Weird, or better said stupid callsigns

[kontrolor]

hi, I know this has been discussed before, but can we make a list of difficult callsigns and try to persuade navigational offices or whoever decides about them that sometimes their creations are plain and simple idiotic?

last night I had WZZ4KQ

I challenge the guy/gal who invented it to pronounce it hundred times in a row sans error....

[Sir George Cayley]

Wiskey Zulu Zulu Fower Kilo Kaybek. Seems OK to me ;)

Sierra Golf Charlie

[ZOOKER]

Maybe some clout required from the pilot community here. After all, ATC are saddled with this nonsense for about 10 transmissions as the culprit a/c transits the sector/airfield.

Spare a thought for the aircrew who have to use the c/s from start to finish.

P.S.
Why do most long-haul flights still have civilized call-signs? Today, over Mt. Belzoni we saw:- DAL133, DLH418, BAW274, COA47, KLM971, VIR19, QTR046, SWR40, etc.
Anyone seen 'Midland 1' recently?

[supraspinatus]

Wiskey Zulu Zulu Fower Kilo Kaybek. Seems OK to me


WZZ= Wizzair


We have a daily flight through our airspace with the route number "107S". Little bit of a tongue twister.

[Plazbot]

Moonflower. WTF?

[ZOOKER]

Plazbot,
'Moonflower' is also the title of a really good double-live album by Santana. :ok:

[5milesbaby]

Zooker, all to do with diplomatic clearances on certain routes. BAW still fly combinations of 19, 39, 139, 119 etc every night from LHR heading east around 10pm. I've tried several times to get them changed following a few confusion instances but the powers that be still haven't managed it. I dread to think of what circumstances will persuade them to push a little harder......

[samotnik]

Oh yes, Wizzair has just made some changes to its callsings, and now all of them, at least those to/from EPKT, have a pattern of WZZ4??. Anyway, it's better than those that they have used during April - i.e. WZZ4455. Wizzair FoFoFaFa? ;)

[Sonnendec]

I once had on frequency four traffics with these callsigns at the same time, all of them asking for climb: BER254, BER524, HLF452 and HLF264.

I´m still wondering if they got my clearances right... :hmm:

[Zippy Monster]

In my company, we are encouraged to submit ASRs if we have a callsign conflict with another aircraft, whether it's with one of our own company or another one. I'm told, although I don't know how it works, that the process of getting it changed is relatively simple once the right people have been made aware.

Do ATC units not have a similar facility, to allow them to report conflicts to the relevant people (airline flight planning departments or whoever) and get the callsigns changed accordingly?

[Cows getting bigger]

Worst I ever heard was 12TM103A. VYT & WYT also used to be a bit of a tongue twister (Yankee Tankee). :)

[The Jolly Roger]

EWY - Echo Whiskey Wankey :eek:

[Gulfstreamaviator]

SEX001, was a easy number to remember, never had the nerve to use 6942.

glf

[kontrolor]

Oh yes, Wizzair has just made some changes to its callsings, and now all of them, at least those to/from EPKT, have a pattern of WZZ4??. Anyway, it's better than those that they have used during April - i.e. WZZ4455. Wizzair FoFoFaFa

or worse, there is permutation to this callsign WZZ445S and WZZ445G

and my eyesight is not as good as it used to be :E

[ron83]

well it looks like Wizzair taking the lead. :E

Had it today WZZ4ZZ :}

and TSO1111 :ugh:

[5milesbaby]

Zippy Monster, yes, ATC also have a reporting system that can alert the right people about potential callsign conflicts, it is how all the new alpha numeric callsigns came about in the first place. Many years ago in the days of Swissair, they sent 800, 820, 830, 840, 860 and 880 into the UK all at the same time. An hour later, they all departed but with a 1 on the end, exiting UK airspace through the same point. After a few confusions and a couple of safety issues, the whole callsign deconflicting really kicked off. Around the same era, BAW also sent 361, 551, 561, 631, 651 and 661 into the same bit of UK airspace as the Swissair's also entered at around the same time, not a happy Lydd Sector controller! There are some that are just bad timing (one late by a few hours and another a little early) and as I said earlier, still some that cannot be changed easily due to the international agreements obtained for those particular flights.

And then there was the day when Channex had two different aircraft in UK airspace using the SAME callsign.........

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Way, way back controllers could instruct a pilot to use whatever callsign they thought fit if confusion reigned. The obvious one was to ask them to use aircraft registration, which usually solved the problem.

[supraspinatus]

Way, way back controllers could instruct a pilot to use whatever callsign they thought fit if confusion reigned. The obvious one was to ask them to use aircraft registration, which usually solved the problem.

Still possible!

"WZZ4455, Due to similar callsign your new callsign is: INDIA DELTA INDIA OSCAR TANGO 1"

[The Many Tentacles]

Have enjoyed BAW114, BAW115, COA114, AAL115 and BAW117 on frequency at the same time a couple of times in the last month or so. :confused:

Amazingly, they all got their calls right as well

[Avoiding_Action]

BEE6ER and BEE6RE was a good one a couple of months ago.

[JohnnyEagle]

and TSO1111

They also have TSO4444 and TSO888:}

[Spangly]

Why do airlines consistently give triple or quadruple alphanumeric callsigns? They may trip off the tongue in the Ops dept. but we are obliged to say 'ABC wun wun wun' not 'ABC triple wun'.

On the plus side, one UK airline of an orange persuasion is pretty quick at changing callsigns if there is confusion - I phoned them up about a similar callsign at a similar time and they promised to change it immediately - never had the problem again.

[babotika]

Just couldn't get 83WG earlier today. My mouth refused to say it and half the sectors I flew through struggled as well. 2DA is quite unpleasant too: two-deltafa

In a previous life I had the pleasure of regularly operating 5125 as company 5215 was inbound, usually one ahead of or behind us. Controllers were even more confused than we were.

S.

[Vercingetorix]

USAF callsigns have caused comment in planning meetings in the UAE: i.e. STUD, BONER, etc, are deemed offensive to local sensibilities!

Cheers:ok:

[Standard Noise]

At one of my previous units........

"XXX, this is Klingon Formation, two Pumas with a silly callsign."

Some of the RYR and EZY combinations can get to you sometimes.

[missy]

QFA7500 flew a couple of times from New Zealand from Australia until someone decided it was the best callsign to use...

[Shrimps]

RYR out of SNN??

It could be TCX - they have plenty of alpha numeric callsigns; in fact 85WG is one they use at present.

[smellysnelly2004]

2 jets, one a gulfstream from LF and another a citation from HI, both going to Edinburgh, at the same time..

N814WS
N841WS

Mental.

[Jim59]

Way, way back controllers could instruct a pilot to use whatever callsign they thought fit if confusion reigned. The obvious one was to ask them to use aircraft registration, which usually solved the problem.



CAP413 suggests that there are constraints on alternative call signs...

An aircraft shall not change its callsign type during a flight. However, where there is a likelihood that confusion may occur because of similar callsigns, an aircraft may be instructed by an air traffic service unit (ATSU) to change the type of its callsign temporarily.

and, if necessary, instruct one or both
aircraft to use alternative or full callsigns while they remain on the frequency.

[amberale]

There used to be a bizjet in Oz called FOX, always hard espescially when in a hurry.

There was the Machi Squadron called BANANA.
They would come on frequency with.......
Banana1, banana2, banana3, banana4.:D

Then there is a lighty near Brisbane called YYY.
I do hope it has Delijah painted on its engine nacelle.

AA

[noknead]

War games a while back had an F18 doing a bombing(?) run of some sort. Callsign was "GroceryBoy". Is this because he was delivering the goods??? :rolleyes:

[radar707]

RYR7777 always gives us much amusement

[scotbill]

In the days when shuttle used 4 figure callsigns, suggested we say (e.g.) "forty six, sixty five" instead of 4665. Nobody else seemed to think much of the idea. Any ATCO like to comment?

[Art E. Fischler-Reisen]

How about banning those beginning with the word "The"?

[Piltdown Man]

Apparently, the short numerical callsigns are the only things that will work in some parts of the world as their ATM systems will reject anything else. And I do hope that KLM971 (Zooker's post) isn't a long haul flight because I'm going home one that later today.

PM

[Nautilus Blue]

scotbill - Australian ATC have used grouped callsigns for while. Can cause problems of its own eg 'Qantas five eighty' and 'Qantas five eighty two' are easier to confuse then 'Qantas five eight zero' and 'Qantas five eight two'.

Then there are oddities like 'Qantas seven sixty seven", which is usually but not always a B767, 'Virgin seven forty seven' which isn't a B747 etc. I shudder to think what our US cousins would make of 'Qantas nine eleven"!

[quixeven]

We had this C500 departing a few weeks ago: 4O-OOO, and we all thought the flightstrip printer was on test or something. It wasn't.

JetPhotos.Net Photo » 4O-OOO Private Cessna 500 Citation by Echelon01 (http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=6641785&nseq=0)