Phonetic Alphabet Question
 

Whilst trying to improve on perfection i was wondering how the letter P is pronounced?

is it pa - pa as it is spelt or par - par as a national airline pronounces it?

.. probably depends on whether you went to Oxford or Cambrigde... Glass/Glarss... Class/Clarss... etc :rolleyes:

I use the phonetics in my professional capacity and have always used Pa Pa... though on an entirely different frequency to most of you chaps :)

Is there a definitive list/pronunciation table ???

Being an northern chappy it's definitely pA pA for me :)

I allways use:
Sahara
and
Unicorn
and have never been corrected by anybody??!!? :}

GT3

How many Rs are there in Papa? Ergo....


P7:ok:

I heard a station calling Singapore on HF one morning for a preflight check. After a suitable wait I intercepted him, and the conversation went something like this:

"Singapore Radio, Poppa Kilo Poppa Echo Poppa, plefright check 6556."

"Station calling Singapore this is Perth, readability 4, confirm callsign Pa-pah Kilo Pa-pah Echo Pa-pah."

"Negative Perth, this is Poppa Kilo Poppa Echo Poppa..."

My [admittedly old] ITU book says:

P - PAPA - "pah-pah"

... but then it also says:

Q - QUEBEC - "keh-beck"

and how many folk say that?

1261 has a copy of the ITU book! I wonder what it says for the pronunciation of 'F'... I hear "Fox" with no "trot" almost all the time these days, so much so that I now do it myself except on the initial call...

"So-and-so radar, Golf Charlie Delta Echo Foxtrot"

"Golf Echo Fox, so-and-so radar, pass your message"

"Golf Echo Fox is an aeroplane with two wings, currently flying through the sky, somewhere over England, quite low, routing directly in front of as many other aeroplanes as possible, request radar vectors towards other aircraft."

Since "Fox" is so common, and I certainly find it easier to say (does everybody?), how long before the Big Book gets updated. My guess is never :(

Cheers,

MD.

Erm...:O

Fox 54
 

ModernDinosaur, I am sure your abbreviation of Foxtrot is in fairly common useage amongst most of us in the right situations. However, the book was already updated a few decades ago when the old Fox (with Able, Baker, Charlie, etc) was changed to its present form, back in the mid-'50s.

It works well on a clear VHF channel but the addition of the extra syllable was to distinguish it from (eg) Golf on a poor and barely intelligible HF freq. As the latter gives way to Sat-Data Com in the coming years, perhaps the phonetic will revert officially to just Fox, on the odd occasion that anyone actually performs air-ground verbal comms!

Meanwhile, one or two of us may continue to tease well-known senior members of the ATCO community with the occasional request for a confirmation the Queen Nan How, on first contact ;)

Me too. 27 years now if the math is right... :O

Dave

How infinitely BORING!!!!!!!!

Is that a B for Bravo Boring? Or should it be B for Brah-voh Boring? :O :p

DrSyn. Not to mention the Fox Easy, assuming anyone still uses it.

I've always said PaPa because thats how I was taught (here in New Zealand).

Foxtrot is definitly better than just plain old Fox

Where you are nz_phoenix, E is Icko :D

Have to admit I say "Keh-Bec" and also was taught to say "Pa-Pa". As far as the "Fox" vs "Foxtrot" argument, I usually use Foxtrot as thats the way I was taught in Australia, but when I have FC201, FC301, FC501, and FC701 all on frequency at the same time, I do get lazy and call them Fox-Charlie. Shoot me!

I learned to say only "fox " in French ATC school (year 1994!)
I think everybody say it like that here!
(yesterday I had a "Hector Lima " callsign :) )

Do those who attended Oxbridge use Michael instead of Mike?

:O :O

I always use "kwebeck" and I think that foxtrot is infinately better that "fox"

And i think that verbal communications will not be phased out - also that they won't use satilite comms, I belive they will use microwave digital transmissions in the 4-5 GHz band.

WF.