The O’Hare controllers should be among the most qualified and best worldwide, hat much is for sure. While I do not know the details (like why there aren’t more GND frequencies) I hesitate to call their operation “mismanaged”.
When it’s your daily business to fly into ORD you simply don’t have big problems, because you always go to the same terminal, receive a similar clearance all the time, except in very extreme weather conditions … but I am guessing all that.
I am sure NCYankee can say something qualified about that …
The US are a founding member of the ICAO and as such should respect the international standards. There is a good reason why we have standardization, if everybody is familiar with the airport, then we don’t need ICAO.
It’s highly unprofessional. RT phraseology is not only for Heathrow and Frankfurt, it’s for all airports. Such a sound snippet is not cool or impressive, it’s dangerous and stupid.
That’s your exclusive opinion. I think it’s quite arrogant to call the most experienced ATC staff of the planet “unprofessional”. It’s their SOP and all the pilots are used to it. In general the standard on the radio is much higher in the US and I wish we had the same standard in Europe. In Germany 75 percent of the pilots don’t know the difference between “base” and “right base” …
Flyer59 wrote:
I hesitate to call their operation “mismanaged
The choice of words may have been overly polemic – but the point remains.
well, ok, i admit that it’s not perfect … but I if it works for everybody it’s probably ok. I cannot recall a runway incursion etc. on the GND at ORD … and that’s with 7 runways. They must do their job pretty well, IMHO
I think this needs to be seen in the context of the US flying climate. Most of the pilots flying there are highly current.
Commercial pilots do crap radio all the time in Europe too. Of course not the flag carriers and usually not say Easyjet 
It happens with familiarity and having heard the same stuff several times a day.
I don’t think US PPLs find it easy either but they are presented with a much more uniform GA environment than we are in Europe. Here, you can pop over the border (even to N France) and get an ATCO whose English is barely legible (Lille is one such).
That kind of radio does make it hard or impossible to catch incorrect readbacks, however.
Flyer59 wrote:
That’s your exclusive opinion.
I agree with Achim. Are all flight crews at O’Hare so “professional” that clearance readbacks are not needed?
I don’t doubt that O’Hare “works” and that its controllers are skilled, but it seems like its doing so by having its own “subculture”. That will lead to problems when you get an unfamiliar crew.
I now asked a professional who flies into ORD regularly. He said: It is common practice at ORD that a GND controller issues five taxi clearances at once and that a readback is not required. They monitor GND traffic closely and if you follow the instructions as given all is fine.
That’s one reason why airline pilots are checked out for some airports by more experienced collegues.
If they actually pay somebody to watch the taxiing traffic, that’s OK. And I can believe that is more effective than waiting for readbacks and then you will still get screwups.
But at most airports that isn’t done. Nobody keeps an eye on stuff 100% of the time.
Peter wrote:
If they actually pay somebody to watch the taxiing traffic, that’s OK
I do not know details but I believe in such airports there are systems which use ground radar or movement sensors that can PREDICT runway incursions or taxiing (bound to) conflicts apart offcourse from a person watching the flow and potential errors. At night (or even day at some) they have lighted taxiway centerline lights that indicate taxi path and also taxi clearance limit points.
On the other hand also as long as you don’t collide, the dangers of turning in the wrong taxiway are as not as great as in the air as long as you don’t turn in to an active runway. Its only their ego that will be damaged and a few minutes delay maybe.
I remember that exchange of the bitchin’ ground female controller that circulates the Internet where the pilot turned and said “wasn’t I married to you once ?” or something similar.
My 2 cents.
