Reasons to talk to ATC...

Chris wrote in message ...
They may find you fast in White Sands, but more so because
they blasted a missile through your wings and tracked it (well you
shouldn't be there anyway) .


I used to fire missiles at White Sands. Sometimes we had no idea
where the missile went :-( For that reason I wouldn't recommend
flying right on the borders of the restricted areas when there is
activity on the range. Often the missiles don't know where the
restricted area ends and free airspace begins.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

"John Galban" wrote in message om...

I used to fire missiles at White Sands.

Did White Sands ever fire back?

I had the interesting job of being paid to break into White Sands once.

"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message ...
Cub Driver wrote:

When a VFR flight plan is in use, an average of 37 hours and 18 minutes
elapse from LKP to rescue.
When no flight plan is in use, an average of 42 hours and 24 minutes
elapse from LKP to rescue.

This is not a very strong motivation to file a flight plan!

Well, keep in mind that those are averages. Since every once in a while you read
about someone who isn't found for six months, and every time it seems to be someone
who didn't file a flight plan at all, I think there's some incentive.

I'd also like to know how many in each category are never found.

I assume they'd use median, not mean but again, remember who we are talking about

Here's another reason,
A couple weeks ago I gave this Seneca fuel prices from
Airnav on his route ahead. Where he was going was
$1.00 more a gallon than others I told him about, dont
know where he eventually went. I'm sure somehow
someone on here will tell me I can get in trouble for that.

Other reasons, from my experience on this side of the mic:
General bullshi**ing.
Talking about and comparing equipment, usually avionics.
Heads up on weather.
Terrain alerts, a big issue here out west, for the uninformed.
Other traffic, of course.
In case they need an IFR clearance in a pinch.
Airspace changes on the fly, MOA's, TFR's, etc.
....and did I say just bullshi**ing in general? Which I do more
than my supervisors would prefer.
But check this out, once I actually got an atta-boy for my, well,
non-approved phraseology. This guy comes over on freq, and
you can spot em a mile away when they have that shaky voice.
I usually try to put em at ease. Well, this guy was shaky for a reason,
he was having serious engine trouble and losing altitude in
a mountainous area. The FAA likes to pull tapes and listen to the
time leading up to an incident, which they did here, and heard
my conversational type of ATC. At first they frowned on it,
but the effect it had on relaxing this guy and making flying the
airplane the number one job, gave us a positive outcome. Panic,
especially in a pretty bad looking situation like this one, only
makes matters worse. He didn't panic and got it to a runway.

So in short, you're paying for it (ATC), might as well use it.
Chris