On the Airbands

4 weeks, full time. Qualifications approved by Ansett Airlines. HSC subjects are taught by use of practical examples in flight theory. Special topics include Aerodynamics, Gravitation, Principles of Flight and Aircraft Performance. Individual tuition given if necessary. A pass in Mathematics and Physics will assist you in your aviation career. Physics: Brisbane, Jan 16, 1995. Mathematics: Brisbane, Feb 20, 1995. (Further courses to be given in Perth, Sydney in 1995). Dr Steven Holding, School of Aviation Dynamics, PO Box 1587, Milton, Qld 4064. Ph: (07) 368 2767, (071) 68 9730. Australian Aviation December 1994.

The frequency’s Air Traffic Controller then chipped in quickly, just after the hapless Skipper realised his awesome mistake and unkeyed the mike. ATC: “Oh….well done Captain Edwards!” Apparently the good Captain thought he had said more than enough, and decided not to reply to the stinging remark.

Dick leaves us with another airborne incident monitored just after 9am one morning in Melbourne. He was actually driving across town towards Tullamarine to gaze at the big jets arriving and departing that day. He was half heartedly listening to the routine traffic between Melbourne Arrivals Control and an inbound United Airlines Boeing 747. The aircraft said something akin to … “Maintaining 300 knots until touchdown.” MELBOURNE APPROACH: “Ah … United, confirm you really meant maintain 300 knots (books only) until 20 miles from touchdown Sir?” UNITED 747: “Yeah, yeah, I goofed … however I must say these things have carbon brakes, and they really are very good.” MELBOURNE APPROACH: “Yes, well it would have been real good to watch!”

This item recalls an IFR flight in Germany, with an American deep south “Good Ole Boy” flying a USAF Reserve C-130 Hercules in a very crowded instrument pattern for landing at Frankfurt’s Rhein-Main. The conversation was recorded as such: CONTROL: “Air Force 1733, you’re on an eight mile final for Runway 27-RIGHT, and you have a UH-1 helicopter three miles ahead of you on final, reduce speed to 130 knots.” AF1733: “Roger Frankfurt, we’re bringing this big bird back to one hundred and thirty knots fur ya!” CONTROL: (a few seconds later) “Ahh … Air Force 1733, helicopter traffic at 90 knots now, one and a half miles ahead of you, reduce speed further now Sir to 110 knots.” AF1733: “Ah, Air Force three-three, and we’re reining this big bird back again to 110 knots now.” CONTROL: “Air Force 1733, you are three miles from touchdown, helicopter traffic now only a half mile ahead of you, reduce speed now to 90 knots!” AF1733: (by now he’s quite ticked off) “Now look Sir, have you any idea of the stall speed of this here C-130?” CONTROL: “No I haven’t, but if you don’t know, try asking your First Officer, he can probably tell you!”

A superb collection of pencil and charcoal drawings by artist John Stewart-Jones. Size 12.75 x 10in. Price only $30 AUS each. VISA/Mastercard accepted. The Junkers Ju 88A-4 is just one of a collection of 20 titles. Send $2 AUS for our mail order catalogue. 512 Miles Street, Bankstown Airport, NSW 2200 Australia. Phone (02) 791 0386. Fax (02) 790 1913. The Aeroplane Art Company.

John Aspinall of Guyra in NSW writes in to ask “What overseas airline uses the radio callsign Paradise?” John has heard it on HF around the Caribbean area. Well John in fact it is Aero Virgin Islands Corporation. John also wanted to know the airline using the callsign “DAHL”. He wonders whether it is in fact the freight forwarding company DHL Worldwide, and he is right on the mark. Although the trans Tasman DHL service utilising 727-100 freighter VH-TBS identifies using the standard domestic callsign “Tango Bravo Sierra” (with “Victor Hotel” up front in international airspace), most USA mainland DHL flights use the callsign “DAHL”, pronounced “DARL”. Early next year, we will be releasing a greatly updated, expanded and improved “Listening In to Aircraft Radio” at a reduced price. Every radio callsign used by airline aircraft in the world will be included, which will assist interested persons like John Aspinall to readily identify airline aircraft.

Satellite news now with British Airways retrofitting over 108 aircraft with InMarSat satellite communications equipment. The airline’s Boeing 747s, 767s, McDonnell Douglas DC-10s, and Concordes are involved in the retrofit programme, utilising MCS-6000 avionics, combined with SAT-48 antenna packages. Other current retrofit programmes involve Qantas and Cathay Pacific, with a joint retrofit programme by KLM and Northwest involving over 100 aircraft to be announced soon. Other airlines ordering up big on SatComs equipment (not retrofits) include Air France, Air New Zealand, American, Austrian, EVA Air, Iberia, Martinair, United, and USAir. In InMarSat parlance “commissioning” is the process whereby every individual aeronautical earth station (AES) is assigned a “phone number” and is registered as being authorised to work within the InMarSat Aero System. Airline “commissionings” are continuing to display strong growth, with a number of carriers making SatComs decisions for large fleets, with the trend continuing in coming months. There are 68 AES’s currently awaiting commissioning, with more likely to be added to this figure. AES’s already commissioned total 276 airline voice services and 117 airline data services worldwide. These figures include corporate aircraft which have also been fitted up for SatComs operations. The actual airlines now SatCom operational include Air Afrique, Air Canada, Air China, Air France, Air India, Air Mauritius, All Nippon, British Airways, Canadian, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, Delta, Emirates, EVA Air, Finnair, Garuda, Gulf Air, Japan Airlines, Korean Air, Kuwait Airways, Lauda Air, Lufthansa, Malaysia, Northwest, Qantas, Royal Air Maroc, SAS, Saudia, Singapore, Swissair, United, and UTA. That, in any one’s language, is a fairly substantial tally.

Just before leaving the satellite component, I’ll mention that the United States Air Force’s 412th Flight Test Squadron recently completed the first phase of a two stage programme to demonstrate secure voice, video, and fax. Basically, this programme is intended to demonstrate the use of InMarSat SatComs for both military use, and also utilisation by Government VIP aircraft. The platform for the tests is a converted Boeing C-135C transport/special mission aircraft, code named “Project Speckled Trout”. The aircraft has been specially fitted out with Collins avionics, combined with a Ball Aerospace Airlink antenna subsystem. Initial trials were in non secure mode, followed by airborne tests using secure telephones, low rate video, and fax. The tests were commenced with an eight day round trip mission from Edwards Air Force Base in California to the South Pole to establish coverage limits and service quality. Over 220 secure and non secure phone calls were placed from the aircraft, utilising 1200 minutes of airtime during the Polar mission. Secure voice quality at 4.8 kilobits per second were described as “excellent”. Partial motion secure video at the same 4.8 kbits per second also proved very successful with one call lasting over 45 minutes. Real time video was transmitted from over central Australia live to Edwards Air Force Base in California. Screen refresh rate was one frame per three seconds. The second phase of this programme is just gearing up as we hit the streets with this issue of AA.

Andy O’Donaghoe recently monitored the following at around 10pm local from his Kingsgrove home in Sydney. The aircraft callsign has been changed for obvious reasons. “Alpha, Alpha, Alpha”, a Cessna 402, was inbound to Sydney, and after checking his DME with Sydney Approach on 124.4, the exchange went something like this: VH-AAA: “Can you give us an altitude readout?” APPROACH: “What’s your indication?” VH-AAA: “Seven thousand.” APPROACH: “Ours shows seven thousand one hundred feet which is within tolerance.” VH-AAA: “Like everything else on this plane!” APPROACH: “Yeah, our equipment is the same.” Later on in the descent, the crew of VH-AAA indicated they had switched over to a backup transponder, however the Approach Controller indicated it was not being received. Approach later sought verification that VH-AAA was in fact descending, as his readout showed the aircraft had allegedly climbed to 9000 feet! VH-AAA then asked for a radio check, and when informed it was “readability 5”, the crew member had a final say: “Ah well Approach, at least something works!” Merry Christmas to you, see you next year.