I was just looking at a picture of a 767 being towed on the airport. (possibly to another cocourse or MX hangar) This makes me curious, are the tug drivers pulling those AC to other locations in contact with ground controllers just like pilots would be? I would assume those tug drivers go through some radio training to accomplish this?
Most movements require coordination with ground control. Some areas, company ramps, maintenance areas, etc…, don’t require ground control to approve movement.
I never thought about that… Can the pilots talk to the people on the ground who do the push-back and everything?
Any movement on the ground of a controlled facility requires radio contact and permission just like an aircraft. The exceptions are within some ramp areas and some designated road’s or paths where a vehicle would have to give way to aircraft. An example of the latter might be a shuttle bus that regularly runs a route between two gates. They would have a painted pathway to follow. Other ground vehicles, airport maintenance, fuel trucks, tugs etc would have to request a taxi from the ground controller. At an uncontrolled airport they should announce their intentions on CTAF.
At my airport there are a couple of service roads on the outside perimeter where vehicles can transit without permission.
They can talk via radio or a phone connected directly to the aircraft at the nose wheel. They also use hand signals.
I like to push back and tow a/c 8) The bigger, the easier.
What do you mean?
Just like towing a trailer - the larger (actually longer) they are, the less likely they are to swivel unintentionally. Just like the difference between towing a boat trailer and a jet ski trailer. Backing a jet ski trailer is 10x harder than backing a 25’ boat trailer - although it seems like it’d be the other way around. I assume that’s what IAD’s meaning at least…
I get what you mean. I know some about pulling trailers. 8)
Pretty good analogy!! Yes, pushing back a B744 is a tad easier then a B737 (These by the way were just for example sake my fav. to push is the B744…but that is just me 
). The “Tow limit” lines are further apart, and you can see everything around the aircraft since it sits up higher then the avg. tractor does. I’ve even had the thrill of pushing an AN-124…now that had my heart pounding because ALL I could see was nose 8) T/G all I had to do was push her a couple hundred yards straight back. The comment about the talking…yes there are intercom jacks located on normally the right side of the nose, or on the actual nose gear itself somewhere by the lights. Nobody moves until all instructions are given and repeated back.
The answer is that it depends. If the tow is going to be entirely on the "non-movement area’, great. Don’t call ground. If, however, the tow will either be on the “movement area” or protrude onto it, CALL GROUND.
dont you mean pulling trains?
No. I am just a kid, but I drive a 5 speed standard, Dodge 3500, with a 30 ft gooseneck trailer, with 7 tons of round bales on it, down a couple miles of road. And a 20 ft gooseneck with hay. I pull that one alot. And a 16 ft cattle trailer… Now you got me boasting about it. 
So I do know about pulling trailers…
Good point…inside say an FBO ramp, no need to call, outside as my man indicated…yep…good point sir
ok nvm.
At Fresno (KFAT) when the Tule Fog rolled in the airlines would have to be towed to the runway one at a time and depart without paying pax’s. Of course we couldn’t see the ground from the tower and to yoyo’s would put the radio back in the charger and head for coffee without ever telling us they were clear of the taxiway.
Frank Holbert
160knots.com
if you are being pushed back, is the pilot still responsible or are the kids on the ground?
in boats even if a tug is maneuvering you, the captain of the boat is responsible. back in the navy we were being pushed into our slip, and out of no where we got an order for ahead flank, and we applied the steam to the throttles fast as we could, and you could feel the screw hitting something for about 2 seconds… our screw hit the sub behind us, and wiped out its sonar dome and our screw and shaft and reduction gears… our captain was relieved of duty.
this isnt from our incident, but its very similar
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/2959/sonardome.jpg
Wut in the Hell are you talking about?
Sometimes you’re worse than Meek!
Back in my commuter days the A/C was my responsibility until I saluted the Captain. If you watch ground crews the last thing they do before the plane departs is throw a salute.