But even after 'gear down' had been in for years, some Hercules co-piglets were still calling "Finals, gear checked".... One exasperated Local Controller at Brize eventually became so fed up with non-standard JATE-cowboy R/T that he advised that landing clearance would not be given until the C-130 crew confirmed that their landing gear was indeed DOWN!
Beagle: this Brize v Lyneham stuff is soo last century.... don't you know we're all one entity now? Personally never liked the 'gear checked' thing, no less words than 'gear down' & didn't add clarity.
Back to the original subject of the thread, I too was taught to avoid the use of the word 'clear' as it was an ATC word because of the Tenerife tragedy, but a student of mine once did gently point me in the direction of CAP 413 to show me that it was now part of normal R/T usage. I still feel a little uncomfortable with it though... but not as much as I do with creeping Americanisms, of the 'with the flash', ' (squawk code) coming down' etc, & 'al-timy- ter' rather than the perfectly good Anglo-Saxon 'altimeter'.