ICAO codes for Origin and Destination when passing details
 

Currently when passing details for a FIS from ATC, I just state my Origin and Destination as, for example Nottingham to Carlisle. Would it help you ATC chaps and chapesses if I said Nottingham EGBN to Carlisle EGNC? Am I right in thinking you use the ICAO codes on your flight strips and do you know most of them or can you look them up very quickly?

Re: ICAO codes for Origin and Destination when passing details
 

Pass them in clear - we tend to know most of the ones we need to.

Re: ICAO codes for Origin and Destination when passing details
 

RR - I avoided a potential airmiss with a military helicopter once only because he reported (to London Information) his departure and destination "in the clear" and I was able to figure his probable track. We ended up talking to each other, as London has (had?) no radar - using altitude as our seperation. The helicopter crossed 500 feet directly below but never saw me, I saw him below.

Had he been speaking in ICAO, I wouldn't have spotted the potential risk. Remember, R/T calls are (effectively) for everybody on frequency - not just ATC.

Re: ICAO codes for Origin and Destination when passing details
 

Keygrip,

London Information has no radar and never will... it is merely, as the title suggests - an information service..... it carries out it's task under the provision of a Flight Information System.

(I say 'merely' in the loosest term as the chaps and chappesses who provide the service do so to a very high standard - they have charts of the area they are providing info for and can pass on potential hazards and warn of other aerial activity, but the provision of radar would need them to become licensed ATCOs)

As you rightly said - if people say destination/departure points in the clear, it gives others who are flying a bit more of a chance if they do not know ICAO codes.

Re: ICAO codes for Origin and Destination when passing details
 

To be honest relatively inexperienced operators are as likely to be confused by names of minor airfields names as they are by ICAO locators outside their immediate geographical area... but plain language has to be the better option.

However, if re-questioned on a location I have heard many pilots reply with both name and locator... now that's not a bad idea?

Re: ICAO codes for Origin and Destination when passing details
 

I don't think I would use just the ICAO codes. I sometimes use both the names and the ICAO codes especially if I'm fly to or from somewhere a bit out of the way (or anywhere French because I can't pronounce the names!). So for example I'd tell East Mids that I was going to Weston EIWT or St. Brieuc LFRT, but if I were going to Wolverhampton, I'd just say Wolverhampton.

Re: ICAO codes for Origin and Destination when passing details
 

Just say it as normal if it is in the UK and we can spell it! If some obscure airfield in France then "LFxx in Northern France" is fine. Keeps everyone happy!

Oh and when describing your departure point as a field 300miles away I have never heard of, you can just say "private Site near airfield or town"

Re: ICAO codes for Origin and Destination when passing details
 

I'd say halfpenny green. :D

Regards,

DFC

Re: ICAO codes for Origin and Destination when passing details
 

I wouldn't like to mention what I'd call it!

Purists would say Bobbington ;)

As 'Pierre says' - use both when far outside your sand box. Very often the local pronunciation of a place name is not the same as yours.