Callsigns during the 80's

[ExRAFRadar]

Sitting here having had a few red wines I was trying to remember some of the callsigns we used to work with.(sad I know)

84-88; I can only recall a few and if doesn't break any rules I was hoping some of you fine people could fill the memory loss.

We worked with 1 Group types for the main. Along with a lot of colonial cousin types and the odd Air Defender God.

Sad to say I only recall Tahoe and Saxon. Saxon being 617 I think. Tahoe might have been 48TFW callsigns.

Upper Heyford and Lakenheath were our main customers but A10's out of Bentwaters were common.

[Finningley Boy]

I recall 617 sqn, shortly after changing from Vulcans to Tornado GR1s, had certain callsign which had to be changed shortly after to the less contentious "Black Dog" no prizes for guessing what it was!:ok:

FB:)

[Cows getting bigger]

Rubic
Bobcat
Tartan
Tarzan
Zenith
Jester
Kayak
Madras
Kebab
Magpie
Raider
Huge (A10 but may have been 2ATAF)

[The B Word]

The JPs on the Low Level Trg Sqn at Finningley always caused ATCOs problems with callsign "Darley"; read-backs ranged from "Darlek" to "Darling". Although by the sound of some of the girlies at Eastern Radar the latter wasn't a bad thing!

The B Word

PS Never did work out what a "Darley" was and Google makes me none the wiser.

[taxydual]

Well, am I sad or what?

The Guide's Internet Callsign list - United Kingdom (GB) (http://www.the-guide.nl/callsign/country/gb/)

[Brain Potter]

Darley's was a Brewery in Thorne.

DARLEY (http://www.bobdennis.co.uk/darley.htm)

[stiknruda]

Also known as a pint of "eye of the needle" in the OM!

[The B Word]

Brain

Thank's mate, mystery solved.

Taxydual

They've mis-spelled "Darley" as "Darly" in your list...:8

The B Word

[iRaven]

"Wellard" was a good callsign until some spotty pratt on Eastenders named his dog the same thing...

[taxydual]

As an aside. When 25 Sqn formed at Leeming with the F3, one of the NATO callsigns allocated to it was TIMID. Suprisingly, it was never used!

[Matt Skrossa]

Sea Harrier callsign 'Polecat' was normally referred to as Poll Tax, which sort of dates me!

[mindstorm]

On 72 we used to use Swallow on detachments. Funny how it used to end up as "Swallow 69" :D

[27mm]

At Leeming on JPs, we had a formation callsign of "Resign". ATC didn't quite hear our check-in and queried the callsign, to which our leader replied "Resign, you know, as in PVR..."

[spekesoftly]

Linton JPs - formation callsigns "Jericho Red" & "Jericho Black".

[spekesoftly]

Each station had frequently changing trigraphsPeriodically a batch of new trigraphs was sent to ATC for allocation to their home based Squadrons. Selecting a suitable trigraph for an unpopular squadron was fair game. So if you ever used something like DIC, TIT or NOB, you now know why! ;)

[It's only Me]

Dalek was a 230 callsign in RAFG; have you ever tried explaining what one of those is to a German controller?

However, same airfield, now with Tarzan as the callsign - "Tarzan, this is Jane, you are clear to land".

[Ali Barber]

Horseman was used on the F-3 OCU. Check-ins went "Death, Famine, Pestilence, Plague....London Mil, the 4 Horsemen with you!" Any more than a 4-ship and anything went, Flatulence, etc....

[Molemot]

Linton JPs in the early 70's...I recall a trigraph of Foxtrot Uniform Xray and formation callsigns of Sputum Yellow and Sputum Green....!

[scarecrow450]

Marham 94 had the Canberra's using FO2 as a trigraph, app controllers had to say 'FO2 54 you are cleared to Foxtrot Off !'
Pilot said , huh, thanks, we did'nt think of it.

[Exascot]

I think that the most ignominious callsign I was ever allocated was in the mid 80s when we were operating into Aldergrove with VIPs on board. The ‘powers that be’ had decided that going in with an ‘Ascot’ callsign was a security risk as the balaclava clad Paddy with a SAM launcher over his shoulder would listen into ATC and identify the incoming target. The brilliant idea was that inbound over the IOM you would switch from ‘Ascot’ to the secure callsign. It was presumed, I guess, that someone listening in would not have monitored the change over and the same voice with a different callsign. When I checked in as ‘lemon’ :bored: even the ATCO felt inclined to say, ‘………..and who on earth picks these callsigns?’ I am sure that Paddy never realised that the gleaming white Andover with the RAF roundels, callsign ‘Lemon’ was not an interesting target – much!

An aside; in those days I always wanted to get the opportunity to say ‘Andover over Andover on handover, over’ managed it just once going into Boscombe Down. Not strict RT, and silly, but what the heck.

[ShyTorque]

I recall 617 sqn, shortly after changing from Vulcans to Tornado GR1s, had certain callsign which had to be changed shortly after to the less contentious "Black Dog" no prizes for guessing what it was!


Gibson? :p

[bast0n]

In the far off days when 707 Squadron at Culdrose did mountain flying at Valley every few weeks we used to think up new callsigns for each trip to get a "bite" from the powers that be.

One of the most successful was Potato formation.

Tell off! "one potato two potato three potato four. You have to be of a certain age to find this one amusing......................:O

[Exascot]

airpolice,
Manipulating pilots for your own amusement, will anything ever change? Oh well, I liked the opportunity. I am still being manipulated having married one of your ex-colleagues. I have just been manipulated into having another beer in a taverna on the sea front on our remote Greek island (in the rain I must add).

[foldingwings]

Darley's was a Brewery in Thorne

My late Dad-in-Law was the Master Cooper there! Now there's a diminishing trade.

Foldie:ok:

[ShyTorque]

Yes, not so many Dads-in-law about these days. :E

[taxydual]

Aye, only two left (coopers that is, not fathers in law). Alistair and Jonathon. Both trained under the eye of the 'Master', the late Clive Hollis of Theakston fame.

How about that for thread drift!

[cazatou]

I must confess I was quite surprised to read Exascot's revelations in respect of callsigns going into Aldergrove. My first task into Aldergrove during the "Troubles" was on 30 September 1969 when we flew the then CAS to Belfast to see his son (a Life Guards Officer) who had been seriously wounded by the negligent discharge of a rifle by one of his troopers.

In the subsequent years I flew more than 300 other sorties into Aldergrove flying Andovers, BAe 125's and BAe 146's - in addition to sorties into Dublin; yet I never used a callsign other than ASCOT except for the single occasion whilst in Training Command when I flew a Jet Provost Mk3 to Shorts and swapped it for a Mk 3A they had just converted - when I used a Training Command TriGraph. My last task into Aldergrove was February 1995.

[malreeves]

Not exactly on-thread I know but......I used to fly the Ex-Argie UH-1H for RAFBF side letters G-HUEY, north-bound from Boscombe flying past Upper Heyford one day I was aked what my aircraft type was....!

[Finningley Boy]

I recall some of the F111s from Upper Heyford used to use Jazz.

Well it might have been Lakenheath, can't quite remember.:confused:

FB:)

[Sir George Cayley]

Didn't F3s use Conqueror and Churchill?

USAF random 4 letter call signs threw up humorous combinations from time to time. Heard on Liverpool App from an UH-1 'Lord 51' inbound to Burtonwood "The Lord is with you" !

Eastbound C130 first call to Shanwick "Wank xx" After much falling about they were persuaded to change.

U-2s into the 'hall often used 'Sunray'

Lastly, the kneeling 748 full call was to Kent Radar. "Ascot 15xx I'm an Andover from Andover on handover over Dover over"

SGC

[Willard Whyte]

When dropping paras over 'Ladies Mile' we used to pick our own callsigns for the day, VAT69, Claret 62, Slipper 1, that kind of thing.

When E-3Ds go on det they often deploy using an Ascot callsign and understandably the crew get used to this. Once in theatre it switches to one beginning with Sole.. Having been using Ascot for a few days the normal check in on the first day is As_Sole...

[Gloria Finis]

Horsemen was not an F3 OCU callsign but was used exclusively by the QWI cse.
In the the 90's we used Blacksmith, Gamecock Partridge and Tarragon on 43 F, well punchy eh!! Scimitar was the most popular used on 111 F.
On 5 AC we used Carbon and Scorpion mainly and on 56 R we used Scorcher, Skooby and Warlord. It was Eagle in the Falklands and I remember using Thunder a lot on 74 at Valley whilst holding prior to the OCU.

All seems so long ago now!!! :(

[lsh]

The one that gave me the most laughs was "Goat".
It has obvious Service connotations.

Plus the check-ins:
ATC "Say again": "I say again Golf Oscar Alpha Tango, Goat baaaa".

"Goat check-in" "Goat 1, Goat 2, Goat 3, baaaaa".

It came after a long period of "dodgy" callsign allocations, "Pansy" etc.
Someone had it in for us!

lsh
:E

[Exascot]

Cazatou, I think that I have an ident on you. The chap with the ‘bright idea’ either got promoted or taken away in a straight jacket (not much difference really). It didn’t last long, you may have been on leave. Or perhaps they didn’t dare impose it on you ‘fast jet’ guys upstairs at the time. Regret that my log books are in storage in Blighty or I could give you some more accurate dates.

[NutherA2]

Each station had frequently changing trigraphsBack in the 1950s, before trigraphs were invented, each station was assigned a callsign which was changed every month or so. At Jever we were sniggered at one month when we were required to call ourselves "Barren" and waited impatiently for the next change to come around. "They" gave us "Sterile".:(

GPT14 was a Gnat out of valley who would be referred to as G14 when working Valley Thanks for the reminder, I was G14 for 3 years from November 1969.:ok:

[airpolice]

I have, in the last three years, flown 84 trips, 79 of them with the same callsign.

I can't tell you how hard it is to use the correct callsign when in a different aircraft. Even having it on the dash in front of me is not helping, I think of myself as that long term callsign when I think of transmitting.

Pathetic really.

[Willard Whyte]

57(R) had 3-figure callsigns starting with 6.

One of the more religious captains, almost evangelical, ended up with 666.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

IIRC, Leeming F3s in the late '80s had Dagger allocated (to 23 I think). It lasted as long as the first check-in. "Dagger1", "Dagger 2"......interrupted by " dagga, dagga, dagga!"
Also at Leeming; NUAS in the early '80s, student callsigns in the N500 series. The broad Lancastrian Les was allocated N555. after week one it was always "Novemmmmba Fiiiiiiive Fiii" "OK Les, you're clear taxi"

[ShyTorque]

An RAF helicopter pilot known on our squadron for his terribly unfortunate stutter went on a army exchange tour (on Lynx, IIRC).

The army thoughtfully (!) gave him the callsign "Four Four Foxtrot" and made him lead formations on landaways.

"F..F...F....F.....FFFFFFFEr....FFFFFFFFEr.........FFFFFFFEr. ...... :}

[clicker]

During the last few weeks before Coltishall closed I was one of a number of photographers standing in the fields by the runway when the Polish Air Force were on an exchange visit.

Each formation consisted of a Jaguar or two with two or three SU-7's in tow and a few of us were monitoring the various ops freqs to get an early indication of the returning aircraft. One call I heard made me laugh so much I nearly missed the touchdown.

"Canopener, Canopener, Trousers down in five minutes"

[lsh]

An RAF helicopter pilot known on our squadron for his terribly unfortunate stutter went on a army exchange tour (on Lynx, IIRC).

The army thoughtfully (!) gave him the callsign "Four Four Foxtrot" and made him lead formations on landaways.

"F..F...F....F.....FFFFFFFEr....FFFFFFFFEr........ .FFFFFFFEr.......

Whilst at "Gut" they gave him "44"!

Can remember him landing a very early computer flt sim with the stick cross-wired with the left/rights - he was the only one to do this, "clever" I thought!
Went on to be a helicopter TP.
(Also crashed an airship!)
Highlighted a lateral CofG problem on the MD900 during the trials for DHFS, months before the makers came clean!

Where are you now, "Herr Schlanger"??

lsh
:E

[andrewn]

And 'Bandbox' was another 6FTS JP callsign
'FYJ', 'FYP', 'FYT', etc were all used by the different types until replaced by 'FYY' for all types

Medal and Darth were both 20TFW F-111's

Mothball, Warthog and Tasman were all 360Sq Canberra's; Archer was 100Sq

An interesting time to be an eavesdropper....

[Range Rat]

20th TAC Upper Heyford F111E
Wing C/S Lay
Squadrons Akee Sewn Rerun

48th TAC Lakenheath F111F
Wing C/S Trest
Squadrons Hid Ratch Pal

81st TAC F4
Memory a bit iffy. Can't remember Wing C/S but the main 4 used were
Spong Muir Dylan Trait

All used 1974 to 1979 for F111's
81st use pre A10 from 1974 until changeover.

[ACW599]

>An interesting time to be an eavesdropper....<

Indeed it was :-)

Can anyone remember which USAF unit used 'Dawn' as a callsign in the mid-1980s? One would occasionally hear them speaking to London Mil (er, cough, allegedly) over and around London very late at night.

[grandfer]

I used to hear a C-5 Galaxy many years ago going in to Ramstein ,I think, using call-sign "Kite 15",at a time when all other C-5s were using their USAF serials as call-signs .

[Hueymeister]

I had just spoken to East Midlands LARS and was busily wokkarring away through their zone in my mighty Wessex, when the ATC Supervisor came on, asked me my callsign, which the previous controller had done several times...'Err roger we are Swallow 69, out of Aldergrove enroute Mildenhall..blah,blah, blether etc...' the reply came 'roger Swallow callsign, turn right 90 degrees and exit the zone..good day'

I spoke to him later..and the Sqn 2i/c (now an Air Marshall) who really didn't see the funny side at all....still P*t M**ler got the bollocking !!!!:cool::cool::cool::p