Originally Posted by
rickt86
Whats up Ajax,
Hello from the 182 pilot at Skydive Sussex on 127.60, we all know how much you guys LOVE us all day!! I wonder which controller you are, I know your not paul aka the wolf man. I wonder if your the one who says your welcome every time someone says thank you, or the guy who responds with Roger! in a slightly increasing pitch over the word. You could be the new guy from Texas, or you could be the female controller who is always a blast to work with, she occasional says use caution sky dumping...i mean sky diving. You could be the one guy who never ever ever wants to talk to us. You could be Randy...I think his name is Randy who keeps trying to plan a trip out here, and occasionally hands me off to weird NY freq. who ask what the cost is and phone number, and loves when I tell them Traccon IDS can spark a short $1 special on the cash register. Or the guy that was working the one day when some VFR guy from Canada called up and the controller asked what his location was, and he said about 175 miles north of Lancaster. Not sure how many guys work your sector but I feel like I always get the same 8 or 9 guys/girls. Also my Dad thinks you guys are top notch, he is a UAL bus captain, he is the one who will always tell ya to drive home safe. I have about 1000 hours flying in that airspace flying jumpers over the last year and a half, even though its busy, and we can clash, compared to NORCAL last winter, you guys rock.
if it feels like you always get the same 8 or 9 guys, its probably not far from reality. We have 41 fully qualified controllers in my area, but many of us have our "favorite" positions, and we tend to try work those more. For example, I prefer to work yardley/penns, or north arrival/penns, or either of the finals, or departure over any of the other positions. I don't particularly care much for Mugsy mostly because I rather work with the professional pilots, instead of the gazillion VFR weekend warriors that Mugsy gets. If I get it assigned of course I wont turn it down, but I don't go out of my way to get it.
I really have mixed feelings about your skydiving operation. To be totally frank....I am amazed that to this day, we haven't had an incident with a jumper going splat over some aircraft's windshield. You guys are dropping this jumpers directly over a busy arrival fix, and as much as we try to warn both you and any inbounds about the jumps, I'm always worried about it.
I'll tell you this much....I'm not the new guy from Texas (I've been here 20 years), nor am I female. However, I'm pretty sure that you'd know instantly who I am if I tell you.
