Originally Posted by
HercAC
My experience has been in ATL it is usually Delta MD-88s wind checking on final. Perhaps technology, or lack thereof, plays a role. With airplanes being cleared to land every couple of minutes, current wind information seems to be readily available without having to ask. It surely is not a military thing, perhaps with the exception of the DAL MD-88 guy in my unit:-)
I seem to notice the opposite trend in my IAH neighborhood, we hear Expressjet and Continental with their fancy schmancy aeromuplanes asking for wind checks all the time, and then if we hear a Colgan asking for a wind check we give him a wedgie in the crew room (kidding)...
For me personally, I can pretty well tell if the winds are worth adding speed by the movement in the airspeed needle and the bumps, and don't really feel that a number is necessary. Others might be more number oriented, and that's fine too. But, I suspect that having a number glaring you in the face that is significantly different than the number tower gave you might inspire suspicion about wind shear, so by all means, ask. We know more about the winds than the airplane does in our case in the mighty Saab, so unless we are told the winds are 360 at 20 and we are crabbing 30 degrees towards the south to maintain localizer, we don't usually think anything is amiss.
I do get a little chuckle however when ATIS and tower have been saying winds are something like 6 knots, final is smooth, our heading matches the final course, and I hear someone asking for a wind check. Can't help but think "really? You can't manage this without a number?"