Back in the day, some of the airlines used to let folks listen to the pilot’s audio for free…
An often asked question was why are we ‘here’ talking to somebody else over ‘there’ or behind us?
Welp…
This is a fairly good map of the ‘centers’ that pilots talk to for inflight routing, updates, altitude changes, weather warnings, etc.
So yes, you can be over Biloxi, and still talking to Houston center. Or flying from Chicago to LA and talke to Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, Salt Lake and finally Los Angeles centers in that order. OR you could divert north for weather and never talk to Denver at all.
The other question often heard on the translant or transpac flights is why are we talking to Jacksonville or Oakland and we’re still over water?
There is this ‘thing’ called the Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). Picture below, and if you compare the two, the areas over water track pretty closely with the ADIZ map.
EVERY aircraft that enters the ADIZ from overseas is required to contact the appropriate center prior to entry. If they don’t, there are USAF fighters on 24/7/365 alert to launch and come ‘talk’ to the airplane…
And yes, we used to occasionally be tasked to go ‘bust’ the ADIZ to give the Air Force practice… sigh…
For the next few days, I’ll be at Foolzcon, so light to no posts, probably until Monday. Enjoy the weekend, and go read the folks on the sidebar!!!
Hey Old NFO;
Thanks for the info, I always wondered about that, now I know. I wanted to attend the “Not a Con”, but was unable to this year. Will call next week and ,splain why.
Regretfully
Back in the late 80’s we were tasked to fly low and fast out at sea, then turn in and attack San Francisco with transponders off as a flight of A-7s. It was lots of fun. You could hear the National Guard scrambling fighters to intercept us. It looks like the cold war is back again now.
It’s all fun and games until someone gets their eye poked out, mom used to say. đŸ™‚
IIRC the only airline to offer pilot audio onboard was United, on channel 9.
“And yes, we used to occasionally be tasked to go ‘bust’ the ADIZ to give the Air Force practice… sigh…”
Circa 1960’s we were flying IFR (I follow roads) in Nevada when two F-4s tried to fly formation with us. Seemed to want to communicate. Since the Stinson 108 lacked a radio they finally gave up. Maybe our descending to 100′ AGL influenced them. Guess we should have checked the Sectional a little closer.
All- Thanks for the comments!
Christmas of ’76 I flew my Cessna 182 to Key West.
Seems I remember having to contact someone about the ADIZ back then, even while never leaving the contiguous U.S..
GB- Yep, it ‘tucks in’ down there.