ATC - remaining on the hour?

[stormme66]

Hi guys,

I was on a flight from the Channel Isles over the weekend, and London Info asked me for my eta for my final destination. When I gave the ETA, rather than saying "minute 34" as I would normally do, for some reason I gave the whole time based on Zulu time, "ETA destination airfield 1434 Zulu".

The controller copied that by saying something like "Thank you G-ABCD, remaining on the hour". This is not something that I have heard before, nor something I understood. Can anyone shed any light on it please?

Many thanks,
Stormme66

[Talkdownman]

Originally Posted by stormme66

The controller copied that by saying something like "Thank you G-ABCD, remaining on the hour"

Sounds to me as if you were given a regional pressure setting (e.g. Portland) remaining as such during the next hour.

[Wrong Stuff]

Actually, I read it differently. I think he was just trying to confirm you hadn't made a mistake with your Zulu time.

Assuming it was past 1400Z and the hour was staying the same, he would have expected to hear "minute 34". As it was, you also gave the hour, which implied to him the ETA might possibly be on a different hour. So to confirm you didn't mean an hour later, say in 1:20 rather than in 20 minutes, he said "remaining on the hour" - ie the hour you're arriving at is the same as the current hour. That way, if you had messed up your Zulu time conversion, and were arriving an hour later, you'd have a chance to spot it.

[stormme66]

Thanks Wrongstuff and Talkdownman.

Thinking about it, when asked for the eta, it was before the hour, so I suspect that Wrongstuff may be on the right track here, and they may have given the Portland QNH.

Thanks for the input, every day is a school day!