how do you understand aircraft transmissions?

[KI4VBR]

There is one additional hurdle I havent seen mentioned yet you will have when listing to crews at BNA (Nashville).

Airline crews almost never use the correct phraseology in the pilot/controller glossary when on the radio, its just a part of the culture. I know I sure don't, and I like to mumble for good measure...another favorite technique is slurring the read-back when you didn't copy it and hope the other guy was listening.
QUOTE]

As a pilot who depends on every word the controller says.....and the controller depending on every word I say, slurring never enters my mind.

There are plenty of lazy pilots & controllers out there, some who are not professional or take their pastime seriously and yes, they do not use correct terminology. You will hear them saying seventeen hundred instead of the proper one thousand, seven hundred.

You will hear them shorten their tail sign when the controller is using the entire tail sign..... N73MJ>Controller........3MJ>Pilot.....not good practice. Good pilots will only shorten their tail sign when the controller shortens it.

Dont forget, you are welcomed in many FAA facilities across the US. Many have changed regulations after 911, but some still accept pre-arranged visits. You can learn all kinds of things there.

Microsoft Flight Sim also is a good place to learn......it has matured into a pretty decent learning tool for the beginning pilot and experienced pilots needing some brushing up on procedures.

All kinds of good comments coming in for you.....overwealmed yet Ghost?

 

[immelmen]

...I am a licensed VFR pilot.

As a pilot who depends on every word the controller says.....and the controller depending on every word I say, slurring never enters my mind.

There are plenty of lazy pilots & controllers out there, some who are not professional or take their pastime seriously and yes, they do not use correct terminology. You will hear them saying seventeen hundred instead of the proper one thousand, seven hundred.

You will hear them shorten their tail sign when the controller is using the entire tail sign..... N73MJ>Controller........3MJ>Pilot.....not good practice. Good pilots will only shorten their tail sign when the controller shortens it.

Hi. I've got an ATP and I've been paid to fly jets professionally for 15 years. Don't try to attack my professionalism or call me lazy because I know the difference between whats critical and whats not. This industry (121 airlines) is full of people who have been at it a long time, and know the game very well. There is a system, an ebb and flow, that happens in the cockpit much to long to explain here that leads to this, and other, "norms". It happens every day, and it works. That's why controllers and crews alike are not constantly asking each other to repeat themselves. You should not depend on what the other guy is going to say, you should anticipate it and check it.

May God have mercy on your soul if you ever land at O'Hare international and expect to get from the runway to the gate "according to the glossary".

 

[KI4VBR]

Lighten Up

Hi. I've got an ATP and I've been paid to fly jets professionally for 15 years. Don't try to attack my professionalism or call me lazy because I know the difference between whats critical and whats not. This industry (121 airlines) is full of people who have been at it a long time, and know the game very well. There is a system, an ebb and flow, that happens in the cockpit much to long to explain here that leads to this, and other, "norms". It happens every day, and it works. That's why controllers and crews alike are not constantly asking each other to repeat themselves. You should not depend on what the other guy is going to say, you should anticipate it and check it.

May God have mercy on your soul if you ever land at O'Hare international and expect to get from the runway to the gate "according to the glossary".

Dont take any offense.....not calling you lazy or attacking you....shared an opinion with you, not at you. I know better than to land at an airport like Ohare.....but if I did divert there for emergency reasons, I would ask for progressive instructions to get to the FBO.

Can we just let this get back to the topic.....if I offended you, sorry....I dont have a mean bone in me.

OP, hope you are enjoying radio.....

Vince

 

[tjwgrr]

.....but if I did divert there for emergency reasons, I would ask for progressive instructions to get to the FBO.
Vince

You'd probably be thrown into a penalty box and held there until controllers sorted things out and had time for a progressive....

 

[Gator596]

Heavy Thanks

Thanks to all who responded to my request for clarification about the term "heavy"!

 

[majoco]

Webheadfred said:

A few more.....
One seven thousand = 17000 feet.
Flight level one eight zero = 18000 feet.

You'll only hear "altitude" in feet below 12000ft and "Flight Level" above - and no aircraft will be assigned an altitude between 11000ft and FL130. As an aircraft goes up, the local QNH becomes less and less accurate, so passing through 12000ft all altimeters are set to 1013mb/29.92inches. Therefore an aircraft may not actually be at 15000ft AMSL when calling FL150 but at least he knows that all aircraft around him are wrong by the same amount! This also rather important for collision avoidance through the TCAS, ACARS and CPDLC systems.

 

[trumpetboy50]

Webheadfred said:



You'll only hear "altitude" in feet below 12000ft and "Flight Level" above - and no aircraft will be assigned an altitude between 11000ft and FL130. As an aircraft goes up, the local QNH becomes less and less accurate, so passing through 12000ft all altimeters are set to 1013mb/29.92inches. Therefore an aircraft may not actually be at 15000ft AMSL when calling FL150 but at least he knows that all aircraft around him are wrong by the same amount! This also rather important for collision avoidance through the TCAS, ACARS and CPDLC systems.

Not sure which country has a transition altitude of 12000ft, but here in the U.S. the transition altitude is 18,000 feet.

 

[Webheadfred]

And in the US, if the altimeter is below 29.92 ( two niner niner two ) FL180 is unusable for separation between 1-7 thousand. Fun stuff. ATC, it beats working for a living.

 

[majoco]

Quote from:
VATNZ - VATSIM New Zealand - Transition Altitude

Transition Altitude

In New Zealand the transition altitude is 13,000 feet. If you are flying at 13,000 feet or below you need to set your altimeter to local QNH. If you are climbing above 13,000 feet then passing this altitude you must set your altimeter to 1013 Hpa.

All of NZ is classed as 'mountainous' and there are quite severe atmospheric pressue gradients especially across the South Island in a good northwester! I guess they don't want aircraft coming across the Southern Alps (MSA 16000ft in places) using any old altimeter setting. The area QNH difference between the West Coast and the East can sometimes be 10mb in 90nm.

 

[ghostpirate]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (webOS/1.4.5; U; en-US) AppleWebKit/532.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/1.0 Safari/532.2 Pixi/1.0)

ok I hear the ac controller say squak and a number. Where can I get a list of different squak numbers such as the one used for mayday? Can I find these in the FAA JO 7110.65?

 

[nd5y]

http://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/atc/atc0502.html

 

[rmiller818]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (webOS/1.4.5; U; en-US) AppleWebKit/532.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/1.0 Safari/532.2 Pixi/1.0)

ok I hear the ac controller say squak and a number. Where can I get a list of different squak numbers such as the one used for mayday? Can I find these in the FAA JO 7110.65?

Only a few have a common use, otherwise it is a discreet code for a specific aircraft (at least in that part of the country, there are only 4096 possible codes so they are reused but not in close proximity to each other). Basically, the controller is assigning the aircraft a 4 digit code to put into the transponder. Whenever the ATC radar interrogates the aircraft's transponder, the transponder replies with that specific code and usually the pressure altitude. When the ATC radar receives the reply it associates the code with what the controller entered for that aircraft or a flight plan with the computer. This way instead of the controller seeing only a basic target on his radar it will display the aircraft's tailnumber/callsign, altitude, ground speed, type, destination and departure airports. IFR aircraft always have a squawk code and VFR aircraft using flight following will also have one assigned. If you are only VFR the transponder is set to 1200.

 

[CalebATC]

General codes:
2000: The code to be squawked when entering a secondary surveillance radar (SSR) area from a non-SSR area used as Uncontrolled IFR flight squawk code in ICAO countries. Also used for oceanic routes after leaving SSR coverage.
7500: Unlawful Interference (i.e., Aircraft hijacking)
7600: Lost Communications
7700: General Emergency
7777: Military Interception

 

[davidp124]

slang terminology

A couple pieces of slang terminology you might hear, esp from tower and ground controllers at the larger airports that I picked up on:
MAD DOG > MD-80 aircraft
STICK>B757-300
ALBERT>B737
SOUTHWEST BLUE-TOP > Southwests blue paint 737
SOUTHWEST BROWN-TOP>Southwest older brown or tan paint 737

David

 

[KGIII]

I opened this thread just out of curiosity. I'm glad I did. Lots of good information here - much thanks.

 

[abqscan]

May God have mercy on your soul if you ever land at O'Hare international and expect to get from the runway to the gate "according to the glossary".

Two words: "penalty box"

 

[abqscan]

Not sure which country has a transition altitude of 12000ft, but here in the U.S. the transition altitude is 18,000 feet.

12000', how about 3000'.

"In the United States and Canada, the transition altitude is 18,000 ft. In Europe, the transition altitude varies and can be as low as 3,000 ft. There are discussions to standardise the transition altitude within the Eurocontrol area." Flight level - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[N2SCV]

Mach

I hear some planes say that their speed is mach .76. on 125.325 in ZNY. Is this only above certain altitudes?

 

[thenewsden]

Where can sectional charts be purchased?

 

[CalebATC]

Where can sectional charts be purchased?

Where can't they be purchased??

A good portion of local pilot shops at the airport, or any online websites, Sporty's being favorite.

Mach numbers are usually used at high altitudes, usually above FL180, since ground speed and indicated will be such a large variation.