BALIX;
I expect that most US crews are at somewhat of a disadvantage from thier experience with ATC phraseology. Most have learned and have grown into flying in the US. Here unfortunately we do all pretty much speak some form of english <G>. Because of that, the RT is a bit sloppy due to being able to use chit chat phrases and everyone more or less understanding them. In Europe, you have grown up with going into many countries every day where hardly anyone is a native english speaker. This forces both controllers AND pilots to use a more standardized aviation phraseology. Something that most controllers in the US would LOVE to here from the flight crews.
I think that it is getting WORSE over here too. I don't know why it is, but we seem to be fighting a losing battle with pilots using any sort of standard phraseology. Maybe another reason too is that in many European countries, prior to getting your instrument ticket, you must show that you can pass an aviation phraseology test, both knowing it and understanding it. We don't have anything like that here, and it shows...
Shoot, sometimes we are lucky to get them to respond with a call sign. It's like they think we have voice recognition software <G>. We as controllers are at fault too due to not holding the pilots more accountable for thier phraseology. But then again, other than having them repeat stuff constantly which we don't have the time for when we are busy, there is also NO regulation that REQUIRES the flight crews to use standardized phraseology...
Hope this may shed some light....
By the way, a shameless plug now.... <G> We will be talking about some of these issues in Denver, at Communicating for Safety 2003. An aviation safety seminar sponsored by NATCA for controllers and pilots...
regards
Scott H. Voigt
NATCA Southwest Region
Safety and Technology Chairman