With the easing of pandemic travel restrictions commercial flights have increased, seemingly often with crews not necessarily familiar with local procedures. Case in point: Delta 575, from Albany, NY, to Atlanta, departing Runway 19 last June:
DL 575: “Albany Departure, Delta 575 climbing through 1500, runway heading.”
Albany Departure: “Delta 575, turn right heading 340, climb one zero, ten, thousand.”
DL 575 (now in a heavy southern drawl): “Albany, are you aware that Atlanta is south of here?”
Albany (without skipping a beat in an Upstate NY voice, though possibly just a bit more clipped than normal): “575, we have Center restrictions due to inbounds from Europe descending over the top to New York, an MVA of 10 to the south due to mountains, and Boston inbounds crossing from the west, so departures get an initial routing to the northwest before turning on course.”
There was a pause, and then:
DL 575 (quietly, little inflection): “Ohhh, Okay.”
Daniel Spitzer
Montgomery, NY
At least Albany owned up to that and gave a logical explanation. When departing west out of CMH Columbus Ohio enroute to Cleveland, Columbus keeps issuing an eastbound turn for about 40 miles to the GEDDY on the ROLLN arrival instead of a northeast heading(much more direct to CLE)to the ROKNN arrival. Columbus blames Indy Ctr, then when inquiring Indy blames Cleveland Ctr. Cleveland then tells me it is not their call for that routing.