SkyWest Flight numbers

[JayAre]

Past few trips I've heard Skywest using different flight numbers such as 357A etc... Am I losing my hearing or are they putting letters after the flight number?

[bike21]

We do it b/c we run out of United Express/Delta flight numbers. Kind of a pain, cause I usually call clearance delivery up with the standard call sign "SkyWest 6587" for instance, without looking at our actual filed call sign. So after saying "SkyWest 67A" a few times, it sticks with me for the rest of the flight.

[viper548]

There are a lot of similar call signs. This is most noticable flying in and out of SLC. Changing some call signs to XXA or XXB helps avoid callsign confusion

[Cheechako]

Yeah, that, and. . .

Delta and United will use one flight number for a series of flights, for example, flight 3990 will begin in Spokane, WA to Salt Lake City, then 3990 may continue on to San Diego. The flight number may stay the same, but the airplane could change. Let's say the airplane flying flight 3990 is late getting out of Spokane, but the airplane doing 3990 SLC-SAN is running on time. You could, essentially, have two airplanes in the Salt Lake airspace operating as Skywest 3990. So the San Diego bound 3990 turns into 90A or 90B.

Capice?

[Bluto]

Originally Posted by viper548

There are a lot of similar call signs. This is most noticable flying in and out of SLC. Changing some call signs to XXA or XXB helps avoid callsign confusion

Yeah, except when whoever the bozo is that figures out the new flight numbers makes them similar, completely defeating the whole purpose. I can't tell you how many times I heard similar "a" numbers out of SLC. 47A, 37A, "Was that for us?" Dude, how about throwing in a bravo, or charlie to really differentiate!!!

[Doug Taylor]

At most airlines, the flight numbers are assigned by marketing, at least at my last two.

The worst part is that when you're on arrival at rush hour at a major hub and there's a Delta 1437, a Delta 1347 and a Delta 237 all coming in on the same arrival.

GRRR. Wrote a report about, wasted about 30 minutes of my life.

[mrivc211]

"GRRR. Wrote a report about, wasted about 30 minutes of my life."


Exactly how I'm starting to feel about things when I have to deal with work, outside of work! If I'm at work, I'd like to be paid for it.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by mrivc211

"GRRR. Wrote a report about, wasted about 30 minutes of my life."


Exactly how I'm starting to feel about things when I have to deal with work, outside of work! If I'm at work, I'd like to be paid for it.

. . . said the teacher grading papers at 10pm

. . . said the doctor in the delivery room at 1am

. . . said the priest preparing a sermon on his day off

. . . said the fireman still dousing flames well past Miller time

We'll never get what we think we're worth.

[Bluto]

Originally Posted by SkyWChris

. . . said the teacher grading papers at 10pm...

We'll never get what we think we're worth.

Nobody get's what they think they're worth, or even what they are actually worth, people only earn what they can negotiate.

[Doug Taylor]

Originally Posted by mrivc211

Exactly how I'm starting to feel about things when I have to deal with work, outside of work! If I'm at work, I'd like to be paid for it.

There's this underground problem in ATL where we have these RNAV departures and there's an entire system set up where you taxi out, check into another frequency to tell him your runway and initial fix, then he clears you to talk to tower.

This is all done to avoid departing one of the north runways and turning the wrong direction and having a traffic conflict.

It's happened a few times, there have been violations both in the pilot ranks and also controller errors which led to time off/violations as well.

So I flew with one of the program managers once and gave him my speech about we could save memory in the FMS system by only having North and West departures selectable with the North complex runways, and South and East departures selectable only with South complex runways.

So basically, it would electronically "remove" the possibility of turning the wrong direction if there is a runway/initial fix mismatch.

"What if the North runway complex is closed?"

Simple, if there's a North or West departure departing the south complex, well, there's always the ATL5 departure that the non RNAV equipped aircraft use every day without the turns.

I wrote a report about it a year ago.

Silence.

However, every five minutes in traning "confirm the runway! confirm the initial fix!" checklist changes, procedure changes, blah blah blah.

Simple, cost-effective fix without changing checklists, procedures having guys get violated, extra controllers to listen to you say "27L, GEETK" (or whatever the heck it is) before switching to tower.

[ERfly]

Originally Posted by Doug Taylor

There's this underground problem in ATL where we have these RNAV departures and there's an entire system set up where you taxi out, check into another frequency to tell him your runway and initial fix, then he clears you to talk to tower.

This is all done to avoid departing one of the north runways and turning the wrong direction and having a traffic conflict.

It's happened a few times, there have been violations both in the pilot ranks and also controller errors which led to time off/violations as well.

So I flew with one of the program managers once and gave him my speech about we could save memory in the FMS system by only having North and West departures selectable with the North complex runways, and South and East departures selectable only with South complex runways.

So basically, it would electronically "remove" the possibility of turning the wrong direction if there is a runway/initial fix mismatch.

"What if the North runway complex is closed?"

Simple, if there's a North or West departure departing the south complex, well, there's always the ATL5 departure that the non RNAV equipped aircraft use every day without the turns.

I wrote a report about it a year ago.

Silence.

However, every five minutes in traning "confirm the runway! confirm the initial fix!" checklist changes, procedure changes, blah blah blah.

Simple, cost-effective fix without changing checklists, procedures having guys get violated, extra controllers to listen to you say "27L, GEETK" (or whatever the heck it is) before switching to tower.

DFW did the same thing with their RNAV departures. Did ATL stop giving headings again? I know they were just letting guys go, then somebody screwed up, so they started giving headings again. So they started the "Queue" freq. system, too?

Something tells me these departures are more problems than they're worth.

[Doug Taylor]

I think the entire situation is a result of an accountant trying to figure out how to have less controllers do more work and not understanding what goes on in the cockpit.

[difete]

It is not so bad is it?
Its just an added letter to a frikkin call signs number.

[Bluto]

Originally Posted by difete

It is not so bad is it?
Its just an added letter to a frikkin call signs number.

No, it's not so bad, but solving the problem by creating the identical problem is stupid. One might argue that it's not even solving the problem.

On a related note, what's with the 5700 #'s on the united side? Someone told me those were at-risk flights. Is that true or did they just run out of 6000 #'s?

[Cheechako]

They're ex-Air Wisconsin flight numbers.

[Ralgha]

Originally Posted by Bluto

No, it's not so bad, but solving the problem by creating the identical problem is stupid. One might argue that it's not even solving the problem.

On a related note, what's with the 5700 #'s on the united side? Someone told me those were at-risk flights. Is that true or did they just run out of 6000 #'s?

They are at risk flights.