On The Airbands

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My good friend Steve Southey from the NSW Police Airwing at Sydney Airport provides an interesting conversation he monitored while flying in Polair 2 (VH-PHX) inbound to Sydney, tracking along the eastern shores of Botany Bay. Boeing 7 4 7 Qantas 4 had just departed from RW 16 and was on climb, but still monitoring the Tower frequency 120. 5 MHz And then . . .

UNITED 815: “Aaah, Sydney Tower, United 815 is taxying up to one-six. ” (imagine this fellow with very deep, slow southern drawl)

TOWER: “United 815, Sydney Tower, line up runway one-six, hold position. ”

UNITED 815: “Un1ted 815 is rolling for one-six and will hold. ” TOWER: “United 815, Sydney Tower, cancel SID, maintain runway heading, maintain three thousand, clear for takeoff. ” (At this point in the proceedings, there is a considerable pause, but United 815 finally acknowledges. )

UNITED 815: “United 815, ah Sir, could you please explain to me how I can maintain three thousand when I’m still sitting here on this runway?”

(Total silence from Sydney Tower) then . . .

TOWER: “United 815, Sydney Tower, after taking off, maintain the runway heading, climb to three thousand feet, when you reach that altitude, maintain until further advised. Clear for takeoff runway one-six. ”

(A garbled acknowledgement from United 815, then a voice from out of the blue, in a very noticeable Aussie accent: remember Qantas 4 still on frequency).

UNIDENTIFIED A/C: “Do you come here often?” (A lot of silence from EVERYONE follows now).

Thanks to Steve Southey, write again Steve, love to hear from

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Another Police Airwing-related story, this time the Victoria Police Airwing’s Dauphins while in operation over the Melbourne Metropolitan Area. The following conversation was monitored on 131. 6 MHz (Australia-wide Police ‘company’ allocation) by Darren Sadler of Pascoe Vale in Victoria.

AIR 490: “Aah, 490 to Air 495, ya there Grant?”

AIR 495: “Affirm, we’ll be returning to Essendon now. ”

AIR 490: “Roger that, I take it you’ve heard about tomorrow arvo?”

AIR 495: “Negative. ”

AIR 490: “Yeah, there’s a bit of a barbecue get-together at Dave’s place, and he wants you to come. ”

AIR 495: “Oh great mate!”

AIR 490: (instant response) “But only because we want to use YOUR barbecue!”

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Ben Hayden of Tarragindi of Brisbane writes to enquire re military UHF frequencies used in-house by the RAAF after reading and noting the military UHF ATC frequencies in “Let Your Ears Have Wings ’88. ” I do have a list of these special channels Ben and will feature them shortly.

The airline callsign ‘Speedbird’ you enquire about is in fact ‘British Airways’.

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Monitored by your writer late one Thursday evening on Sydney Oceanic Control 128. 6 (exact time 1255 zulu). The aircraft was a Hawaiian Airlines DC-8.

HAWAIIAN 1452: “Sydney Control, Hawaiian 1452, we’re out of 9000 climbing to flight level 370. ”

CONTROL: “Hawaiian 1452. ” (break of 10 seconds, then . . . )

HAWAIIAN 1452: “And err . . . Hawaiian 1452, your tops are at 6000, the cloud cover is very thin, from 5000 to 6000. And above that Sir, there’s a full moon, and it’s a bee-oot-ee-ful night!” CONTROL: “Right . . . well have a good trip. ”

HAWAIIAN 1452: “Okay, and as we say in Hawaii, A-L-O-H-A!” (I-just. love you Yankees!)

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Some years ago, I had some very pleasant communication with a member of the Auckland Flight Service unit, a Canadian chap named J Richard Nickel, who had worked quite extensively in aviation in North America and Alaska and had decided to relocate himself in Australia. He got sidetracked however and wound up working in Auckland on the International Air-Ground HF station.

Just recently, other staff members of Auckland Flight Service took the time and trouble to send me a file of information concerning everything you’d like to know and would be afraid to ask about Auckland Volmet, Auckland Radio and many many special codes from airliners and other aircraft selcal-equipped that operate in New Zealand airspace. Thanks fellas! The information will be put to good use and passed on to readers of this feature very soon.

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Steven Wignall from Wavell Heights in Queensland supplies these stories. The first is a transmission monitored by Steven on 123. 9 between an aircraft that was on the ground at Port Augusta and another aircraft inbound to the same location. Steve has replaced the original callsigns with his own just to save embarrassed faces.

AIRCRAFT INBOUND: ”Tango Sierra Kilo, this is Sierra Lima Whiskey, what’s the wind like on the ground?”

AIRCRAFT ON GROUND: “Sierra Lima Whiskey, this is Tango Sierra Kilo, there’s hardly any wind at all. The windsock is just hanging limp!”

AIRCRAFT INBOUND: “Yeah . . . know how it feels!”

The other exchange monitored by Steven was on 125. 9 MHz between an Airlines of South Australia (now defunct) F27, Adelaide for Port Lincoln, which was on the descent and a Commodore Airways Cessna 402 just departed Port Lincoln for Adelaide and on climb to cruising altitude. Steven was working the aircraft on the Flight Service frequency and had just given both aircraft traffic on each other and while the pilots sorted out the information, Steven monitored the following:

CESSNA: “Mike Mike Victor, this is Tango Whiskey X-ray, I’ve got you sighted now, you’rejust about to pass right over the top of me!”

F27: “Mike Mike Victor, roger, bombs gone!”

Steven Wignall expresses the sentiments of quite a few Flight Service Officers who are prepared to share their experiences with us. They all tend to feel that the media is largely unaware of their existence and that they are the ‘forgotten service. ‘ I am aware that some Flight Service personnel who meet people outside aviation and tell them what they do are met with the outsider believing that they have something to do with the ‘Flight Service Director’ position amongst stewards on overseas flights. This feature will do all it can to publicise the unique position of ‘Flight Service Officer’ and explain the differences, yet similarities between the Flight Service function and Air Traffic Control.

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A correspondent from South Australia we shall refer to only as ‘Rick’ provides the following conversation monitored in Sydney on FIS 5 frequency 121. 6 MHz. Aircraft VH-CNK was operating in the training area on a day of moderate military activity. A couple of low-jet-routes (LJR’s) were active with Mirage aircraft on exercise. ‘Rick’ monitored VH-CNK come up on frequency with this very flustered transmission:

VH-CNK: “Sydney Sydney, Charlie November Kilo, I was nearly hit by . . . a . . . a . . . a very fast military aircraft. ”

FIS 5: “Charlie November Kilo, Sydney, was it a Mirage?” (being fully aware of what the ‘fast military aircraft’ probably was). VH-CNK: “No . . . it was real!”

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While we’re back in a military mood, I might just mention that Mark Roberts of Tullamarine in Victoria takes me to task for a small error in the November 1987 issue, relating to numbering portions of military callsigns. Mark advises that while I was essentially correct, and most callsigns are taken from pilot serial numbers, No36 Squadron are using ‘Task Numbers’, which apparently helps the paperwork war more than the tail numbers which were previously tried. Mark further advises that the newest callsign for F-18 delivery flights is ‘Asta’, replacing the earlier ‘Peregrine’, which is possibly due to the retirement of Ron Haack from the RAAF and his employment then commencing with ASTA at Avalon!

Further interesting information from Mark is that PC-9s at East Sale are using ‘Mentor’ callsigns, and F-111s from Amberley have been monitored using ‘Fang’ and ‘Lion’ call prefixes. Mark is uncertain whether the last two callsigns are permanent or were just plucked out of the air for exercise ‘Flying Fish’ which occurred recently. Thank you very much for your excellent letter Mark. Write to us again.

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Stephen Allsopp from Springvale South in Victoria recently purchased a Realistic PRO-201O and used it to monitor the following conversation from the local airbands; both the controller and pilot had very strong American accents. Frequency was 127. 0 MHz, Melbourne/Tasmania Control. The aircraft involved was the USAF Super King Air which was on a flight from Essendon to Tassie.

CONTROL: “Where you from?”

AIR FORCE 163: “Based in Canberra. ”

CONTROL: “No . . . where you from?” (obviously not satisfied, and wanting US origin).

AIR FORCE 163: “Canberra ACT. ”

CONTROL (again): “No, what part of the States are you from?” AIR FORCE 163: “I’m from San Francisco, and my copilot is from parts unknown somewhere in the Orient. ”

AIR FORCE 163: (second pilot) “I’m from Jersey Sir, where you from?”

CONTROL: “I’m from Buffalo. ”

AIR FORCE 163: “What are you doing here?” CONTROL: “What I was doing there!”

AIR FORCE 163: “Didn’t copy last transmission Sir. ”

CONTROL: “You’re asking me what I’m doing here and I’m telling you it’s the same thing I was doing there!” (pause . . . then)

AIR FORCE 163: “Right . . . got you, took us a while to figure that one out!”

CONTROL: “Ok. ”

AIR FORCE 163: “Sure is a beautiful place to live!” CONTROL: “Sure is!”

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Ted Moors, of Hawker de Havilland at Bankstown tells a story about when he was second dickie on a maintenance test flight with Ted Shaw, Hawker’s now-retired Chief Test Pilot. Ted apparently had flown just about everything. The conversation subject of the story needs no further explanation.

TED SHAW: “Bankstown Ground, Hawker Test, taxi?” GROUND: “Roger (pause) . . please confirm Hawker Test is a Caribou aircraft. ”

TED SHAW: “Standby and I’ll take a look!”

(Ted Shaw also had a very ready and willing sense of humour. )

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Michael Bawden of Ballarat Victoria wants to know what scanner he can buy to listen to military aircraft on UHF. My recommendation Michael is the excellent Tandy Realistic PRO-2004. Covers all military UHF and you can’t beat it for performance. Current retail price is $749 but it’s worth every cent. A super scanner! parts unknown somewhere in the Orient. ”

AIR FORCE 163: (second pilot) “I’m from Jersey Sir, where you from?”

CONTROL: “I’m from Buffalo. ”

AIR FORCE 163: “What are you doing here?” CONTROL: “What I was doing there!”

AIR FORCE 163: “Didn’t copy last transmission Sir. ”

CONTROL: “You’re asking me what I’m doing here and I’m telling you it’s the same thing I was doing there!” (pause . . . then)

AIR FORCE 163: “Right . . . got you, took us a while to figure that one out!”

CONTROL: “Ok. ”

AIR FORCE 163: “Sure is a beautiful place to live!” CONTROL: “Sure is!”

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Ted Moors, of Hawker de Havilland at Bankstown tells a story about when he was second dickie on a maintenance test flight with Ted Shaw, Hawker’s now-retired Chief Test Pilot. Ted apparently had flown just about everything. The conversation subject of the story needs no further explanation.

TED SHAW: “Bankstown Ground, Hawker Test, taxi?” GROUND: “Roger (pause) . . please confirm Hawker Test is a Caribou aircraft. ”

TED SHAW: “Standby and I’ll take a look!”

(Ted Shaw also had a very ready and willing sense of humour. )

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Michael Bawden of Ballarat Victoria wants to know what scanner he can buy to listen to military aircraft on UHF. My recommendation Michael is the excellent Tandy Realistic PRO-2004. Covers all military UHF and you can’t beat it for performance. Current retail price is $749 but it’s worth every cent. A super scanner!

From an anonymous Flight Service Officer, the following conversation was monitored on 120.3, Brisbane FIS frequency. It was mid morning, and an unusual number of high performance charter aircraft had landed at Ballina NSW. Then Cessna Citation VH-SWL satisfied everyone’s curiosity as to ‘why’.
VH-SWL: “Just the NSW pollies getting together for a ra-ra session!”
UNKNOWN A/C: “A bit of a hot-air dust-up you reckon?”
VH-SWL: “Oh yeah … with all that hot air coming out, the air turbulence factor over Ballina is going to be awesome today!”

(Well said Sir)
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My very good mate Mark Hanrahan from Brisbane’s BTQ-7 advises that the new Brisbane Airport Tower frequency is 122.2 MHz and it is being used concurrently with 120.5 MHz at the present time.

If you’d like to contribute to ‘On the Airbands’, just drop me a line with all the details and indicate whether you wish to be credited for the information in the magazine. I will comply with your wishes. Address mail to Bob Bell, c/- Aerospace Publications P/L, PO Box 105, Weston Creek, ACT 2611.

I look forward to hearing from you!