OK, ATC; What did I ever do to you?

Seriously guys. I have a lot of respect for you. So much in fact that I spend ages rehearsing my radio stuff so that I don’t sound stupid in front of you. I always use proper terminology and everything. I’ve only once tried to make up my own runway numbering system (and you caught that fairly quickly). My readbacks are concise, clear and correct.

So why, in the space of a week have you turned me directly into the path of a medevac helicopter and tried to bounce me off the Hearn Stacks? Not only that but you’ve gotten annoyed with me when I haven’t complied with your instruction to commit suicide. To cap things off if I’ve had done what I wanted to do, then there wouldn’t have been a conflict at all.

Honestly guys, most of the time I like you. You keep the big nasty Dash 8s out of my way. Occasionally you even make them give way to me! And I understand that on a busy Saturday morning we must increase your workload considerably, but I’m not going to smack myself into something at your request.

Looking at blips on a screen is one thing but those buildings come up on you awfully quickly when you are in a teeny-tiny plane. I’m just sayin’