A very strange accident - N1246G - possibly a pilot mentally incapacitated (or senile) before getting airborne?

Silvaire wrote:

FAA controllers do not get personal.

They do occasionally. I guess I got a guy who was having a bad night, but I was making a late night return from Houston via some H24 ATC airfield (I don’t remember which). I called for taxi, no response – so waited for 45 seconds or so in case the controller was on the landline and then called again.

I then got chewed out for about a minute and a half about how I shouldn’t call so frequently, how he was working another frequency, and how I was such an idiot etc. etc. before finally giving me taxi instructions in a tired put upon voice. I put it down to him having a bad night, read back the instructions and went on my way. ATCOs are human, and sometimes you’ve got to make an allowance for that.

Kennedy Steve does!

lionel wrote:

Silvaire, the issue here is not of authority (that “someone” would have forbidden him to fly with the authority to do so), but a human (humane?) intervention along the lines of “Sir, it looks/sounds like you may be under the weather today; would you like us to help you find a local hotel so that you can rest and perform this flight in better conditions?”

FAA controllers do not get personal.

Silvaire wrote:

I think the bigger issue in this case is that FAA is quite properly tasked with helping pilots, not questioning them, unless there were evidence that they are not legally qualified to conduct the flight. There is more to be gained by limiting ATC authority in this regard (…)

Silvaire, the issue here is not of authority (that “someone” would have forbidden him to fly with the authority to do so), but a human (humane?) intervention along the lines of “Sir, it looks/sounds like you may be under the weather today; would you like us to help you find a local hotel so that you can rest and perform this flight in better conditions?” Just like when you sound like you have hypoxia, ATC is being helpful and looking out for you (not exercising any authority) when suggesting you to descend.

Whatever the possible interpretations, I do think that most of the concern expressed in this thread has been about FISOs, A/G operators and Flugleiter types.

If you want bad ATC there are plenty of places to find it, but generally not north of the Pyrenees, and west of the Urals.

Right you didn’t say it but I implied it from the topic of the thread. So which part did you mean ? The Flugleiters whose name imply they are directing flights or the professional controllers ? Are the reports about the former or the latter.

Well, if you mean the German „Flugleiter“, they aren’t actually ATC, because they control nothing except the taxiway and apron. There are good ones ant there are idiots.
Peter said ATC, and that’s DFS, and they are outstanding really.

EuroFlyer wrote:

I’ve never encountered ATC guys more helpful than in Germany.

I agree that German ATC is superb.

However, and I really don’t want to name names, there are some FISOs who are sub-optimal, particularly if you want to fly an IFR approach into “their” airspace. Without actually instructing you to break off the approach and join the visual circuit like everyone else, they certainly manage to get the message across.

And some FISOs are very peremptory on the radio, but that may be language.