RTF Procedures?

[BankAngle50]

I know this was probably covered in depth about 6 months ago under “Callsign Spankers;” but I was just wondering if someone could give the link on Airservices Website/ AIP where QANTAS are authorized to use the callsign “The QANTAS XXX.”
Do they have a carte blanche dispensation to choose what they want to adhear to with respect to RTF? It’s just that I keep hearing it especially in SYD. Why is the addition of “The” necessary? I’m not normally this anal about RTF, but I have to wonder who could be bothered to make additions to transmissions? Perhaps one of these incredibly talented cadets can inform me?

When I worked overseas I never heard “The United XXX”, “The American XXX” , “The Cathay XXX”, “The Springbok XXX” etc…. Maybe we are all doing it wrong and this concerns me? Perhaps we need to clogg up centre frequencies for more unnecessary self gratifying babble, such as “The Virgin XXX”, “The JetStar XXX”, “The Eastern XXX”, “The Rex XXX” etc….

[missy]

In 20+ years I have NEVER heard Qantas use "The Qantas nn".

I have, on ocassion, heard "The Speedbird nn".

[Captain Can't]

i do here 'THE qantas' occaisionly, but also THE virgin too FWIW... haven't heard THE jetstar yet though! But yes, the nigels do lead the pack with THE speedbird! I've also noted an increase of THE emirates :rolleyes: :bored: :hmm: :zzz:

[Howard Hughes]

Only ever heard "The Speedbird" and "The Virgin", although I have heard one regional driver calling himself "The IFR SAAB"....

[Ron & Edna Johns]

Haven't you blokes got anything important to worry about??? :rolleyes:

[gaunty]

monkey hear monkey do.

And that's not aimed at QF or any airline in particular.

Unless it's in the comapany SOPs and if it was I guess we would have heard about it here by now, somebody somewhere has picked it up from someone else and it becomes the current "cool".

Like the US practise, "XYZ out of thirty" not standard but every body knows what he means.

With the saturation of the public airwaves with radio, tv, podcasting, sms, and email there's a whole new language being invented by the hour.

"filth" used to mean awful, it now means "really awesome" which used to be "cool dude" fantastic" which used to be "great". :confused: :rolleyes:

[karrank]

Doesn't really worry me if the odd useless word sneaks into a transmission, the routine clogging of freq with crap does. If the worst thing you hear on the radio is the odd "The" you are really not having a bad day. Take a Bex & lie down for a bit and get some perspective.

There a couple of regional operators who insist on tacking "...request any IFR traffic" on the end of descent calls, or "...will report after landing" after a changing to MBZ call. If you change level we are required to respond with a traffic statement, if you say nothing when switching to the MBZ we will expect a call on the ground.

[Capn Bloggs]

if you say nothing when switching to the MBZ we will expect a call on the ground.
And so you should since I haven't cancelled SAR yet! :p

[Keg]

I heard it for the first time in February this year from a Second Officer. I utilised every CRM skill I possess (not many) to tell him that if he said it again, I'd be forced to beat it out of him. After picking himself up from the jocularity of me actually considering trying to flog him- he was a big lad- he worked out that I was at least serious about the 'the' at the start of the call sign! :ok: :E

Beyond that, as I've said on previous threads, the only other time I've heard it was when Guppy (I think it was you mate!) used it to refer to us as 'The echo alpha quebec' when we signed in on frequency just after 'the speedbird 10' had announced it's arrival! :E Shows you how long ago it was that we were still using rego's and we still had 762s! :}