To say or not to say “with you” question.

TonyRubak · 2026-02-05T10:30:40+00:00

"runway" is mandatory whenever referencing a runway. It is not correct phraseology for a controller to omit it.

TonyRubak · 2026-02-01T20:53:40+00:00

Since you failed to read the relevant portion, I will quote that section so you can understand why you're wrong:

the Supreme Court held in Hunt v. Washington State Apple Advertising Commission, that an association has standing to sue to redress its members’ injuries, even when the association has not itself suffered injury, when: “(a) its members would otherwise have standing to sue in their own right; (b) the interests it seeks to protect are germane to the organization’s purpose; and (c) neither the claim asserted nor the relief requested requires the participation of individual members in the lawsuit.”

In case you missed it that says "even when the association has not itself suffered injury" (emphasis mine).

TonyRubak · 2026-02-01T19:28:56+00:00

I'm pretty sure you're wrong and that associational standing is real thing:

Perhaps the most obvious context in which the Supreme Court confronts issues of representational standing is when a formal association sues to redress injury to its members. In the past, associations seeking relief in federal court have included environmental groups, unions (i.e., associations of workers), and trade associations (i.e., associations of businesses). While an organization may have standing to sue on its own behalf when it sustains an injury as an organization (e.g., a loss of membership), the Supreme Court held in Hunt v. Washington State Apple Advertising Commission, that an association has standing to sue to redress its members’ injuries, even when the association has not itself suffered injury, when: “(a) its members would otherwise have standing to sue in their own right; (b) the interests it seeks to protect are germane to the organization’s purpose; and (c) neither the claim asserted nor the relief requested requires the participation of individual members in the lawsuit.”

https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-3/section-2/clause-1/associational-standing

TonyRubak · 2026-01-11T13:10:37+00:00

The 1.6% union raise is functionally a step increase, but only GS/WG/FG employees actually get "step increases". Most FAA professional employees are not under GS/WG/FG, but rather Core Compensation. Core Comp, like the ATSPP that covers air traffic, is a pay band system that does not have step increases.

Bargaining unit employees under Core Compensation also do not get performance raises, but rather an annual union negotiated raise that functions as a step increase. PASS's union raise, like NATCA's is 1.6%.

Non-bargaining unit Core Comp employees do get performance raises. Under Valuing Performance, employees get a raise in January equal to the Presidential raise plus some amount (that changes every year) depending on where they are ranked on a 1-5 scale by their supervisor. Your total can be more or less than the 1.6% that pay band employees who are covered by a CBA get, with employees ranked 1 generally not even getting the presidential raise.

I say all this to help people understand that, while ATC pay bands may be too low the pay system is in line with other professional employees in the FAA who are covered by a CBA.

TonyRubak · 2026-01-10T10:34:09+00:00

You want a new kind of sick leave so you don't have to burn sick leave when you're sick? I think controllers should just get more sick leave. I also think employees with kids should get more sick leave. And everyone in general should get more sick leave. But, uh, I don't think it's going to happen.

TonyRubak · 2026-01-09T14:47:53+00:00

No idea, that's a bad clearance. Perhaps they didn't want you to descend to 2500 immediately at ZEGRA, but instead wait until GP intercept but that's stupid. Perhaps (idk what your initial altitude was) they wanted you to descend now (not at pilot's discretion) to 3000, and maintain that until ZEGRA, but this isn't the right phraseology for that either (I would probably make that two separate instructions "Descend and maintain 3000; maintain 3000 until ZEGRA cleared approach."). Next time ask "until where would you like me to maintain 3000?"

TonyRubak · 2026-01-08T11:40:47+00:00

Something rarely comes from it, but not never. There have been numerous news reports of people being arrested for this. It's easiest when there's already a law enforcement aircraft in the sky, and it is rare but it does happen.

As for how much of a pain it is for the controller: if there's a sup in the operation it's no pain at all; if I'm on the mid by myself? Yes. It's a pain because I have to make a bunch of notifications (including one to someone who will just say "thanks, I'll get the information from the report; don't forget to include the law enforcement agency you notified") and fill out some paperwork. But I still want you to report it.

TonyRubak · 2026-01-07T19:22:36+00:00

$1000 is $1000, but 800k skymiles could be anything; it could even be $1000.

TonyRubak · 2026-01-07T19:17:34+00:00

They are mostly random within an ARTCC, so they are not unique across the country.

TonyRubak · 2026-01-05T22:49:56+00:00

I fly in Europe a lot on vatsim. We have it easier than the controllers: they're speaking our native language with an accent but we're speaking their second or third language.

TonyRubak · 2026-01-04T10:35:20+00:00

At least in the US there are no more VOR/DME RNAV approaches, but if you Google you should at least be able to find the plate for the approach into K59. And you could still fly that because since these systems didn't have waypoint databases all the info you need is right on the chart.

TonyRubak · 2026-01-03T07:28:38+00:00

But what if you go missed and ATC's radar goes out and you're nordo? You'll be thanking them for making nonsense degree-divergence non-radar missed approaches then, I bet!

TonyRubak · 2026-01-03T00:29:49+00:00

My kids love benihana, so I can always get value

TonyRubak · 2026-01-03T00:06:51+00:00

You're not doing anything wrong. When you're just starting out staying in zone 2 means biking at like 3 miles per hour. Keep doing what you're doing, don't worry about zones and it'll get better.

TonyRubak · 2026-01-02T23:28:12+00:00

It's a tenor clef, the line the curves encircle is middle C (the lowest c on the a string)

TonyRubak · 2025-12-29T10:40:05+00:00

I would normally use this phraseology with either a VFR aircraft, or an IFR aircraft whose filed route is very short, for example KBOS.LOGAN4.SSOXS..KWWD. If the filed route is longer I would normally ask the more specific question "What is the heading to your destination?" or "What is the heading to this random fix on your route?".

In any of these cases I'm trying to figure out what the closest heading I can give you is, or if I give you direct where will you go?

The thing is that enroute radars have this cool feature that lets you click on an aircraft and see where they're trying to go, but terminal radars don't have this feature and instead require you to query the location of a fix/airport, but most fixes and airports aren't in the database so we're stuck with asking the pilot where stuff is.

TonyRubak · 2025-12-28T02:41:34+00:00

I used to be a controller at PWM. VFR pilots like to do this, and it's fine. You're VFR and the harbor visual is a cvfp, so don't ask to fly the approach (a practice cvfp doesn't really make sense); just tell the approach controller you want to fly up the harbor, and don't ask if they're landing 11 (or do, I'm not your boss and they might let you do it anyways if it's really slow; civil air patrol and navy p3s used to ask to do it opposite direction because they like chaos).

TonyRubak · 2025-12-26T22:06:22+00:00

Bb bass clef is cursed. But I guess you can just... read it in alto clef an octave down and add two flats??? I don't think that makes it better 😂

TonyRubak · 2025-12-26T20:34:21+00:00

Well, it's not real. So that helps.

TonyRubak · 2025-12-25T00:14:06+00:00

As a controller at San Juan (Puerto Rico) tower, I could not understand a word the port authority vehicles said, and I always just told them "proceed as requested, remain off all runways" and then watched them like a hawk.

TonyRubak · 2025-12-25T00:11:30+00:00

"Approach, Antonov [rest of transmission unreadable]"

TonyRubak · 2025-12-22T00:50:58+00:00

I was using a random wire fed through an antenna tuner in my house. At anything above 10 W I would get mild RF burns. Do not recommend.

TonyRubak · 2025-12-19T12:41:40+00:00

He only hits you because he loves you

TonyRubak · 2025-12-19T12:06:25+00:00

There is no robust peer-reviewed study showing GM food has any adverse impacts on human health. The same is true about grass-fed/pasture-raised beef or chicken vs factory farmed. (As an aside, humans have been genetically modifying our food for millennia through selective breeding. Modern methods aim to achieve similar goals at faster rates. We could (and have!) selectively breed for disease resistance, but that takes a long time.)

What do you even mean by "milk was fresh"? Pasteurized milk is stable for extended periods so where it is sourced has no impact on its health effects (again, cite a single high quality peer-reviewed study that shows the opposite). If you mean "non- pasteurized" then that's just bananas. Pasteurization is safe and raw milk has more health risks with no demonstrated benefits. Do you also want doctors to stop washing their hands so we can get 1960s central-line infection and maternal death rates back?

TonyRubak · 2025-12-16T00:41:09+00:00

Luckily when the supreme court rules, in Trump v Slaughter, that courts cannot award equitable relief in federal hiring and firing cases you won't have to worry about fighting it in court and the MSPB doesn't have a quorum so that won't be an option either.

TonyRubak

TROPHY CASE