The pilot alphabet Numbers get special treatment too. Pilots pronounce most numbers normally with these exceptions: Zero (0) is always “zero,” not “oh.” Three becomes “tree,” five becomes “fife,” and nine becomes “niner.”
Alpha, Bravo, Charli, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, PaPa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu. Pilots pronounce numbers similar to regular English, with a few exceptions: The number three (3) is pronounced “tree.”
Aviators often speak “pilot English” to avoid miscommunications over radio transmission. “Tree” for instance, means three, “fife” is the number five and “niner” means nine, says Tom Zecha, a manager at AOPA. The variations stemmed from a desire to avoid confusion between similar-sounding numbers, he says.
In most circumstances, pilots will say “niner”, though “tree” and “fife” are said less often, even though they are part of the official FAA phonetic pronunciation.
Charlie-Charlie is a fancy substitution for a standard affirmative. It comes from the convention of abbreviating Correct/Yes by letter C in codes. It was early standardized and used at sea since 1857.
Fox is a brevity code used by NATO pilots to signal the simulated or actual release of an air-to-air munition or other combat function. Army aviation elements may use a different nomenclature, as the nature of helicopter-fired weapons is almost always air-to-surface.
So, in short, "Roger" means "r" which stands for "received." The word "Roger" means nothing more. Taking it a step further, some may know "Roger" as part of the full reply "Roger Wilco." Translated into typical English, that phrase actually means "Received, will comply."
The phrase "knock it off" means to stop the work, listen, then reassess the situation. 2. Odie says that, like fighter pilots, workers have nothing to lose if something goes wrong on the job. 3.
The callout from the pilots like "LOC blue" serves to remind themselves of the current flight guidance modes, and to maintain awareness of mode changes. This is also to ensure that their mental idea of "what the aircraft will do next" is up to date and fits to the current flight situation.
Under no circumstances should a pilot of a civil aircraft operate the transponder on Code 7777. This code is reserved for military interceptor operations. Military pilots operating VFR or IFR within restricted/warning areas should adjust their trans- ponders to Code 4000 unless another code has been assigned by ATC.
The term pan pan, besides being known as airplane talk, is used in radiotelephone communications to signify that there is an urgency on board a boat, ship, aircraft, or other vehicle. It is referred to when it is a state of urgency, but not when there is an immediate danger to a person's life or to the vessel itself.
Normally, 1,500 hours of flight time are required before a new pilot can fly commercially, though there is an exception for certain military experience that cuts the requirement in half. The so-called 1,500-hour rule was passed after the fatal Colgan Air crash in February 2009 near Buffalo, New York.
It was used by RAF fighter pilots in the Second World War to tell their controller they were about to engage enemy aircraft. It was also used to announce to the squadron leader (or other person of command in the flight) the spotting of an enemy aircraft.
That's what they painted on the outside of the airplanes, but in the cockpit, the call sign pilots used for the combined lines was “Cactus,” which had been the call sign for America West.
When a pilot uses the phrase “heavy,” he is reminding ATC that his aircraft is large and requires more separation between it and the aircraft following.
When you fly one of our Air Combat missions, you will hear “FOX 2, Fight's On” to initiate our canned setups. “FOX 2” is a brevity code used by fighter pilots to declare a weapon's release (sorta like “bomb's away” from WWII).
These can vary, but in general, the announcements are relatively standard across different airlines. Most pilots will typically introduce themselves and the cabin crew; state the aircraft type, flight number, and route, and remind passengers of the airline's seatbelt policy.
Did you know that in aviation, 9 is pronounced "niner" instead of "nine"? The reason for this is to encourage the pilot to enunciate clearly. “Nine” can be easily muffled, slurred, or confused with other words, like five.
"Wilco": Literally means "will comply" and indicates that the speaker is intending to complete the task that's been asked of them.
In a practice air-to-air engagement, when one fighter closed on his opponent inside of the missile envelope to put the gun sight piper on the adversary, a call goes out “guns guns guns.” This is a blunt fighter pilot way of saying “your dead!”
A radar or visual air contact whose identity is unknown. Bandit – identified enemy aircraft. Bogey – unidentified (possibly unfriendly) aircraft.
A centre stick (or center stick in the United States), or simply control stick is an aircraft cockpit arrangement where the control column (or joystick) is located in the center of the cockpit between the pilots or between the pilot's legs.