"Flight level three hundred"

[Simon Z]

Can anyone tell me whether the new way of ATC issuing instructions refering to FL200 and FL300 as "Flight level two hundred/ three hundred"- - is this a CAA thing or JAR one. If anyone could shed some light on it with the appropriate reference I'd appreciate it.

Many thanks!

[ETOPS]

The only "official" terminology is "flight level wun hundered" which has been filed as a difference by NATS. It has, as you rightly point out, started to creep in to FL200 & FL300 simply because it sounds right and helps to avoid ambiguity.

My only concern is that around the world I still get given headings in terms of "Wun hundered degrees".....

[OPEN CLB]

"...whole hundreds and whole thousands shall be transmitted by pronouncing each digit in the number of hundreds or thousands followed by the word HUNDRED or THOUSAND as appropriate..."
This is the way I learned it at a major aviation school in Germany several years ago, with most countries within the A320s range handling it the same way, except, untill recently the UK, where it was THREE-ZERO-ZERO, so it really isn't something new in aviation......

[Sleeping]

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP410__PartA.pdf

Chapter 5 Para 4.2

[PPRuNe Radar]

Whilst the FISO Manual contains the right words, there is much more to be found in the RT Manual CAP413. In addition to the info posted already, it also states that the word 'Hundred' shall not be used when passing heading instructions.

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP413.pdf

Chapter 2 Para 4.2

[Hippy]

Don't you just hate those replies that consist solely of a link?

For those that subscribe to my train of thought:
The use of 'Flight level one hundred' to refer to FL100 was introduced on a trial basis some years back, following an incident involving confusion over FL100 & FL110. Earlier this year it was decided by the CAA to accept 'One hundred' as standard and also to adopt a similar phraseology for other flight levels of whole hundreds.
So yes, it is a new thing and an official thing. The appropriate references have already been posted. Don't feel bad if you don't use the new terminolagy yet, in my experience, the split between use of old & new is about 50/50, I would guess that of those using the old, half of the time it is down to ignorance (no incriminations on behalf of the users, ignorance is the problem of those employed to promote information, IMHO) and the other half down to the fact that old habbits die hard while working flat-out under pressure. My comments apply equally to pilots & controllers.

There you go, a potted history of 'Flight level one hundred' and her young siblings and, as PPRuNe Radar points out, the use of digits only for headings is instrumental in the success of the thinking behind the new phraseology.

Rgds,
Hippy.