San Carlos Tower Has An ATC Problem

I don't argue with ATC but clearly, the controller was rude and very, very unprofessional in his dealings with a student. I kept thinking, what if there was a young solo pilot w/o his instructor to run interference?

Personally, I would terminate the employment of this controller he appears to be an accident waiting to happen. Attitudes don't belong in the tower, or in the Air.

I'm based at SQL, and saying it has an ATC problem is an understatement. I can't understand why this is a contract tower, (read... lowest bidder), considering the volume of traffic it has. It's been understaffed for some time now and at points has reduced hours and denied any pattern work. I've been told that SQL not considered a GA airport, but a commercial airport due to all the 135 operations. The FAA will finally realize there is a problem when there is an accident, which, if past performance is an indication, I believe is inevitable. As a side note, SQL is closed for runway and taxiway improvements and won't reopen until October 11th.

After flying out of SQL for many years, I can say that this appears to be an isolated controller incident. As the article states, lots of students do pattern work there, and that is where I did my training and solo. The controllers were always polite and patient. The only thing a controller said to me one time was "keep up your speed little buddy" as my C-150 was in front of a twin about to turn final as I was coming in to land. :)

Over-flying SQL enroute to HWD across the Bay one afternoon, the SQL controller assigned me a 090 heading. Unfortunately, this heading would cause us to enter the SFO Class Bravo if we were left on that heading and altitude. You guessed it. He forgot about us until we reached the edge of the Class B and issued a hard right turn instruction to another heading. Since both he and I knew where the boundary was, I felt he had authority to issue the heading over my obligation (in VFR) to avoid the Class B, which would be the case if he were an Approach controller. In this case, I believe I could have gotten into a bit of a mess. At the time, my concern was that the controller had a sky full of students below me and was obviously overworked.

Not sure why but the episode where a Starbucks employee went berserk because a rainbow Frappuccino was to hard to make comes to mind when I hear this exchange. Heck, I have not worked 8 hours a day since Carter was President.

I have a friend who I met when he worked ATC at SQL after a full and award winning career as an FAA controller at various stations including SFO, NCT and so on. He used to be able to work 7 in the pattern and hold a conversation in the cab. Not a joke. Unquestionably service quality has declined since then. A notable example is I've heard the controllers shut out pattern work with as few as 2 in the pattern. It also seems they have little idea of what to do with helicopters even though several are based there and there are plenty of transients.

I've also witnessed (not directed at me) the ugly mood swing effect over the air. This is the height of unprofessional. And to be sure I've also heard ATC make more than enough mistakes including some that would have resulted in a loss of separation. While nobody is perfect, quality at SQL has deteriorated far below that where it used to be and not even close to where it is with say PAO. Even RHV with "bad Steve" back in the day was better than SQL is now. I think both are fair comparisons.

Everyone on staff, ATC or otherwise, and I'm including airport ops, one of which is particularly badge heavy, needs to realize SQL is a TRAINING airport and treat people accordingly. We're not dealing with 20,000 hour airline pilots going to SFO. Everyone needs to help each other out, pilots and ops staff too.

If things continue to be bad or get worse, I say take recording to the airport manager and also use the public comment period at the county board of supervisors. Play the tapes. Let people hear what's going on. Nothing like public exposure to "clear the air" as it were. Organize the people at SQL. You might be surprise at what 150 people can do if they each take a speaker's card and talk on an issue at a BOS meeting.

You get what you pay for... Cheap Labor, Cheap Product...

Contract controller needs to go that attitude will result in an accident. Stupid to argue with a pilot to start with get things moving and then sort it out later on the ground. Didnt know that they could stop someone from flying by telling them to terminate there flight. WOW

I logged many student hours in 610SP at SQL 2007 - 2209 (WVFC). Controllers were always very accommodating. Nothing ever like this.

VasAviation on YT has the audio from this exchange if anyone wants to listen to how it went down.

Why she?

"I'm working too hard"? Was this taken straight out of the UAW playback? This "oppressed" ATC has no business being in the tower. Resign or be fired, ok, just fire the controller! Post haste!

This has nothing to do with workload or pay. In thousands of hours of transitions, you did a few seconds of testy exchanges.

To all the folks that say this controller should be fired... you don't get it. He was alone on a shift, which in itself is a travesty, and if he isn't there, no tower. Pick your poison. I flew in and out of a lot of very busy *uncontrolled* airports in NorCal (I was also a controller) and it was very dicey, I even once took over the pattern from the air because of a few boneheads. I'll take a few snippy comments over an unsafe environment, thankyaverymuch. Take it up with the FAA, because while it's a contract tower, they still have to abide by FAA regs and safety standards as much as any government facility.