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Yes. One of the greatest perks of United that they eventually phased out.

You'd tune your headset to Channel 9 on most aircraft and list to ATC just between the tower and your plane. I'd listen to it many times just to understand when we'd get a delay, maintenance issue, airport slowness..etc.

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It got me over my fear of flying because I got to learn what the pilots (and the Center) thought about the turbulence we were experiencing and how they were responding to it.

It also inspired me to write the original version of this Wikipedia article

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_control_center

I used to prefer flying United over other airlines because they had it; now that they don't, I don't. :-(

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