Question about pilot lingo...

[thadood]

If im not mistaken i beleave alot of this stuff was in the "Microsoft flight simulator" games. Any of yall ever play em ? pretty fun

 

[akuter]

Very fun. I wish they would put more "heavy" aircraft and modern military planes into it.
Make a flight plan and you can select any overlay(intersections, vectors etc....) and print them out. Makes a great poster for your listining post.

 

[poltergeisty]

Question about aircraft pilot lingo:

What is meant when they say, goes something like "landing on 35L 155 ILS" I know L means left and ILS means Instrument landing system, but what exactly does it mean?

I notice that not all aircraft mention ILS when on approach. I'm thinking that if the pilot is using ILS to land they must mention it?

 

[CSL126]

A pilot can plug the ILS frequency into the aircraft's navigation equipment and get the localizer and glideslope. I guess almost all commercial jets use this, as well as some small aircraft flying by IFR (Instrument Flight Rules).

ILS is one type of landing, another common one is a Visual. You'll sometimes hear controllers say "Clear for the visual approach runway ##."

I'm sure there's someone browsing through the forums that knows a lot more than me though, so i'll let them take over from here.

 

[Colin9690]

Question about aircraft pilot lingo:

What is meant when they say, goes something like "landing on 35L 155 ILS" I know L means left and ILS means Instrument landing system, but what exactly does it mean?

I notice that not all aircraft mention ILS when on approach. I'm thinking that if the pilot is using ILS to land they must mention it?

The 155 number you heard is probably the heading assigned to the aircraft by the controller in order for the plane to intercept the ILS signal. It could also be just a statement telling the pilot what runway to expect for landing. Normally, this type of transmission when the plane is about 100 miles from the airport, so they know well in advance what runway to use, and what approach to conduct (visual, ILS, VOR, RNAV, etc)

Hope this helps

 

[williams63]

There is a HEAP of add ons...( Freeware ) as for printing out a flight plan or vectors , you can within FS 2004...or use FSnav it will interface within FS 2000 - 2004.

Want the real stuff...go to an airfield...see a Pilot better yet smaller airliner , ask Pilots for old outdated Sectionals and any other stuff he may have.

The FAA and NAV CAN makes these guys toss this stuff out every 120 days I think ( maybe 90 days ) I have all of Canada for Sectionals...every Approach Plate used for IFR for every province in Canada...Also Canadian FLight Supplement ( costly stuff here ) the pilots told me, well better you have ot the trash gets its..here...I was blown away!!

Very fun. I wish they would put more "heavy" aircraft and modern military planes into it.
Make a flight plan and you can select any overlay(intersections, vectors etc....) and print them out. Makes a great poster for your listining post.

 

[werinshades]

Question about aircraft pilot lingo:

What is meant when they say, goes something like "landing on 35L 155 ILS" I know L means left and ILS means Instrument landing system, but what exactly does it mean?

I notice that not all aircraft mention ILS when on approach. I'm thinking that if the pilot is using ILS to land they must mention it?

Not sure if the Airport Tower is giving this, or the pilot had said this. I live by Midway Airport in Chicago, so the Tower I monitor quite clearly. Usually within the last 2 Miles, the Tower will give the coordinates you mention and it sounds similar to what you describe. It's possible the Tower is giving wind direction and speed by what you say. You know landing on 35-L (Left) stands for, they usually say "utilizing ILS", and 155 may be "15 at 5". That would be almost do north wind at 5 MPH. Just a guess...

 

[NAVCAN]

Not sure if the Airport Tower is giving this, or the pilot had said this. I live by Midway Airport in Chicago, so the Tower I monitor quite clearly. Usually within the last 2 Miles, the Tower will give the coordinates you mention and it sounds similar to what you describe. It's possible the Tower is giving wind direction and speed by what you say. You know landing on 35-L (Left) stands for, they usually say "utilizing ILS", and 155 may be "15 at 5". That would be almost do north wind at 5 MPH. Just a guess...

sounds about right man, the 15 at 5 part.

 

[rbts]

Here's another pub you can browse for ATC lingo and other info:

http://www.faa.gov/atpubs/ATC/index.htm

 

[Yokoshibu]

sounds about right man, the 15 at 5 part.

I think that is more likely the heading untill established on the loc.

 

[werinshades]

I think that is more likely the heading untill established on the loc.

We'd all have to listen to it to truly know...

 

[poltergeisty]

Thanks much for everyones info here.

Normally, this type of transmission when the plane is about 100 miles from the airport, so they know well in advance what runway to use, and what approach to conduct (visual, ILS, VOR, RNAV, etc)

My knowledge on aircraft landing procedures and instruments is limited. I believe, from what I read some years ago in private pilot magazine that visual, ILS, VOR, RNAV are all forms of landing and/or navigational gear.

I know VOR as Visual Omni Range. I believe RNAV is Radio Navigation?

Now the airport I mention is a small airport with no control tower, air craft have to communicate to one another. When this plane was landing the pilot said what I mentioned to that effect and did say ILS. I'll have to record what they say on the radio. I'm thinking the ILS was just exactly that, he was using the ILS frequency for approach. I wasn't aware of any ILS system there. I know they have ATIS or is it AWOS? Its the computer generated weather voice.

I go to www.terraserver.com often for GPS information and I look at sectionals there as well. What exactly are in route airways? Are these roads in the sky? If they are roads in the sky, the map in my area is off because the routes don't exactly show the flight pattern I see in the sky.

 

[trainman111]

En Route airways are basically "roadways in the sky". You may not see the planes following these airways when you look up in the sky because they are probably on an approach to an airport. When they are cruising though, they usually do follow these airways unless they are diverting for weather or another plane.

 

[mdulrich]

I know VOR as Visual Omni Range. I believe RNAV is Radio Navigation?

VOR = VHF Omni-directional Range.

RNAV = aRea NAVigation

Mike

 

[Chris-M]

Most book stores carry the FAR/AIM manual which details the Regulations and information for pilots.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/s..._2&results-process=default?tag2=amd-google-20
You can buy VFR sectionals and IFR enroute charts and approach plates from most any general aviation airport FBO (service center) particularly if they have a flight department that does flight instruction. You don't have to be a licensed pilot to buy these.

I fly Boeing 737s for a major Continental airline . We get JEPP revisions periodically (1 to 3 a month, depends on the changes). The charts (Low and High altitude enroute charts) and Instrument Approach plates (1 page charts) are changed on an as-needed basis.

VOR http://www.navfltsm.addr.com/vor-nav.htm

RNAV http://www.allstar.fiu.edu/aero/RNAV.htm

ILS http://www.navfltsm.addr.com/ils.htm

This is what I did today...
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/COA1553
and
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/COA232
and for Wednesday early AM (track me if you're up early enough..takeoff time is 0545 AM EST)
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/COA633

 

[nd5y]

You can also look at sectional and terminal area charts online here:
http://skyvector.com

 

[Yokoshibu]

vortac = Vhf Omni Range with Tacan ...fyi

 

[poltergeisty]

I fly Boeing 737s for a major Continental airline . We get JEPP revisions periodically (1 to 3 a month, depends on the changes). The charts (Low and High altitude enroute charts) and Instrument Approach plates (1 page charts) are changed on an as-needed basis.

Thank you for your reply.

I have always wondered about all this tech jargon when I first heard it on the in plane pilot audio and on my scanners. I have read many flying related magazines due to my interest to flying. I need to buy that flight sim. A century of flight game. I played the game/simulator a few times and I was hooked. Although, I never read the manual I figured things out though. Even reverse thrust and apply brakes! That I found out pretty quick. Always had problems with flap settings, like I said I need to read the manual. :lol: What I found interesting about flight simulator is that I flew from the local airport here that I mention and the frequency was the same in the real world. Even the airport was the same.

Every time I flew I would think about what the pilots were doing. It's interesting that every time I flew over the rockies they always said they had light chop and we did. One of my many trips to Salt lake it was snowing, so has we approached Salt lake I knew they had to be using their instruments for the landing becuse there was zero visibility.

I will try to monitor you flights. I bet someone can also here you in the routes you take too. This brings up another question I just thought of. Are the flight numbers always the same for particular routes? Every time I flew to Salt lake it was a different number. Even with the same airline. I'm particular curious about this as I know flight 93 is now 94 and about a month ago there had been another unruly passenger on a plane. They had to land at Logan and I heard Greta Van Susteren on Fox news say she had flown that particular flight. So I'm confused at this.

 

[NAVCAN]

vortac = Vhf Omni Range with Tacan ...fyi

and tacan consists of an UHF Omni Range + Distance Measuring Equipment (DME)

Tacan stands for Tactical Air Navigation.

 

[Chris-M]

This brings up another question I just thought of. Are the flight numbers always the same for particular routes? Every time I flew to Salt lake it was a different number. Even with the same airline. [/font]

Marketing changes flight numbers on a whim it seems. If you look at the Flight Aware Activity Log on the lower part of this link, http://flightaware.com/live/flight/COA633
there are several days that the flight number is the same. I don't know when or why they change, but it's typically Corporate Marketing individuals that make the changes. Few flight numbers wil change though. They don't just change them all at the same time.

There is an add-on software company called WilcoPub. They have software that works with Microsoft Flight Simulator programs. The instrment panel details, switch functions, FMC functions, autopilot, etc are truely realistic. I'm type rated on the Boeing 757 and 767, and have flown the Wilco 767 PIC sim program on my laptop a couple of years ago when I was flying as co-pilot on the 756. Pretty slick.

Here's the B737 version. I don't have this one yet.

http://www.wilcopub.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=prod_737pic

I've been working 4 days on the road away from home, and now I'm off for a few days.

Here's a pic I took of my office a few days ago.