Originally published at: Autonomous Aircraft Tune In To CTAF
Georgia Tech researchers are teaching autonomous aircraft to interpret CTAF radio calls at non-towered airports.
Years ago I was coming into a non tower airport for a fly in event. I was listening to the ctaf frequency 20 + miles before i got there. To figure out what runway was in use, wind direction and speed, etc. As i was preparing for a landing, a king air tried to pull a straight in approach on the opposite end of the active runway. I quickly got on the radio, and informed him of said active runway. Now would think that another pilot would be doing the same thing. Monitoring the ctaf, especially going into a fly in event. Or if he was on an ifr flight, atc would have given him that information. Regardless, it certainly pays to use ctaf.