Originally Posted by
Check Airman
You're arguing that we should, as professionals, cater to the lowest common denominator. Even the cheaters. If you can't figure out who's on the radio, perhaps you shouldn't be flying.
Sorry for the rant, but the last post suggesting that we should openly cater to people who have not met the minimum standards struck a nerve.
Well, it is easy enough to miss that the other one switched off the radio for whatever reason and that can of course lead to a missed call and even lost communication. It shouldn’t happen but it does. Do we need a standard call? Not necessarily, but it is always good zo advise the other one what is going on. And yes, different native languages, accents and of course backgrounds do happen, especially in europe where you are in a different country with a different language and a quite different history every few miles. I grew up close to a border myself, and although we did speak the same language on both sides and eventually ended up in one country there is still a distinct difference there. Standardization sometimes seems superfluous, but in the end it makes life easier, especially in a company with a very diverse set of employees.
To be honest, the airbus OEM SOPs actually cater for the lowest common denominator, and that one would be probably below standard in big parts of the world. Therefore it is somewhat surprising that there is no standard callout for the transfer of communication.