On the Airbands

As I told you in the April column, there are big changes underway at Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport, and those changes are not yet finalised. Sydney ATIS had recently been changed from 127.6 MHz to 133.8 MHz. That lasted a month or so, and now 133.8’s computer generated ATIS voice has disappeared and resurfaced on 133.85! Boy it’s interesting, and keeping us all on our toes. In April’s “On the Airbands”, I mentioned Departure South and Approach South frequencies of 129.7 and 128.3 MHz, replacing 125.3 and 126.1 MHz. These new frequencies are located at Woronora, which is also the location of the new ATIS 133.85. This is the reason that monitors in the south and western areas of Sydney are hearing the frequencies better than the older ones. The old frequencies for these positions, however, will come back into use later this year, when simultaneous parallel arrivals start, with callsigns of the Ground Stations being “Sydney Director West (126.1)” and “Sydney Director East (125.3)”. The frequencies will be located at KSA, and the Director frequencies will take aircraft from mid downwind leg to joining final. There’s also a new frequency on test, 118.4, located in the Blue Mountains. It’s parallel with Departures South 129.7, and gives great reception in the far west of Sydney. It will eventually be split and used on a separate position in the future when traffic requires it. The callsign when established is most likely to be “Sydney Terminal”. Regarding the older ATIS frequency 127.6 MHz, this was of course the answer to our Longreach antenna contest, and the three neatest correct entries received were from the following readers of “On the Airbands”: Nicholas Connan of Frankston in Melbourne, Allan Edwards of Revesby in Sydney and Peter Barker of Noble Park in Melbourne. We were very impressed with one aspect of the contest. Of the large volume of mail which arrived containing entries, we did not find one incorrect answer. So we’re glad we added the extra qualifier that the winning entries had also to be the neatest!
Dr Stephen Downes lives in Kew East, Melbourne. It’s been a while since he last wrote to us, but we’re glad to see that he hasn’t forgotten his friends at “On the Airbands”. Stephen says that the rhyme in this little offering may well be commonly used, but he’s never heard it before in three years of part time monitoring, and most certainly not from a “serious” pilot working for our national carrier. After departing Sydney, Qantas 153 has just been passed to Brisbane Control on 126.9 MHz.
CONTROL: “Qantas 153, transmission check. Could you do a quick count to five for me?”
QANTAS 153: “Eenie meenie minie mo, can you hear my radio? If it squeals, please let me know. Eenie meenie minie mo.”
CONTROL: (Making absolutely no comment) … “Qantas 153, reading you fives.”
Stephen Downes also reports that on Internet there is an Aviation Special Interest Group, shortened to AVSIG. Stephen has copied a couple of funny aviation radio stories, which are attributable to a Jimmy L Johnson and Larry Simpson, who have put the stories on paper for Fly-by-Night Publishers, Georgia USA. Here are some examples. The first story involves a female controller talking to Trans Global 243, which she has just cleared to Flight Level 240 (FL 240). 84 Australian Aviation June 1995.
AIRCRAFT: “Center, Trans Global 243 … is that pilot’s discretion to Flight Level 240?”
ATC: “Trans Global, if I had wanted it to be pilot’s discretion, I would have said to you … PILOT’S DISCRETION to Flight Level 240!”
AIRCRAFT: (After a slight pause) “Wasn’t I married to you a few years ago?”
An unknown International airport, with British Airways 747 callsign Speedbird 506 the ‘star’ of the show. The 747 has landed very long, and skidded off the end of the runway.
TOWER: “Speedbird 506, what’s your exact location?”
BA 506: “Tower, Speedbird 506 … err, I would say we are some distance from the runway pavement”
TOWER: “Speedbird 506, Tower, please state your intentions”
BA 506: “Oh … err, I think I’ll just retire to a small pub in Devon!”
A United Airlines 747 was flaring high and long at New York’s JFK International Airport. An unknown station on Tower frequency picked up the mike and said the words … “Clear to land, clear to land, clear to land, clear to land … “, right up until the moment he touched down!
New York’s JFK again, with Aeroflot 2267. The Aeroflot aircraft has just landed and is told to “vacate at high speed taxiway Delta”. This was the response, and it’s a beauty:
AEROFLOT: “This is Aeroflot 2267. Look … we pay all runway, so we use all runway!”
And the last story we will use courtesy of Stephen Downes was overheard at Houston International Airport early one morning.
TOWER: “Eastern 702, clear for takeoff.”
The aircraft commences its takeoff roll, gathers speed, reaches V1 and Vr and rotates out of the airfield. And then speaks with the Tower once more.
EASTERN 702: “Err … Tower, Eastern 702, we’re switching to Departures right now, but thought you’d like to know, by the way … as we lifted off, we saw some kind of dead animal on the far end of the runway!”
TOWER: “National 63, you’re clear for takeoff, and did you just copy those remarks from Eastern 702?”
NATIONAL 63: “Roger Tower, we’re clear for takeoff, and yes … we’ve already notified our caterers!”
Jim McCue of Canberra monitors on an AOR handheld scanner, the AR 1500. He had some good things to say about Dick Smith Electronics quickly replacing an earlier AR 1500 he had bought that had both selectivity and sensitivity problems. Well done DSE. Another problem Jim was having to cope with was nicad batteries which didn’t hold their charge very long, and I gave him some advice relating to recycling them properly. Nickel Cadmium batteries require to be completely discharged (I mean completely discharged!) and then fully recharged, usually for a period of 16 hours. If you recycle your batteries this way, you will get both longer life from your cells, and they will hold your charge much longer each time you pep them up. Nicads have a “memory effect”, and if they are not fully discharged when you place them in the charger unit, they will “remember” roughly how long they have left in them at time of charging, and fail after that time period. It may only literally be minutes, not hours. If you are trying to discharge your batteries, leave the volume turned down, and leave the radio in scan until there isn’t an ounce of “juice” left in the cells. Then recharge them. You’ll get much more service out of your Nicads. Jim also wants to check out what kind of aircraft “WINDSOR” is. It is in fact a RAAF 707, flying domestically within Australia. Internationally, the same aircraft will use “Aussie” along with tasking numerals to make up its callsign. At Canberra Airport recently, Jim was sitting monitoring with his scanner near the RW 35 threshold, on the road to the RAAF base. He monitored a funny exchange between a Qantas 737 aircraft, callsign “Tango Juliet India”, and Canberra Ground on 121.7 MHz. The 737 crew had called for startup and pushback clearance.
VH-TJI: “Canberra Ground, Tango Juliet India, requesting taxiway clearance”
The aircraft was duly provided with a taxiway to use, which led to RW 35, near to where Jim was seated. After what seemed like a lengthy delay in the aircraft moving out, the following was heard:
GROUND: “Tango Juliet India, as stated, your taxiway clearance is granted, but if you don’t hurry up, you’ll have to walk!”
Thanks for your input Jim.
Japan’s newest airport, used by both Qantas and Ansett, is the $21 billion Osaka Kansai International. Ships steam through the Kitan Strait nearby, and Awaji Island is adjacent on the seaward side, with the Japanese mainland off in the opposite direction. This intriguing airport is built on a man-made island, created by moving 183 million cubic metres of landfill taken from three huge mountains by truck and barge to a site five kilometres offshore. The airport took seven years to build, and has caused the Japanese to have to draw a new map of their country, because the airport is essentially an artificial island of significant size. Kansai Airport is the answer to every politician’s dream! It has no environmental problems, its position keeps noise away from Osaka residents, and there is no need for any curfew. It can operate 24 hours daily without complaints. Covering 500 hectares of space, the airport was built by placing an 11 kilometre long seawall to form the island perimeter in water about 18 metres deep. The job of moving in the landfill was then commenced. The airport has one single 3500 metre long runway, which is 60 metres wide. The island is linked to the mainland by a five kilometre long rail and road bridge. The airport has a control tower, passenger terminal, railway station, restaurants and hotels, cargo terminals, a fuel farm and has 41 operational aerobridges. Now that the airport is in full swing, plans are already in hand to extend the capacity by adding another two primary runways, both 4000 metres in length, with another additional 3400 metre secondary runway. This would enable 260,000 takeoffs and landings annually at Osaka!
Our contest was eagerly fought out by readers of the column who have heard how great the Longreach scanning antenna is. I have used the Longreach from its developmental stages, and can attest to its power to “pull in” those marginal stations. Without going into too much detail, Oztennas, the company producing and marketing the antenna, certainly have a winner on their hands! It works extremely well on the VHF aviation band. I have subjected it to all sorts of “indignities”, and it came through with flying colours. And even though it has been designed for the aviation VHF band specifically, I have found that it is efficiently pulling in UHF frequencies well removed from the airband frequencies that with some other antennas of similar design are lost to the monitor. So, it’s excellent for monitoring airport company VHF/UHF ramp channels. At a retail price of $130, it’s money well spent.
From John White, Las Vegas, USA, a story involving a Mooney registered N1433W, and McCarran Approach Control. The pilot of the Mooney obviously is not all that familiar with aeronautical terminology. The controller is checking that the pilot has the latest ATIS information.
APPROACH: “November 1-4-3-3 Whiskey, confirm you have Hotel?”
N1433W: “Uhh … err, we’re flying into McCarran International tonight, but no … we don’t have a hotel room booked yet!”
APPROACH: (Laughing uncontrollably … unable to respond) then … after a breather period … and he’s composed himself …
APPROACH: “United 55, descend further to four thousand”
UNITED 55: “Down to four thousand. And Approach, we don’t have a hotel room either. Could you help us?”
David Giles wrote to me sometime ago, and we just haven’t had the space to accommodate his story, and a little about David’s own background. From 1988 through to 1991, David flew for Sunbird Airlines, which was at the time the major commuter airline in the Cape York Peninsula region. He was flying Cessna 404 Titans, and Cessna 421 Golden Eagles, out of Cairns. David says “it was like flying to a remote world, every day”. At that time, if he lost comms with Cairns FIS on VHF 118.2, Weipa ran the rest of the FISCOMS north into the Torres Strait on 122.1 and 120.3 MHz. Frequently, only HF communications worked from the area, on 6616 or 8891 kHz, unless David could access the Horn Island VHF outlet for Weipa. David laments the “passing” of “real life” Flight Service personnel at remote locations, and the way these guys and girls used to really help people, well beyond their actual job descriptions. The FIS operators not only knew their own jobs back to front, but also knew all the ins and outs of the various company operations they were dealing with, the personalities, the aircraft requirements, etc. Such an operator was “John”, at Weipa Radio. David was flying VH-SBJ that day.
WEIPA: “Sierra Bravo Juliet, I have a message from your company when ready”
VH-SBJ: “Go ahead John”
WEIPA: “Message from Andrew in Ops, he wanted you to call him on company HF, but as I already know from Ralph in Sierra Bravo November this morning, their HF is on the fritz, so the message reads – ‘Overfly Lockhart River, the pax have been bumped to this afternoon’s non scheduled run’ … and with that in mind David, I have no traffic for your climb!”
How’s that for Flight Service? John knew exactly what the situation was relating to David’s company, and even though David would not have been able to communicate on the HF frequency 7735, the astute Flight Service professional was able to completely put him in the picture. You see, it was not uncommon for pilots like David to get called down to pick someone else’s passengers up, especially in a Titan with more seating capacity than some of the other aircraft operated. Most of the problems were caused by aircraft being delayed ex Cairns. Occasionally, things happened favourably, and a stop for one or two passengers was averted by “bumping” those passengers onto an afternoon service. This is when smart John came into his own to help out, especially when HF radio was u/s, as in our story. Flight Service Officers (FSOs) at remote locations helped with comms and weather, stayed back to put on the lights or kick the generator to life when town power was off, helped with searches, deployed medivacs rapidly, coordinated with everybody, and provided a reassuring voice when you really needed it. Thanks to David Giles for a look at something that once was, and worked very well, albeit at a price.
Another piece of nostalgia of a kind, courtesy of Mr L Kenderdine formally a Lieutenant in the Royal Australian Navy. Mr Kenderdine has been an aviation buff from about age twelve, and he is now in his seventies, living in retirement, but with aviation still in his blood. And he’s keen to get on with the stories … Sydney, circa early 1950’s, with a TAA aircraft calling Sydney and being given approach instructions.
TAA aircraft: “Have you anything on a Beaufighter in this area?”
SYDNEY: “Negative … why?”
TAA aircraft: “He’s just made a dummy attack on me, and … oh oh … here he comes again!”
December 1951, Korea. The sea is rough, the cloud base is fluctuating from 500 to 800 feet ASL, and the following exchange occurs between two Americans, and is overheard by our ex Naval correspondent.
RESCUE 25: “Kimpo, Rescue 25, over”
KIMPO: “Rescue 25, Kimpo, go ahead”
RESCUE 25: “Kimpo, Rescue 25, request course from my present position to Point A, over”
KIMPO: “Rescue 25, are you carrying maps and charts in that airplane?”
RESCUE 25: “Affirmative, affirmative Sir, over”
KIMPO: “Well then use ’em! Kimpo out”
Darren Hicks works for Fairbairn Air Charter at Canberra Airport. He relates a tale which brightened up a dreary, windy Canberra winter afternoon. Darren is an Instructor, and was returning from Canberra Training Area 3A in Cessna 150 registered VH-MHD, and was on Canberra Approach frequency 124.5 MHz. VH-TQP, an Eastern Airlines Dash 8 had just departed for Sydney, and was talking to Canberra Departures on 125.9, which at the time was being combined through the Approach Control console, due to light traffic on this Saturday afternoon. Nothing much was happening. All of a sudden, the Approach/Departures Controller began addressing the Dash 8 crew:
CANBERRA APP/DEP: “Tango Quebec Papa, from the Tower … we noticed the small kangaroo on the side of your aeroplane, and we think it’s fairly appropriate, since you only do short hops!” (The ATC personnel were referring to the newly applied kangaroo livery, and the fact they ran Sydney/Canberra/Sydney continuously)
VH-MHD (Darren): “Approach, I think it’s actually got more to do with the size of their pay packets!”
APP/DEP: “Well if that’s the case, we’ll get a little mouse painted on the side of Canberra Tower!”
And just to complete the exchange … and epitomize the g-re-a-t financial rewards in commercial aviation all pilots enjoy, Darren added this stinger …
VH-MHD: “Well there’s nothing painted on the side of my Cessna!”
Darren Hicks tells us that AA magazine is by far the favourite at Fairbairn Air Charter. Thanks Darren, for helping us keep the quality up.
Qantas is always looking at ways of putting something back into the world community, and it found the perfect vehicle in Bangkok, Thailand, recently. About 170 underprivileged and physically disabled children were guests of Qantas on a charity flight over the Gulf of Thailand on a Qantas 767-300. The flight captured wide media attention. The aim of the flight was to “give those who have little a wonderful memory that could never be erased”. Children in wheelchairs were helped by about 50 Qantas volunteers, including seven members of a group called the “Qantas Cabin Crew Team”. These Qantas staffers regularly use their spare time helping the needy at major ports around the world. Group leader Laurie Curley described the day as “quite different to anything they had done before”, adding that “it was quite as much an experience for us as it was for the children”. Thailand’s Transport Minister waived all airport taxes and landing, parking and air navigation charges for the flight, while Shell Oil donated the fuel, and all ground handling was undertaken by volunteers. Each child received a Qantas Children’s Inflight Kit, and a Gift Bag, containing items donated by several leading Australian companies.
Climb into the Cockpit by Radio is now out, a huge airband monitoring book by this writer, priced at $19.95 plus $3.00 pack and post, and Listening In 1995 magazine is available for $5.00 plus $3.00 pack and post. — From Airband Communications, PO Box 16 Georges Hall 2198. See you at your receivers in July!