Sid departure calls

[downwind]

Guys,

Why do British pilots, when they give their radar departure call, include the name of the SID they are flying?

Eg; XYZ deps Speedbird 123 passing 1200 on the XYZ sid climbing to 5000.

Thanks DW.

[tunneler]

Not got a SID booklet with me but I think i can just about remember the wording.......

"On first contact with London Control a/c must pass Callsign, passing level, cleared level and SID designator"

Perhaps not quite word for word but I'm pretty sure thats the gist of it - think it ensures that atc and the a/c are singing from the same song sheet.

[Captain Airclues]

downwind

You don't tell us which country you are from. Perhaps it is not required in your country, as it is in the UK? Perhaps the British pilots are doing it out of habit, or perhaps they assume that the rule is worldwide? What are the requirements in your country?

Airclues

[keithl]

CAP 413 Ch6, para1.1.2 refers.

Pilots of all aircraft flying Instrument Departures are to include the following information on first contact with approach control / departure radar:
a) Callsign
b) SID Designator where appropriate
c) Current or passing Alt/FL PLUS
d) Cleared Alt / FL

CAP 413 is, of course, specific to UK.

[NigelOnDraft]

There is an element here, I have seen, for "new pilots" brought up at, say LHR, to use LHR / LTMA / UK procedures everywhere e.g. SID call as discussed, initial call components to delivery...

Probably to be expected, and hardly a problem!

NoD

[b777pilot]

i think you can put dubai and sharjah in that requirement as well. whilst informative to the radar controller, is certainly a mouthful to me and clutters the RT.

after all, he has my squawk and presumably cleared my SID thru the tower?

[SLT]

I know what you're saying about it being a mouthful, but I do feel that it's important to get this right. All of the informaion passed is important to the controller.
OK, you've been cleared on a certain SID, but by you telling him what SID you're flying, it reassures him you're flying the right one. There have been loads of guys who read back a clearance correctly and then flew a completely different SID.
Passing altitude/level - he needs to validate your Mode C readout and can't do that otherwise. If he subsequently has to ask to what your level is - surely that's cluttering the RT when it needn't have been?
Cleared altitude/FL - this was brought in a number of years ago in response to an increasing number of level busts when pilots had misinterpreted the stop alt/level on the SID plate. This reassures the controller that you are in fact aiming at the correct alt/lvl and he's not got to worry about that opposite direction traffic 1000 ft above your stop.

At the end of the day - yes we all know the reasons why we are supposed to do things a certain way, but some people still don't!!! Doing things the right way is just a easy as doing them the wrong way.

Cheers!! :D