'
There was a slight pause, then the response,
'620 knots on the ground, Dusty.'
As I was thinking to myself how ripe a situation this was,
I heard a familiar click of a radio transmission coming from my
back-seater. It was at that precise moment I realized Walt and I
had become a real crew, for we were both thinking in unison.
'Center, Aspen 20, you got a ground speed readout for us?'
There was a longer than normal pause
'Aspen, I show 1,942 knots.'
No further inquiries were heard on that frequency.
It's possibly a little too cute or maybe embellished, but there's nothing in it that sounds impossible or beyond plausibility.
For reference I have a pilot's license.
Unfortunately.
https://np.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/8x5ndw/til_wh...
Also Brian Shul (the originator of this anecdote) and his RSO were the only SR71 crew removed from the program. There is a reason for that.
Off topic, but be sure to run Javascript on theaviationgeekclub.com or else the code that breaks your clipboard will fail to run.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Shul
[1] https://theaviationgeekclub.com/sr-71-blackbird-pilot-tells-...
As to "not using the same freq", military aircraft have radios with knobs that turn. They can certainly monitor and talk on civilian frequencies if they see fit to do so, and they fly in and out of civilian airports regularly on ferry flights (not the SR-71 obviously, but I know for a fact F-18s do all the time, because I used to stand duty at a command that owned a bunch of them and we had to file reports on what airport they were at). If they can't talk on civilian frequencies, how would that work? And they fly through civilian ATC owned airspace, they absolutely have to talk to civilian ATC.
As to Shul being removed from the program, have never heard that -- I'm not likely to take the word of some random on the internet about it.
Related post: https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/archive/index.php/t-56350...
Even after the transatlantic world record "fastest air-breathing manned aircraft" flights in 1976? Especially if they were flying below the record speeds (depends on the exact numbers, going by wikipedia, the record was for approx. 1905 knots, which of course is lower than the figure in the story)?
(But, yeah, I've heard plenty of people, including other SR71 pilots in interviews, question the validity of Shul's stories)
The actual top speed might still be, if it is, it's probably because they don't actually know what it really is. There have been multiple pilots who have said they could pretty much keep giving it gas and it would keep going faster.
Not saying it’s impossible that he made it up or embellished, but it seems likely that it actually happened.
I'm sure he wouldn't let the truth get in the way of a good story.
The SR71 requested flight level 800.
The ATC, thinking someone was joking, said, "If you can get up there, FL800 is yours."
The SR71 replied, "Maam, we're coming down to 800."