LONG BEACH TOWER OPERATIONS

[michaelt747]

So I was hanging out at Long Beach Airport in California the other day and I was watching planes take off and land and such with my scanner.  A JetBlue plane was taxiing to the end of Runway 30 for departures.  The controller told the plane: "Hold Short Runway 30." The pilot preceded to say just "Hold Short." and the controller came back and said, "JetBlueXXX hold short RUNWAY 30." and again, the pilot just said, "Hold Short." So finally, the controller said, something to the affect of, "I need the whole response, 'Hold Short Runway 30', I lose 30 bucks on the TAF (TAFE? or TAF? or TAPE?--it was pronounced TAFE) if you don't say the whole thing."

Now i understand completely that pilots do have to read back the entire thing including the runway number, my question is, what did the controller mean by losing 30 bucks, (he may have said 30 points) on the TAF--i'm assuming it's TAF or something like that, although I don't know what that would stand for.

Any responses on this would be greatly appreciated.

peace, Michael

[XTSKid]

It was likely a joke made by the controller..... The TAF is the Terminal Area Forecast, it is a report the FAA compiles about "Aviation activity at FAA Facilities" and information is used to formulate budget information for the faa and is also used by local/state governments, air carriers, the military ect for planning and logistical purposes.

[tommytoat]

no. it wasn't a joke. controllers are required to get a complete readback of all hold short instructions. the thirty points he was referring to was the tape reviews that supervisors must do to all controllers (once a year i believe) controllers lose 5 points for every time the don't use approved 7110.65 phraseology. certain things (such as not getting hold short readbacks) are worth 30 pts. and constitute an automatic failure. the ATCS then has to go throught remedial training...which sucks. hope i could clear that up...if anyone actully even cares.

[LAPTOP GAMER]

Man that's hard core, but aviation has no room for error.