Narrative:

The special event procedures used at the anniston airport for departures after the nascar sprint cup series race were not implemented as they had been published in the ntap and they caused confusion. The notice to airmen publication indicated that during the time after the nascar race aircraft departing anb under IFR should contact birmingham approach while on the ground to obtain clearance and release. At the FBO papers were given to the flight crews instructing us to use a different frequency to contact what they called 'anniston tower' for our clearance; sequence; and release. That was the start of the confusion with conflicting instructions to pilots. Anniston is a non-towered airport with an FSS located on the field; there is no ATC tower in operation. The radio call sign of 'tower' is very inappropriate in this case because when pilots hear a facility using the word tower in their call sign the pilots expect to be given clearances to taxi; takeoff; land; etc. All this 'tower' was doing was giving IFR clearances; requesting aircraft to advise beginning taxi so they could set the departure sequence; and giving us releases. I believe that the proper call sign for this should have been 'anniston clearance.' during my time there I heard multiple aircraft that were confused. Several were requesting taxi clearance from the tower instead of announcing their taxi on CTAF. Some aircraft didn't seem to know that the CTAF was in use and were not making any announcements at all.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Pilot reports of confusion due to a non-towered airport using a frequency to issue IFR Clearances; while pilots thought this was an actual Tower and not using the airport CTAF for position reports.

Narrative: The special event procedures used at the Anniston airport for departures after the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race were not implemented as they had been published in the NTAP and they caused confusion. The Notice to Airmen Publication indicated that during the time after the NASCAR race aircraft departing ANB under IFR should contact Birmingham Approach while on the ground to obtain clearance and release. At the FBO papers were given to the flight crews instructing us to use a different frequency to contact what they called 'Anniston Tower' for our clearance; sequence; and release. That was the start of the confusion with conflicting instructions to pilots. Anniston is a non-towered airport with an FSS located on the field; there is no ATC Tower in operation. The radio call sign of 'Tower' is very inappropriate in this case because when pilots hear a facility using the word tower in their call sign the pilots expect to be given clearances to taxi; takeoff; land; etc. All this 'Tower' was doing was giving IFR clearances; requesting aircraft to advise beginning taxi so they could set the departure sequence; and giving us releases. I believe that the proper call sign for this should have been 'Anniston Clearance.' During my time there I heard multiple aircraft that were confused. Several were requesting taxi clearance from the Tower instead of announcing their taxi on CTAF. Some aircraft didn't seem to know that the CTAF was in use and were not making any announcements at all.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.