The cops also love to turn up when you're taking photos, and confiscate your camera. There's very little understanding of aviation enthusiasts outside the world of aviation enthusiasts.

 

So true!!

 

One day I was dropping my girlfriend off at DFW and since I had the day off I decided to drive around a little and check out the cargo area over on the west side of the airport. When I got over there, there was a group of offices right next to the fence near where a Eva Air Cargo 747 and a ATI DC-8 were parked. I got out of my car was standing at the fence having a look. I walked over to the guard gate and asked the guy if I could snap some shots and he got real defensive. I made up a story about my dad having flown DC-8's years back and that he would like to see some pics of one that was still in service. The guard said I could snap a few pics but don't take too long since it's not a "viewing area."

 

It's really disappointing when your in an area, not causing any harm, and the cops or security make a big deal that you want to snap a few photos. It's not like I was asking to go thru the fence to get a close up, or was blocking traffic and causing a disturbance. I suppose they are trained to think that anyone who wants to watch or take photos has more sinister intentions, but with all the more serious crimes going on, it feels like crap to get your hand slapped just because you have an interest in aviation and want to watch or get a few photos. The security guard I mentioned above looked at me like I was out of my mind that I wanted to take a couple photos. Didn't think it was that big of a deal really.

It's really disappointing when your in an area, not causing any harm, and the cops or security make a big deal that you want to snap a few photos. It's not like I was asking to go thru the fence to get a close up, or was blocking traffic and causing a disturbance. I suppose they are trained to think that anyone who wants to watch or take photos has more sinister intentions, but with all the more serious crimes going on, it feels like crap to get your hand slapped just because you have an interest in aviation and want to watch or get a few photos. The security guard I mentioned above looked at me like I was out of my mind that I wanted to take a couple photos. Didn't think it was that big of a deal really.

 

And it's not a big deal! Surely, people taking pictures of other people's houses is far more "dangerous", and that happens all the time. Before moving out of my last house, while still in the lease period, the landlord had prospective renters coming in while I was at work, taking pictures of the bedrooms and everything without my knowledge. Where's the law against that? But don't you dare take a photo of an aeroplane!

 

I think a big problem is that they just think we're mad. While the above-mentioned court case was going on, the news sites would run the story and the majority of public comments went along the lines of, "Why the hell would someone want to go to an airport to watch aeroplanes taking off?". This is very sad when you think that just two generations ago, kids would sit on top of fences for hours to catch a glimpse of the big machines.

SELCAL simply alerts the crew that someone on HF wishes to speak to them, and they must turn the volume up. They turn the volume down because of the high background noise on HF frequencies. SELCAL itself is just an identifier for the aircraft, they send an alert, the aircraft recognizes it and alerts the crew. SELCAL by itself cannot transmit a message, be it voice or text. You still need the HF radio to transmit actual messages. There are other text-message systems, ACARS etc, but SELCAL is not one of them. SELCAL = Selective Calling.

 

Sorry about that it's not SELCAL I am thinking of it's something else that Hawaiian just started using on their A330's

Sorry about that it's not SELCAL I am thinking of it's something else that Hawaiian just started using on their A330's

 

Don't apologise, the people who come up with all these acronyms should apologise :)