Us Airways New Radio Call Sign
 

Might be useful :)

CFMU ON BEHALF OF US AIRWAYS.

America West has used the Cactus call sign for about 20 years now. They used to be simply America West 123. The FAA decided there were too many West's out there and figured there might be confusion. SouthWest, NorthWest, SkyWest, Wings West, etc. Being based in KPHX it seemed a natural to go with Cactus.

A small point, but it really p*sses me off when the callsign changes but the three letter identifier does not.

Causes no end of wrong use of callsign for a good few weeks until the ingrained habit gets erased.

Happened most recently with Top Jet/Kestrel (TCX) - some office bods who retain validations are still getting that one wrong because they havenot had that much exposure to the new (almagamated) callsign yet.

How hard can it be to change the identifier as well? I know we are supposed to be professionals but when we use the identifier with a particular callsign for years, it's a difficult habit to break.

In the grand scheme of things it's not a biggy, but it's an obvious thing that could be fixed and is one less link in a potential chain of events

About to line up at GLA this morning and hears Cactus on approach - thought, Lordy, he's a bit far from home but the gadge slipped out a US on his next transmission and I twigged.

We don't worry about the Topjet thing, we just restate Kestrel on the next transmission. After all, we've been Aspro, Kestrel, Tourjet, Kestrel again, Topjet briefly and finally Kestrel - how do you think we cope :ooh:

I was wondering why I heard Cactus on a Shannon frequency the other day. I thought Phoenix to Europe in a Minibus or a 757 was pushing it a bit! Now it makes sense!

Funny how those little things become big things. I saw it happen one time. It think it was Khaki-Blue (another U.S-deregulation-gone-bust-airline) the controller thought was a Kittyhawk. The controller tried to turn him 3 times -- calling him Kittyhawk -- before he was forced to go to the other aiplane and try to move him. He waited too long (actually he started too late.) They missed, but it was ugly.

Don Brown

Good Lord, I had forgotten about Aspro. I agree it's a major PITA that the three letters are retained (especially when you get a bit older)

I heard that........................... pardon ?

Aim On Us Airways New Radio Call Sign-correction
------------------------------------------------
.
Valid Wef 2008-09-19 Until 2008-12-31
.
Us Airways (usa) And America West Airlines (awe) Are Finishing
Their Merger
.
Due To Safety Reason A Change Has Been Done On Request Of Faa
Concerning The Three Letter Code Identifier
As From The 19/09/2008 Us Airways Flights Will Display A New
Three Letter Identifier Awe And Will Continue Under The Call Sign
Cactus.
As From The 19/09/2008 Us Airways Callsign = Awe + Cactus
.
Cfmu On Behalf Of Us Airways.

Rest assured that whatever US Air's callsign, they'll still miss your first two calls!!

Vasa - i hear you... alas they're not the only ones.

Next notam

So, they messed it up by keeping USA and changing the RTF callsign to Cactus, then they change to AWE and keep Cactus. You can tell that these clowns inhabit offices and not the real world. Come the significant incident they will have their umbrellas up and ars*s covered, and those of us at the sharp end will be picking up the pieces or in court. Wucking Funderful.

I've worked several of them today, a few early this morning that went in as USA - Cactus and the same plane that came out later on as AWE - Cactus and managed to get it right all the time, so can't quite see why you're bitching

I don't think they've messed it up at all - AWE is better than keeping it as USA like the TCX lot have done

The point is it shouldn't be allowed for any airline to just change the callsign associated with a 3 letter code willy nilly.

Good on the FAA controllers who actually got someone to eventually listen to reason. Let's just hope that the industry learns something from this and puts a stop to this potentially dangerous practice as of now.

It's no use all the safety authorities banging on about communication error being one of the most common causes of incidents, when those same authorities just bury their heads in the sand and say yes sir no sir when an airline "customer" comes up with yet another whimsical callsign change.