Short Final

My first job in aviation back in 1978 was as an admissions counselor at East Coast Aero Tech, an A&P school in Lexington, Massachusetts...

New York airspace can be intimidating, and the controllers are not exactly known for having a slow, patient approach to communicating with incoming traffic....

As a controller, I occasionally get asked, usually (but not always) when it’s slow on the radio, “Approach, do you have time for a...

I recently heard this at Detroit Metropolitan Airport: Tower: “Airliner 123, left turn to heading 185. Cleared for takeoff 21R.” Pilot: “Right turn 185, cleared for...

On a recent trip from the West Coast to the Midwest, I’d just checked in with Center after a couple sectors in NorCal. A...

I work at a TRACON with a busy satellite airport nearby. Over the years it’s gotten rather tedious to get asked for higher so...

Tooling along from Florida to Massachusetts one sunny afternoon, apparently ATC had some sort of computer hiccup. Atlanta Center: “American 123, Atlanta Center; our system...

I was flying into Dulles a couple of years ago with my single-engine Comanche. Traffic was landing to the north and I touched down...

Returning to Palo Alto airport from the East on a short flight through the busy Bay Area airspace, I was admiring Mount Diablo at...

I recently had a long flight from Somerset, New Jersey, to Houston Southwest Texas. I don’t remember which approach controller it was, but when...