Red Deer Student Lost
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 10:04 am
Admins, please delete if you feel this is not the place for this and I apologize in advance if it is. But I wanted to share an experience I was witness to while flying through Red Deer at about 1830Z yesterday. As most in Alberta know, the radio work that instructors sign off as adequate for solo out of Red Deer is abysmal. I fly pipelines that go right through their zone and have witnessed a lot of interesting chatter on the radio between ATC and the “pilots”. This one takes the cake by far.
I can’t give a transcript verbatim and LiveATC doesn’t cover YQF. But the cliff notes version was there was two in the circuit, a Stearman a couple miles east inbound and myself coming up from the south northbound low level. Then there was this one fellow who was obviously sent solo way before he should have. When I tuned 118.5 there was these illformed calls from this guy who didn’t know where he was, but flew in front/above of me near Antler Hill (just outside the zone to the south). ATC was trying to get him east of the highway, probably so he could keep him away from the circuit. His reply, in EXTREMELY broken English “I’m over road with yellow lines, is that highway?” It went back and forth with ATC trying to keep him east including just saying “fly east” and going so far as explaining what a highway looks like. Next he says that he doesn’t know where he is. So ATC gives him the bearing from the airport including bearing changes. This pilot had no idea what the difference was between bearing and heading. ATC then gave him a heading to head to the airport, but at that point the pilot wasn’t answering readily even though ATC was repeating him self so slow and with such conviction that I don’t know how anyone with any conversational English could ever misunderstand. At this point I was heading up the river so I made a quick call saying I’ll be clear to the north and let him be with none of the usual pleasantries that are usually exchanged and switched enroute. I think I heard the Stearman decide to climb up and wait as well, but I’m not sure. If the guy at ATC reads this, hats off to you my friend as my spotter and I were aghast at this and were praising you in our conversation later. This guy had so many landmarks to use and so many tools that he should have been somewhat familiar with being virtually forced on him but still couldn’t understand what was going on. In my opinion the only way I can see him not knowing what to do is that he was focused on a glass cockpit and inside the airplane and didn’t think to look where he was going through that big piece of plexiglass. Insert argument about too much screen time these days.
Please note, I’m not trying to stereo type. And no one is perfect especially when first starting. But not knowing what a highway is or which way is east..... I put the onus on the school not doing their jobs and due diligence when training these “pilots”. And it scares the bejesus out of me that as they progress into the multi-ifr world that there isn’t much improvement. We hear that a lot and witnessed it earlier with another pilot trying to do approaches and not understanding the ATC clearances.
I hope the kid got down okay and learned from this lesson. That the school spends more time teaching on the ground and a lot more dual before sending them on their way to share the skies with everyone. I honestly hope this kid gets the training needed and becomes a success story. Alberta is a big place and you can get turned around in the endless fields when your unfamiliar for sure. It’s taken me months to be able to visualize most of the places I fly in rough relation to each other in my head without the coast as a default reference. But my opinion is that it’s systemic with whichever school because the radio work and airmanship we witness on a daily basis.... it renders 126.7 useless because everyone is stepping on each other, not being accurate with position reporting, incomprehensible language skills and just plain painful to the ears. I know I’m not alone when I say sometimes it’s better to go NORDO when it’s a mess (and legal) and make sure my spotter and I are extra diligent in our see and be seen. But that’s not how it should be.
My points? Do your research when choosing a flight school, meet your instructors before going for a lesson, pay attention to the ground work, listen to ATC frequencies online or with a handheld (a lesson I had to figure out myself), hanger fly on bad weather days, and that ATCs are unsung heroes that are part of our team in any cockpit that deserve a lot of credit and kudos.
/rant
I can’t give a transcript verbatim and LiveATC doesn’t cover YQF. But the cliff notes version was there was two in the circuit, a Stearman a couple miles east inbound and myself coming up from the south northbound low level. Then there was this one fellow who was obviously sent solo way before he should have. When I tuned 118.5 there was these illformed calls from this guy who didn’t know where he was, but flew in front/above of me near Antler Hill (just outside the zone to the south). ATC was trying to get him east of the highway, probably so he could keep him away from the circuit. His reply, in EXTREMELY broken English “I’m over road with yellow lines, is that highway?” It went back and forth with ATC trying to keep him east including just saying “fly east” and going so far as explaining what a highway looks like. Next he says that he doesn’t know where he is. So ATC gives him the bearing from the airport including bearing changes. This pilot had no idea what the difference was between bearing and heading. ATC then gave him a heading to head to the airport, but at that point the pilot wasn’t answering readily even though ATC was repeating him self so slow and with such conviction that I don’t know how anyone with any conversational English could ever misunderstand. At this point I was heading up the river so I made a quick call saying I’ll be clear to the north and let him be with none of the usual pleasantries that are usually exchanged and switched enroute. I think I heard the Stearman decide to climb up and wait as well, but I’m not sure. If the guy at ATC reads this, hats off to you my friend as my spotter and I were aghast at this and were praising you in our conversation later. This guy had so many landmarks to use and so many tools that he should have been somewhat familiar with being virtually forced on him but still couldn’t understand what was going on. In my opinion the only way I can see him not knowing what to do is that he was focused on a glass cockpit and inside the airplane and didn’t think to look where he was going through that big piece of plexiglass. Insert argument about too much screen time these days.
Please note, I’m not trying to stereo type. And no one is perfect especially when first starting. But not knowing what a highway is or which way is east..... I put the onus on the school not doing their jobs and due diligence when training these “pilots”. And it scares the bejesus out of me that as they progress into the multi-ifr world that there isn’t much improvement. We hear that a lot and witnessed it earlier with another pilot trying to do approaches and not understanding the ATC clearances.
I hope the kid got down okay and learned from this lesson. That the school spends more time teaching on the ground and a lot more dual before sending them on their way to share the skies with everyone. I honestly hope this kid gets the training needed and becomes a success story. Alberta is a big place and you can get turned around in the endless fields when your unfamiliar for sure. It’s taken me months to be able to visualize most of the places I fly in rough relation to each other in my head without the coast as a default reference. But my opinion is that it’s systemic with whichever school because the radio work and airmanship we witness on a daily basis.... it renders 126.7 useless because everyone is stepping on each other, not being accurate with position reporting, incomprehensible language skills and just plain painful to the ears. I know I’m not alone when I say sometimes it’s better to go NORDO when it’s a mess (and legal) and make sure my spotter and I are extra diligent in our see and be seen. But that’s not how it should be.
My points? Do your research when choosing a flight school, meet your instructors before going for a lesson, pay attention to the ground work, listen to ATC frequencies online or with a handheld (a lesson I had to figure out myself), hanger fly on bad weather days, and that ATCs are unsung heroes that are part of our team in any cockpit that deserve a lot of credit and kudos.
/rant