Short Final: Static

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • A pilot experienced garbled and unreadable radio transmissions while communicating with NorCal Approach.
  • Air traffic control (ATC) prompted the pilot to try a different radio.
  • After switching radios, the pilot achieved clear communication and humorously claimed to have "tossed that radio out the window already."
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Heard while transitioning NorCal Approach airspace near Sacramento:

Cessna 12345: (Broken, garbled transmission)

NorCal: “I believe that was Cessna 12345; you’re coming in unreadable. Do you have another radio you can try?”

(Pause)

Cessna 12345: “NorCal approach, how do you read Cessna 12345 now?”

NorCal: “Loud and clear now, your other radio was just static.”

Cessna 12345: “Thanks for that. Yeah, we tossed that radio out the window already.”

William Cole

Petaluma, California

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