Author Topic: Helicopter photoshoot ticks off LAX Tower controller  (Read 30724 times)

Offline ARMEDnPISSED

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Helicopter photoshoot ticks off LAX Tower controller
« on: May 02, 2011, 11:47:15 PM »
Caught this yesterday afternoon (5/1)... wish we were able to listen to what the helicopter pilot said to him.

Who's betting money Sam Chui was on that chopper?



Offline rwehtje

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Re: Helicopter photoshoot ticks off LAX Tower controller
« Reply #1 on: May 03, 2011, 12:46:21 AM »
What was the time it occured. I cannot open the .mp3 for some reason.

Offline ARMEDnPISSED

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Re: Helicopter photoshoot ticks off LAX Tower controller
« Reply #2 on: May 03, 2011, 12:56:25 AM »
What was the time it occured. I cannot open the .mp3 for some reason.
12:02 local time (19:02 GMT).

What media player are you using? It works fine for me in Winamp.

Offline rwehtje

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Re: Helicopter photoshoot ticks off LAX Tower controller
« Reply #3 on: May 03, 2011, 01:37:01 AM »
using FireFox browser or iTunes

Offline Dan CZQM

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Re: Helicopter photoshoot ticks off LAX Tower controller
« Reply #4 on: May 03, 2011, 07:13:12 AM »
"hash it out"  Did he mean have a smoke with him  :-D

He did not sound pleased.

Offline StuSEL

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Re: Helicopter photoshoot ticks off LAX Tower controller
« Reply #5 on: May 03, 2011, 11:15:11 PM »
Ehh not cool. You should call the facility on the phone to argue about something like this.

Offline Regalswan

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Re: Helicopter photoshoot ticks off LAX Tower controller
« Reply #6 on: May 04, 2011, 10:30:38 AM »
I'm certainly not taking any sides on this one, but did anyone else get the impression that the pilot may have called in advance? I can see how things would get heated on both sides. If someone had contracted the helicopter for the photo shoot is it possible he is not getting paid now?

Offline ize2dsky

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Re: Helicopter photoshoot ticks off LAX Tower controller
« Reply #7 on: May 04, 2011, 07:14:35 PM »
I was the controller in this incident, and I can tell you that in addition to working the helicopter sector, I was also working Local Control for the 'North Complex'---RYs 24L/R. Normally, when traffic reaches a moderate or greater level, a separate controller will be assigned to work helos to lessen the workload of the local controller. That wasn't the case  here. I was working the 2 sectors combined. The audio here doesn't give you anything close to an accurate picture as to what was going on. The only audio you here is a very short clip from my end, without the pilot dialog. At the point of this incident, I'd been working heavy volume traffic for probably in excess of 45 mins with a nonstop flow of traffic on 2 freqs. What you don't hear is that after advising the pilot that he needs to contact the Traffic Mgmt Unit prior to conducting a photoshoot, he responded by virtually screaming at me that he'd flying through our airspace for 25 yrs, and had never heard of such a policy. My response to him was rooted in the fact that I'd been humpin' my ass off for close to an hour, and I wasn't in the mood to get any attitude from a pilot. You couple that with the fact that I've been a controller at LAX for 21 yrs (only 2 others have been here longer), and a controller for 30 yrs, and what you get is a situation where the controller isn't intimidated by the claims of a pilot's seniority.

All that being said, look, that's something that pilots and controllers deal with every day. Things get tense, tempers get frayed, but you laugh about it later when the stress level drops, and tell anybody who asks that it's still a great way to make a living. If I ever met the pilot I was working with, rather than having an axe to grind, I'd be more likely to buy him a drink and exchange a few war stories. That's the reality.

Offline vb105

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Re: Helicopter photoshoot ticks off LAX Tower controller
« Reply #8 on: May 05, 2011, 08:57:30 AM »
ize2dsky: Well said. I'm not a controller but can easily understand that anytime you throw in VFR traffic into the mix of busy departures/arrivals things are bound to get a little hectic. Sounds more like a common under-staffing issue rather trying to shift the blame on the helo pilot or the controller.

Offline uplink

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Re: Helicopter photoshoot ticks off LAX Tower controller
« Reply #9 on: May 07, 2011, 07:40:13 AM »
Thanks for the response ize2dsky, you guys do an amazing job. When I fly through the LAX corridor (The Mini-Route), you can hear right away the controller is doing mulitple freqs because his side of the conversation talking to the jumbos on both freqs.  It's an obvious clue they are short-handed at the moment, and one should try to make it as easy as possible on them.  Not sure was that helo pilot was thinking.

Offline mwgg

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Re: Helicopter photoshoot ticks off LAX Tower controller
« Reply #10 on: May 31, 2011, 01:11:52 PM »
Who's betting money Sam Chui was on that chopper?

That was the first thing I thought when I've read the post title  :-D

Offline petroke

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Re: Helicopter photoshoot ticks off LAX Tower controller
« Reply #11 on: June 04, 2011, 07:10:56 PM »
Who's betting money Sam Chui was on that chopper?

That was the first thing I thought when I've read the post title  :-D

googled "sam chui"  - an aviation photo guy.  but he must have some history of issues with atc if you guys are throwing his name out?  just wondering.

Offline mwgg

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Re: Helicopter photoshoot ticks off LAX Tower controller
« Reply #12 on: June 06, 2011, 10:49:40 AM »
Who's betting money Sam Chui was on that chopper?

That was the first thing I thought when I've read the post title  :-D

googled "sam chui"  - an aviation photo guy.  but he must have some history of issues with atc if you guys are throwing his name out?  just wondering.

Just a wild guess, for the most part. I know some people who know the guy personally, I just know him from his photos (I'm an aviation photographer myself). He's well known for his photographs taken from where few people get a chance to shoot, like the airport aprons, helicopters around airports etc.