On Mon, 30 Jan 2006 22:13:40 GMT, kontiki
wrote:

jls wrote:
It's been a while since I did much radio work with ATC and was dreading
it but found ATC very courteous, helpful, and professional.

Those people work in pressure cookers, and yet they manage to be so
nice.

One thing I noticed. The controllers have widely differing
personalilties and voices--and are quick with the words --- a real
treat to listen to.

Jax center is nice to work with, not too many big egos to deal with fer sure.
One time I was flying back IFR from Vero Beach up the east coast. I was
listening to one guy chatting with a Jax Center controller, rambling on about
different guys they knew and years gone by... it was pretty interesting but
approaching Savannah I realized I hadn't been handed off. After calling
JAX center and getting no response I switched to Savannah Approach freq
and called them up. They were waiting for me and and when I mentioned never
receiving a hand-off from Center they said .."no problem, want to go direct
Statesboro?" and sent me on my merry way.


I was stationed at Statesboro when I was in the Air Force. We had a
direct telephone line to JAX center and Savannah. We coordinated with
them because we had bombers on a low level route (OB-17) that would
use our fire control radars for training and evaluation.

One day, a couple of JAX controllers just showed up at our site. I
would not do that now, but you've got to realize that times were
different back then. I knew them by voice and name. We had dinner
and I showed them our equipment. For some reason, we were just birds
of the same breed.

Thirty years later I still seem to like being turned over to JAX
Center.

Mike Weller

I also still like saying "Hello Houston" when I'm handed off to them.