Please help

[bulkhold]

I am a ground staff and often wonder:

1. Why pilots say ROGER instead of YES
2. Why the chief of cabin crew (male) is called PURSER while he does not even carry a purse
3. Why captain is seated in the left hand seat
4. Why aircraft documents are called SHIP PAPERS
5. Why they say Ground speed while aircraft is flying
6. Why some call FLIGHT DECK as Cockpit

Thanks

[barit1]

and...
Do you know the real purpose of a fan on an engine?

[pamann]

now i'm not being funny right, but are u ground staff or do you work in Boots the Chemist in the departure lounge????
Why don't you just ask them next time???
To be fair are you really that bothered???

[bulkhold]

pamann,

I am really a junior ground staff who like to educate myself with aviation terminologies. I know meanings of all of my questions but just wanted the professional pilots to give me more information.

I had no intetion of joke or being smart. Just knowlege seeking

[kwbunyap]

1. Why pilots say ROGER instead of YES
2. Why the chief of cabin crew (male) is called PURSER while he does not even carry a purse
3. Why captain is seated in the left hand seat
4. Why aircraft documents are called SHIP PAPERS
5. Why they say Ground speed while aircraft is flying
6. Why some call FLIGHT DECK as Cockpit


Answers:

1. Because of phonetics. old radio transmissions, when saying "yes" could be construed as garbled, or static..."sssssss" on the old radios. so they talked in phonetics. Alpha, bravo, charlie... and so on. Roger comes from the old saying "roger wilco" which meant, "understand and will comply (with instructions)"

2. Purser: definition: an officer aboard a ship who keeps accounts and attends to the passengers' welfare.

on the old ships, he would take the women's purses. Now on the aircraft, the role has been given the same name.

3. the first multi seat (two seat side by side sitting aircraft were probably created in the USA, where the first airplane was flown, and we drive from the left side, so in the aircraft it was set up the same way. Had it been done first in England, probably would have been on the right.

4. Again, like much of this, taken from the old ship way of doing things. the first use of aircraft hauling people were over long distances or bodies of water, like the ships used to do.

5. Ground speed is movement across the ground, which is all that really matters. How long from point A on the ground to point B on the ground. Airspeed is relative ... I could be flying 100 mph in a 100 mph headwind and have zero groundspeed....I would be going nowhere. We do use airspeed all the time in flight to one another.

6. The first aircraft had small little areas to plop into to fly it, and they were open to the sky.

cockpit definition: a compartment in a sailing warship used as quarters for junior officers and for treatment of the wounded in an engagement. just a carryover.

hope this helps.

:ok:

[Red Mud]

Thanks KW for the little history lesson. I sincerely found the trivia interesting.:ok:

[barit1]

But no one answered my question!

[Fris B. Fairing]

barit1

It's to keep the pilot cool.

If you don't believe this is true just ......

(I'll let you finish it Tom)

Cheers

[Ignition Override]

1) Bulkhold: If the British call them "ship's papers", then should they not have a "brig" in which to lock up any passenger who misbehaves, and bags of lemons or limes to prevent scurvy?

2) Kwbunyap: because a helicopter pilot in command sits on the right, did Sikorsky invent the helicopter in England :D ? At least he was not required to hover through two roundabouts in a row, after entering and exiting on the wrong side of the road :{ !

My first time driving on THAT side of the road was last summer (sometimes with nobody to follow, and the other drivers were surprisingly patient with me, fortunately.... :D ). Certainly wish we could have found time for the Imperial War Museum (but saw Churchill's bunker hq.), and and to hike on some part of the long, very ancient Foss Way, through the beautiful Cotswolds :( , marched upon by many ancient tribes and armies :* :} .

[MadsDad]

Ignition as I recall helicopters are driven from the right because the guy who did the original tests preferred to fly from that side. Then when he (the first pilot) trained the second pilot the trainee was sat in the left seat. And so it continued. Very technical really.

Incidentally if you think two roundabouts in a row is exciting you should try the 'magic roundabout' at Swindon (there is another, I think, at Hemel Hempstead). This consists of a large central roundabout with seven small roundabouts grouped round it. The locals gather there in the rush hour to watch the fun and dings.

[cwatters]

Photos of the one in Swindon...

http://www.strum.co.uk/pix/mr.jpg

[bulkhold]

Dear kwbunyap,

Many many thanks for your fantastic explaination. I am really happy that answers to all of my question are clearly stated. You are wonderfull.

Gentlemen.. Thanks for your help. Safe flying for all..

Bulkhold
:D

[BOAC]

bulkholdRoger comes from the old saying "roger wilco" which meant, "understand and will comply (with instructions - just to add for completeness, the use of 'Roger' was from the phonetic alphabet of old where 'R' was 'Roger', and in Morse code 'R' was used as short-tap for 'received'. Just as 'Charlie Charlie' which is sometimes used to say 'that is correct' comes from the old Morse/phonetic 'C' for 'Copied'

[john_tullamarine]

re sitting on the LHS in a fixed wing aircraft, I recall reading long ago that this originated in the initial military application of aircraft (WW1) as a follow-on from mounting one's horse from the left ?

Like many things which date back to the days of the Ark biplane .. it is more a case of that's what happened and stuck .... rather than there being any sound aeronautical reason for it ..

[Dan Winterland]

The traditional way to fly a helicopter is with the right hand on the cyclic and the left hand on the collective. Early helicopters only had one collective in between the seats. That'w why the Captain sits on the right.

[Gary Lager]

But if they were early helicopters, then that method wasn't yet 'traditional', was it?

:p

[MightyGem]

1. Why pilots say ROGER instead of YES
Pilots don't say ROGER instead of YES, they say AFFIRM.

[Capt Pit Bull]

The reason they say Roger instead of Yes (or affirm!) is because Roger does not mean Yes.

It means "I've received your transmission".

Hence a Roger in response to a request does not mean yes. It means "I hear you and I'm thinking about it or talking to someone else before I give you a yes or a no."

CPB