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On the Airbands
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Thankfully, this feature has won wide acceptance from commercial and military pilots, air traffic controllers, ground engineers, tug drivers, airport security personnel, in fact, from a wide range of people involved in commercial GA and military aviation.
Rick Hodge is an F28 Captain with Ansett. He now lives in Mount Claremont, WA. Before joining the company, he flew an Australian registered Falcon 900 extensively in the USA. While flying corporate missions in the Falcon in US airspace, the aircraft was frequently mistakenly referred to by air traffic controllers by the callsign prefix “Navy”. Usually, Rick states, this was followed by a period of stammering and correction, until they finally realised that the crew were in fact not “Navy”, but “Victor Hotel …”. This mistaken callsign situation happened so frequently, that Rick and his crew soon anticipated instructions from ATC as soon as they heard the callsign “Navy” used. Rick has put forward the assumption that US Navy flights regularly use the callsign “Victor”. I checked this out but cannot either confirm nor deny it Rick! Nevertheless, as most US aircraft callsigns are flight numbers or numerals, some US controllers are not too well versed with the phonetic alphabet. With the foregoing in mind, the following conversation took place approaching a very busy Denver Stapleton International Airport. (Without pausing to draw breath …) ATC: “Continental 752, descend and maintain four thousand, 170 knots please, Continental 728, you Sir, descend and maintain five thousand, United 127, I’ll have you contact Approach two-four decimal seven-five, Navy … err … ahh, err, Goddam! THAT AIRCRAFT WITH ALL THE LETTERS IN YOUR CALLSIGN, descend and maintain three thousand, contact Approach two-four decimal seven-five, Continental 743, 180 knots please …” (first breath taken here). Yes Rick, it certainly is a different ballgame over there, and as you’ve pointed out, the “system” that American Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controllers work under, with mainly flight number based airline callsigns does tend to assist some controllers to lose a few workface skills, like their command of the phonetic alphabet!
That Aircraft With All The Letters in Your Callsign,
While we’re taking mail from pilots, here’s a letter from Dick Sudlow, who was a skilled RAAF No 78 Squadron Kittyhawk pilot during World War II. In 1945, Dick was leading a formation of Kittyhawks from Morotai to make a low level attack on a Japanese target in the Celebes. To avoid radio interference, the Squadron switched to the airstrip radio frequency while in the target area. On this occasion, the boys were flying virtually at ground level, and some 1500km from Manila, they were receiving some HF “skip” transmissions from Manila’s American airbase. The following was heard very clearly: XRAY 582: “Xray 582 to Manila Tower, approaching Manila, do you read me? Over.” MANILA TWR: “Manila Tower to Xray 582, reading you loud and clear, you are clear to land”. (then followed a pause for a while …) XRAY 582: “Xray 582 to Manila Tower, on final approach” (another short pause … then ….) MANILA TWR: “Manila Tower to Xray 582, say buddy, you’ll make a much softer landing if you put your wheels down!” Thanks Dick, for the column contribution. Dick lives in Milton NSW these days. 84 Australian Aviation November 1995 James Smith from Cherrybrook NSW likes what he is hearing now the “third” Runway at Sydney is now in use. Well James, thanks to politician Laurie Brereton, we basically still only have two runways, as RW 07/25 is hardly ever thrown into action these days. It’s just like actually only having two runways again! Anyway, enough of the political briefings, on this particular occasion that James is going to share with us, the RW 16L/34R Tower frequency 124.7 MHz was married with RW 16R/34L Tower frequency 120.5 MHz. Two Ansett Fokker 50s were on final, one for Runway 16L, and the other for RW 16R. The Tower instruction was: “Foxtrot November Alpha, and Foxtrot November Delta, both clear to land!” James Smith is very grateful to the new runway for his ability to now hear transmissions such as this. Brian Keegan of Runnymede Tasmania writes to ask me about the Realistic PRO-2039 scanner. He says “Are they any good?” and “If so, where can he get his hands on one?” Realistic is the Tandy Electronics in-house product, Brian. The PRO-2039 is a desktop scanning receiver, and is a very efficient little unit. Last I heard, these radios were retailing for the very reasonable price of $499 at Tandy Electronics, covering frequencies 68 to 88 MHz (for mid-band VHF reception — very useful for police and ambulance VHF transmissions in some states), 108 to 174 MHz (aviation VHF and high band VHF business band including some aviation company channels), 380 to 512 MHz (business UHF reception, including metropolitan police activity and aviation company channels), and 806 to 960 MHz (trunking and other upper range UHF allocations including some airport ramp activity). The Tandy Catalogue number for this item is 200-9462. The radio has 200 channel positions, “priority” channel selection, two second scan delay built in (so you don’t miss replies to those important radio calls), and backlit display. The biggest shortcoming of the radio is lack of military UHF aviation band coverage, from 225 to 400 MHz. The radio does tune 380 to 400 MHz, but not in AM mode. It is preset in FM, which is useless to you. Hope that information is what you require Brian. Michael Ohlsson-Lunt lives in Hendra, a suburb of Brisbane. He sends us a “birdstrike” story involving Brisbane Tower and a Safety Officer’s vehicle, “Car Two-Zero”. Car 20 was driving along the runway surface, looking for debris, and had parked at the holding point for Runway 19. BNE TWR: “Car Two-Zero, there’s a 737 inbound, are you clear yet?” CAR 20: “Yeah, we’re off!” BNE TWR: “What’d you get?” CAR 20: “We got what remains of a swallow!” BNE TWR: (Laughing) “Aww … yuck!” The Air Traffic Controller involved in this incident was in a pretty good mood that day, and Michael heard him involved in a few other interesting exchanges throughout the day. Like this one: A Flight West EMB-120 Brasilia registered VH-XFV is taxying for a Runway 01 intersection departure, and called the Tower just prior to the holding point. VH-XFV: “Brisbane Tower, Xray Foxtrot Victor, ready.” BNE TWR: “How ready?” VH-XFV: “Like now man!” BNE TWR: “Then line up and make a rolling start, Clear for Takeoff!” This story is also from Michael Ohlsson-Lunt, and it’s my favourite. Michael is 17 years of age, goes to school, and lives within five kilometres of Brisbane Airport. He visits the Domestic Terminal at least once a month, for a day each time, and observes and monitors the coming-and-goings of all aircraft on his Signal Communications Corporation R-537 receiver. (I own a R-535 base unit Michael and it’s just brilliant!) In this story, Brisbane Tower and a British Airways 747-400 callsign “Speedbird 12” enjoy a conversation centred around the hotly contested Australia vs West Indies clash for the Cricket World Series. BNE TWR: “Speedbird One Two, are you holding short?” BAW 12: “Tower, Speedbird One Two, affirm.” BNE TWR: “And does nine for one-fifty mean anything to you?” BAW 12: “Is that England vs India?” BNE TWR: “Correctamundo!” BAW 12: “What’s the Australia vs. Windies score?” BNE TWR: “I’m not sure, let me check for you.” BAW 12: “Speedbird 12, cheers”. About two minutes pass by, and the British Airways 747 is now number one in line, following the close departure of two Ansett aircraft, a 727 and 737 from Runway 01’s Alpha Next taxiway. BNE TWR: “Speedbird One Two, clear for takeoff. I still haven’t got that score for you, but I’ll give it to Approach and they can update you!” Almost as soon as the Tower had unkeyed its mike, an unknown station, most likely an Australian Airlines (pre-merger) 737 taxying for departure jumped in with the following: UNKNOWN: “The score is NOT good!” At this point in time, a Sunstate Shorts 360 poked in as well: VH-MVW: “Ahh … Tower, last time I checked it was eight for three-nineteen!” BNE TWR: “Right … thanks!” By now the British 747 was climbing out after departure …. BNE APP: “Speedbird One Two, this is Brisbane Approach, I’ve been advised by a very reliable source that the score in the Australia vs Windies match is eight for three-nineteen” BAW 12: “That’s copied Sir, could you thank the Tower gentleman very much for his help for us?” BNE TWR: “Glad to Sir.” Michael Ohlsson-Lunt comments that “it goes to show the extent to which our friendly controllers will go to help pilots — especially if sport is involved!” Oh yes Michael, the boys and girls like their sport. David Shilkin from Applecross in WA faxed me this piece. The place is Jandakot’s Runway 06R, the duty circuits runway. David, a pilot, is airborne in the circuit, and on climb, crosswind, monitoring 119.4, one of the two Tower frequencies. The other is 118.1 MHz. He overhears the following: VH-ABC: “Alpha Bravo Charlie, downwind, touch and go.” TWR: “Alpha Bravo Charlie, make number two to a Chipmunk in your eleven o’clock, entering circuit on base from Lake Forrestdale.” VH-ABC: “Alpha Bravo Charlie.” VH-RWI: “Romeo Whiskey India (plaintively) I can’t see that Chipmunk anywhere!” TWR: “Sir, you ARE the Chipmunk, and are clear of the Cessna.” VH-RWI: (sheepishly) “Romeo Whiskey India.” Thanks to David Shilkin, especially since it’s his first contribution to “On the Airbands”. Bob from Byron Bay is part of a scanning group called “GOA Trance Rave Crew”. I think I’ve figured it out. I believe “GOA” refers to the words “GROUP OF AVIATION”. Put that together with the rest and I sort of get it. They (GOA Trance Rave Crew) were monitoring Sydney Approach 128.3, when “KLM 843”, a 747 airliner, was being vectored towards finals. The crew advised ATC by radio of a TCAS warning (Traffic Collision Avoidance System), but Approach stated there was no conflicting traffic. The reply from KLM 843 was that they had received an alarm telling them that indeed there was traffic close by. Our group of monitors became aware a few minutes later that the TCAS traffic was well below the KLM aircraft, and no emergency avoidance action was in any way required. Monitored by this writer in Sydney on Qantas Sydney frequency 131.7 MHz one recent evening …. QANTAS 107: “Arr … Qantas Sydney, Qantas 107.” QANTAS SYD: “Qantas 107, Qantas Sydney, go ahead please.” QANTAS 107: “Yes … We’re a bit embarrassed here. This is the Captain speaking. We’re on the way to Los Angeles, and both myself and my First Officer have forgotten our tickets back to Nadi. Just wondering … could you get them sent up on the next service to Los Angeles, and we’ll pick them up at LAX airport during our layover days.” (Qantas operations now cuts in …) QANTAS OPS: “Qantas 107, This is Qantas Operations, all copied, but perhaps another way around it is simply for us to cancel the two tickets still here, and we’ll contact Los Angeles and get them to raise two fresh tickets. They can do it from there, no problem.” QANTAS 107: “Well I really don’t care how it’s done, I just want the tickets by the time we’re due to fly back to Nadi and Sydney!” (I guess he forgot this was his fault in the first place ….) QANTAS OPS: (Calm and still pleasant) “Consider it done Qantas 107. Have a good trip”. Phillip Anderson from Gladesville is a keen airbands monitor, and provides us with our final story this month. Some years ago, when Continental was flying Sydney/Auckland/Sydney services utilising DC-10-30s, the following radio exchange took place between “Continental 16” and “Sydney Apron” on 122.3 MHz: COA 16: “Sydney Ground, Continental 16, arrrh, we’d like pushback clearance, and we all would like to depart to the east!” (southern accent) SMCA: “Continental 16, Sydney Ground, pushback approved, however negative on the eastbound departure due to noise abatement.” About three minutes after this conversation, as Continental 16 is being pushed back, two RAAF F-111’s make an approach from Rockdale for Runway 07, and execute a touch-and-go, with a huge amount of thrust and noise. They continue on runway-heading, EASTBOUND, out to sea, over the suburb of Eastlakes. COA 16: (southern accent) “Well … Sydney Ground, Continental Sixteen, what was that that you-all were trying to tell us about noise abatement?” That was one time Sydney Ground was reluctant to reply. Listening In magazine ($8.00) and Climb into the Cockpit by Radio ($22.95) are available from my company Airband Communications at PO Box 16, Georges Hall 2198. The prices include postage anywhere in Australia. And catch my column In Flight in the new Radio & Communications magazine. See you airborne … in December, for the final column for 1995.
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