Everything's in local time. How backward is a company that does it differently?(again, tongue in cheek for all the future complaints about X or Y being different in the future).

 

One freq? In DFW, with 3 terminals and 19 company pages in Jepps you have two freqs for ramp/ops/mx. In MIA, with one terminal and 22 company pages, you have four frequencies with gates or time differences.

 

On that front, very backward. But of course back in Convair days they didn't have cellphones that changed with time zones. Wait, were there time zones then?

 

I'm talking about just the one labled "Ops", not all the others like ramp and mtc. I think the jepp says inbound and outbound, but my logic produces a wrong call most of the time. A west guy broke the code for me once, but I promptly forgot.

 

In CLT, you have 2 Ramp frequencies. 1 Inbound and 1 Outbound. You can't hear what the other guy is doing. And even though I'm convinced Inbound and Outbound are standing next to each other in the Ramp Tower, neither one seems to know what the other guy is doing.

Although, I have found I get better service if I speak "Charlotte Ramp".

 

Hey, it's the land of NASCAR. "Y'all be careful out there!"

 

Ground Control at ORD is the same way...

 

You forgot to add: "Ya hear?" at the end to make it authentic southern talk...

 

"Uh...tell you what, bring it on in Echo 14, in sequence, right side along the grass, hold in between 5 and 6, give way to that mini-Bus comin' out in between the B and C Cons, to the gate."

"Uh...tell ya what, give way to that Dash comin' off the Line. I got a heavy comin' into the D Con, in sequence, 2 point 8."

 

I think it's more of a cultural/expectation thing. It's been done as a courtesy for them for so many years, that it has become expected. I print pairings for them simply because I'm printing one out for myself and it's just as easy to hit the "5" key as it is the "1" key. No biggy. I usually sign them in but again this is something that takes all of 2 minutes. Most say thanks but not all. Being nice to the FA's does pay off most of the time. When you are, they seem to check on you more often and offer us better service in the air. I would say that some pilots have come to "expect" certain things from the FA's while working that is not in the FA's job description... I've just found that if your nice to them, they are usually nice to you. Makes for an easier trip. All for the cost of 2-3 extra minutes of "work" on my part...