Turn Right 10 degrees
 

I have a problem when ATC gives me those kind of instructions ... it seems dangerously vague to me. Is it even allowed? In the "ATC for dummies" class I had to take in college, they always taught me that a vector has 3 numbers.

Turn right one - zero degrees ... sounds to me like a right turn to a heading of 010.

So I got into a bit of a pissing contest with a lady way to high on her horse on my flight today, what do you guys think on the matter?

Nothing wrong with "Turn right 10 degrees". It just means that ATC wants you to turn right 10 degrees from whatever your current heading is. It is not important that ATC knows what your current heading was, they are just monitoring your track made good and just want you to make a small adjustment to it, probably to ensure separation from hills, other aircraft, better positioning for sequencing, handover to another controller etc. When ATC want you to fly a specific heading (vector) they will tell you.

Turn Right 10 degrees
 

ATC have no idea what your compass is showing, only your track over the ground. In the old days it was;

'...Report heading'
'...heading 070'
'...turn right heading 080'

Now preference is to cut out the first two transmissions and just go with '...turn right 10 degrees'.

In my day we used 'Turn right 10 degrees and report new heading'. Nothing ambiguous in that.

Turn right 10 degrees is fine. So is turn right to 010 degrees. They just mean two very different things.

Agree with you there "40 years" its the simplest way and totally unequivocable:ok:

Standard way of avoiding the inadvertent 350 degree turn... Must admit I only use it when I don't really mind which way they turn, in case the mathematics involved confuses the poor dears.

Is where the problem lies. The UK MATS Pt1 gives:

turn left/right heading (three digits) degrees*
turn left/right (number) degrees and report that heading

if you want acft to fly on heading 010 you say " turn right heading 010" (without degrees)

else


"turn left 10 degrees" and that means turn by 10 degrees from your heading

simple as that

No, always include the unit of measurement.

If its a heading they want they'll say "Turn right heading 010 degrees" If they want a turn by a set amount they'll say "Turn right ten degrees".

Turn right heading zero wun zero degrees

Turn right wun zero degrees, report new heading

Seems different enough to me.

On the Sim we old Simjocks get overseas students doing this, for example:

"Fly heading 220 (no degrees...)"

220 then requires a correction.

"Turn right ten (not one zero) degrees, report new heading"

:ugh:

Talkdownman

Don't quite understand what you are saying. Are you seriously suggesting that having assigned a heading, you then specify an angle through which to turn? And where do you get "ten" from, RTF-wise? And you are instructing this sort of thing?

2 s

thankyou its most appreciated, and some times required on day 6 after three earlies followed by three lates :ok:

I can't understand why they have an "ATC for Dummies" course in the USA. :E

On the beach

P.S. Never needed it myself. That could explain a lot, though. :)

i use "turn right one-zero degrees" or "turn right heading two-one-zero" (no degrees) if i'm asking you to turn a certain number of degrees, i usually don't care what heading you're on and it saves time not needing the 2 readbacks (degrees & heading)

PANS ATM
 

Absolutely. You can find in the PANS-ATM (doc 4444) under 12.4.1.3 Vectoring Instructions:

Although often enough, one is asked to report the new heading.

Generally my response is (e.g.): "Turn right ten degrees..." [quick mental calculation] "... new heading XXX, NXXX", all in one readback.

Seems to work. Adverse comments welcome for consideration, however.

The mature students come to CTC on 'ATC refresher courses'. They have brought this 'add an angular change' technique with them from their country. They do not always record the headings therefore forget the original assigned heading. Heading corrections are often dealt with in this way. It makes us cringe.

CERTAINLY NOT! We are trying to eradicate it and get them to specify each heading. But it's difficult to get them to change...

Talkdownman

Ah, I see - your original terminology...
...I misinterpreted as "we encourage them to do" rather than "we discover that this is what they do"!

The subtleties of the English language - in many respects quite unsuitable for aviation communications.

2 s