On The Airbands

Frequencies: (ACC) Control 134. 15, 290. 5, 131. 325, 125. 9, 134. 075, 325. 7, 126. 125, 128. 075, 353. 8, 124. 9, 125. 2, 124. 475, 119. 75; VOLMETS: Athens 127. 8, Nicosia 127. 2, Cairo 126. 2, Yesilkoy 127. 4, Brindisi 127. 6, Ben Gurion 126. 8; FIS: 130. 95, 353. 8; A/G: 122. 85, 3015, 5638 KHz; RADAR: 129. 8, 317. 5, 121. 4, 118. 3, 363. 5; ATIS: 123. 4; APP: 119. 1, 121. 4, 363. 5; TWR: 118. 1, 122. 1, 368. 1; GND: 121. 7; and ACD: 122. 4

The two Athens NDBs are on 357 and 382 KHz. Is that enough for you Phil? For the rest of you, even though you may not be planning a trip to Greece, it’ll fill you in on the kind of detail I can offer you. Drop me a line.

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Leon Gritter and Paul Halloran from Orange in NSW supplied the following. Frequency 118. 5, two Ansett 737s are the stars. SYDNEY CONTROL: “Charlie Zulu Lima and Charlie Zulu Mike this is Sydney Control. Information that Melbourne Control will not be accepting your radar contact at your present levels. Either of you should take Flight Level 350 or 390. ”

VH-CZL: “We’ll take Flight Level 350. ”

SYDNEY CONTROL: “Roger, that’s great, ah . . . Charlie Zulu Mike, are you now able to accept Flight Level 390?”

VH-CZM: “Just a reminder maam, 737s only operate to Flight Level 370. ”

SYDNEY CONTROL: “Err . . . roger . . . standby!”

VH-CZL: (directing comments to VH-CZM) “Good on you Dave, I thought for one ugly moment there that we were going to knock each other out of the air!”

VH-CZM: “If either of us were going to be knocked out of the air it would certainly be you mate!”

SYDNEY CONTROL: (very angry voice) “Charlie Zulu Lima and Charlie Zulu Mike, cease all transmissions. Charlie Zulu Lima climb to and report level at Flight Level 350, Charlie Zulu Mike: descend to and be at Flight Level 310 by time one-seven. ”

Leon and Paul didn’t tell me any more after that, but I wonder if the testy female ATC allowed them to break silence to acknowledge their new cruising levels?

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Harvey Ritchie, Executive Director of the Australian Parachute Federation, has had a checkered career in aviation, firstly with the RAAF, then as a First Officer on Super VC10s with East Afri- can Airways. Based in Nairobi, the route structure included Africa, Europe and Asia. The actual date was about the time 737s started going into service and if you have ever watched a 737 taxying fast, amongst a group of larger aircraft, they do look like a toy mechanical mouse, hence their popular nickname in Europe of ‘mechanical mice’.

It was evening at Heathrow and East African’s 737 was starting engines for a departure to Rome, while a British European Airways (Bealine) Trident had been pushed back and was awaiting taxy. In addition, a 737 from Lufthansa was taxying around the terminal towards the holding point.

BEALINE 742: “London Ground, Bealine 742, taxy clearance please. ”

LONDON GROUND: (in a very British accent) “Beeline, this is London Ground, clear to taxi after the mechanical mouse!” BEALINE: “Bealine 742 copied. ”

Almost immediately, a very terse German accent came on frequency. . .

LUFTHANSA 698: “London Ground, zis is Lufthansa 698, ze Boeing 737. I repeat to you, we are a Boeing 737, not ze mechan- ical mouse!”

LONDON GROUND: “Lufthansa 698, London Ground, my sincere apologies sir!”

The 737 taxied to the holding point and transferred to Tower. . . LUFTHANSA 698: “London Heathrow Tower, ze Lufthansa 698, ready for our takeoff. ”

LONDON TOWER: “Lufthansa 698, London Tower, radar departure, clear for takeoff and after takeoff maintain runway heading, climb to 5,000 feet and then squeak. . . err, ah, squawk alpha code 2-7-0-0. ”

There was, needless to say, a resigned silence from Lufthansa 698.

Our correspondent Harvey also told me of a London Air Traffic Controller with the habit of greeting East African aircraft on their arrival with the words “Jamba, Bwana!”

Whenever Harvey was on East African’s flightdeck, he used to snatch the handmike and respond with . . . “G’day mate!” The first couple of times, it sort of set the ATC smartie on his ear!

Thanks for the contribution Harvey. If you are wanting to make the Big Jump the Australian Parachute Federation can be contacted at PO Box 144, Curtin ACT 2605.

Dave Prossoris our resident Warbirds columnist and a fine job he does too. David is also an airshow announcer and does his share of listening to aircraft during the average week. He also watches a bit of ‘average’ television, such as ‘Flying Doctors’ and tells me he was stunned not too long ago when the blond pilot hero was seen to depart Bankstown in a Nomad, registration VH- MSF, then advise ‘ATC’ on the radio that he is cruising Flight Level five-zero-zero!

Wow! All this and the pilot is so good he doesn’t even have to wear an oxygen mask in this unpressurised aircraft. Perhaps our dapper hero knows some sort of vital secret that the Nomad salesmen missed out on? Thanks David, catch you in your column!

Regular contributor Ron Brons of Croydon in Victoria was only just now relating to me his successful monitoring of the Qantas record breaking London/Sydney 747-400 flown by Capt David Massy-Greene and several other senior captains. Most of Ron’s catches were on 13 MHz and 11 MHz frequencies. Ron described the marathon journey as a myriad of non-stop communications to and from the spanking new airliner. As for my own monitoring of this flight, some of my best copies were QFÁ 7441 speaking with Cocos Island on 5634 KHz and with Qantas

Operations on 10078 KHz, their 10 KHz LDOC company SSB frequency.

This flight was unusual in a number of ways. Regular delivery flights of Qantas aircraft from Seattle divert to Los Angeles or San Francisco and pick up a load of paying passengers to ease the cost of the operation. They usually carry less than a full load of pax as there are one or two (hundred?) aircraft spares loaded in the hold.

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Bill Mellor, writing on the Back Page on the Sun Herald noted recently a flight to Canton taken by an Aussie tourist. Bill says the goings on during the flight proved the People’s Liberation Army isn’t the sole instrument of terror in China. The accident prone national airline, Air China (formerly CAAC) doesn’t do a bad job either!

The Aussie tourist on board the Air China flight to Canton questioned the hostie why no form of safety instructions had been given either prior to or after takeoff. He got a succinct reply for his trouble: “We clash . . . you die!”

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Same contributor, while in the ACT a few years back, heard a TAA DC-9 holding prior to descent into Canberra, with the big delay being caused by a flight of 5 Squadron Iroquois helicopters conducting night operations. The helicopter callsigns were ‘Eagle’, with each individual chopper having a different three digit number.

After flying racetracks for thirty five minutes, the skipper of the DC-9 had had enough.

VH-TJJ: “Canberra Approach, this is Tango Juliet Juliet. There’s a little sparrow up there amongst the eagles and he wants to g-e-t d-o-w-n!”

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Murray Salisbury from Maylands in Western Australia has a friend who is a flying instructor, whose name is Mike.

Scenario: a training flight in a Cessna 152 south of Jandakot, with the student a bubbly young female with all of five hours in her log book.

ATC: The Jandakot Tower Controller knows Mike well and is very aware he is the instructor on board VH-RAC.

The training session concludes and the aircraft turns inbound to Jandakot.

VH-RAC: “Jandakot Tower, Romeo Alpha Charlie, Forrestdale Lake, one-thousand-five-hundred and I’ve just received Mike!” TOWER: (unable to control his laughter . . . ). “Romeo Alpha Charlie, overfly at One-thousand-five-hundred and by the way . . . we do sympathise!”

The young lady did realise what she had just said and during her next radio transmission was also unable to keep her laughter at bay, along with Mike chuckling in the background. Who said flying was always a serious business?

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Short finals now, so time for only one more item. Greg Kirkwood is a regular Airbands reader, who owns a Realistic PRO-2020 scanner. It has 20 channel capability and even though it’s a few years old the PRO-2020 was an excellent Tandy scanner for its time!

Frequency 124. 2, with a Kendell Metroliner about to land at Albury.

TOWER: “Bravo India Sierra, Albury Tower, a message from your company, a television crew will be shooting video of your arrival. ” VH-BIS: ”Aww gee . . . I haven’t even got my makeup on!”

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Send all contributions, including photos, of you and your receivers, to Bob Bell, ‘On the Airbands’, Aerospace Publications, PO Box 3105, Weston Creek ACT 2611.