On the whole, NY approach does a pretty fantastic job of shoe-horning us
VFR guys into their airspace. Today was an exception, I left Bridgeport
destined for Morristown and requested a Bravo clearance to MMU, I've
done this many times before and usually if you're willing to accept
altitude and headings to get you out of their way, they do a great job
of getting you from one side to the other. Today wasn't one of them. I
got a squawk from the sector controller for Bridgeport and he handed me
off to the controller responsible for Bravo clearances. I was at 3500
by that point but not that close to the Bravo. I was turned down flat
for the clearance. At that point I scooted down to 2500 and skirted
HPN's Delta, swung over Westchester to the Hudson river and then called
Morristowns sector controller near the Alpine tower. He was less
stressed I guess and hooked me up with more or less a straight flight to
MMU clearing me through Caldwell's delta. The trip home tonight was a
breeze, was given a squawk on initial call up and after a vector to get
me out of TEB's arrival, was cleared up into the bravo and direct
Bridgeport. Gotta love that. It's a real joy to be able to fly in
amongst the heavy iron and treated with more or less the same status as
them. You can't do that in Chicago, no transitions allowed.

Overworked for sure, but they do a good job.

Robert


Trevor Cudmore wrote:

Unfortunately I have suffered a similar outburst from New York
Departure/Approach on 118.0, and often hear other pilots being given a
verbal bashing. New York is understaffed and has recently been held
accountable for a number of errors, and I guess the stress must be too much
for some. There are two in particular that I dread to hear when I switch
over, and sure enough I had the misfortune to be stuck with one a couple of
weeks ago when I took my first solo trip away from the airport to a practice
area north of ISP. I understand the importance of the job they provide, but
some just do not seem capable of acting professionaly when under stress.

That being said, there are two ways to ruin my day. One being to yell
unprofessionally, and the second failing to provide my separation. Yell if
you must!

On the flips-side, thanks go to the controllers at ISP who have been more
than accomodating during my training, even when I probably did deserve more
than a correction or gentle reminder

Trevor Cudmore

"Jim Burns" wrote in message
...

This past Sunday, while visiting Lawrenceville, GA (KLZU Class C just
under
the outer ATL Class B), traffic was landing and departing 25. The
controller was busy, coordinating with Atlanta, handling clearance
delivery,
ground, and tower simultaneously. He was broadcasting on all frequencies,
while receiving GC/CD and Tower separately. We started engines and
prepared
to call for taxi instructions when I heard him blurt out "Cessna 1234 go
around NOW!!! YOU ARE LINED UP WITH RUNWAY 7, YOU WERE CLEARED TO LAND
RUNWAY 25, 25 IS THE ACTIVE RUNWAY, RIGHT TURN, GO AROUND NOW!!! I HAVE
LANDING TRAFFIC 25!!" (this guy was rightfully ****ed and obviously
rattled) Then he issued a right turn and a go around to traffic landing
25
and lit into the Cessna driver again. "What were you doing? why were you
landing runway 7, I cleared you #2 on 25" The Cessna pilot must have
responded with some excuse about a mistake and the controller came back
"mistakes are what get people in airplanes killed, next time you make sure
you know where you are! Now join a left downwind for Runway 25, that's
runway 25, traffic at your 3:00 opposite direction, a Piper on an upwind
leg
for runway 25, I said runway 25!"