My squadron mates and I will often call ourselves "Pitts Formation" when gaggled rather than use the reg of the leader or something like that. It reminds people that we're more than one, hopefully adding a bit to general SA. We've never had a problem either here in the UK or in France. Having said that, we usually make pretty clear what Lead's reg is at some point anyway, so it's more of an easier handle than anything we try to make "official".
First day flying at Redhill a couple of years ago, I was gutted to listen in on the tower freq and get all excited at the impending flyby of "Mustang XX" only to find out that it belonged to a bloody R-22! It's the helicopter training school callsign.
The Story of "Stealth 1"
On the subject of callsigns, a guy I knew from my days in the USAF was a Stealth Fighter pilot, rank of captain, returning single-ship to Holloman AFB from an airshow in the east somewhere. The squadron callsign at home base is "Sundowner XX", but he'd been assigned "Stealth 1" as he was the only Stealth at the airshow.
Enroute he had to stop in at another USAF base for fuel, still using the callsign Stealth 1. When he arrived, on a Sunday down day, he's led by the follow-me truck, not to the Transient Ramp, where all visiting aircraft get parked, but straight as an arrow to the VIP parking spot at the end of the red carpet (permanently painted on the apron) directly in front of Base Ops. He thought "Wow! I've hit the big time!" and was looking for someone to high-5 to celebrate this unexpected treatment for a mere captain.
As he popped the canopy, three full-bird colonels came walking out of Base Ops to greet him. The one walking faster than the other two, the wing commander (top dog on the base) takes one look at Ken's bars and says irately, "A captain?! Where the hell is your wing commander?!?!"
To which Ken, suddenly feeling deflated and confused at this unexplained attack, and still sitting in the cockpit, replies "Well, he's back at Holloman, Sir!"
"Well then, who are you, carrying his callsign?" At which point Ken had figured out where the confusion came from: When he filed his flightplan and it arrived at the base's tower, they naturally would have alerted the Command Post that a VIP was inbound.
"Oh!! Sorry, sir", Ken explains, "He's Sundowner 1. I was given Stealth 1 as an airshow callsign for the trip back home."
The commander and one of the other colonels stomped off without another word, quite put out that they'd been called away from their Sunday BBQ by the command post, got dressed in their uniforms, and had to go out, as military protocol demands, and great an unannounced wing commander...which turned out to be some captain on his way home from a weekend jolly.
Ken was a little deflated and sat there for a second wondering what to do next when all was put right as the third officer, still standing on the apron under the cockpit, grinning like a maniac, looked up at Ken, just like the kids at the airshow he'd just left, and asked, "Can I have a look at your jet?"
He's since left the USAF and rebuilds T-6s with his Dad, as far as I know. Races 'em at Reno, too. Hell of a fine leader and gentleman, Ken is.
Pitts2112
Last edited by Pitts2112; 20th January 2007 at 21:07.