Callsigns
 

Occasionally I hear something like 'Intergalactic 02' making an initial call.

When told to pass their details, it's often a PA28 or C152 or similar.

Is there some rational reason for such aircraft having these callsigns, or just the airborne equivalent of personal number plates?

It can be a company callsign. Some bigger FTOs have these, hence the occasional somewhat grandiose sounding initial call

There's one you hear down this neck of the woods...'Blackadder 02'.

Now that's what I call a cunning callsign.

Sorry! :E

Its for the ponsy people who want to sound posh I know of a person who as a number of planes and has commander 01 and commander 02. I think it would be interesting to have david 01 and stuff unfortunatley i dont have my own aircraft oh well
David

A fairly recent list of Callsigns in civillian use can be found here:

http://www.airlinecodes.co.uk/callsign.asp

A lot of flying schools have their own callsigns too, so that ATC know an instructor is on board regardless of the a/c registration.

At Kemble for example it was Pegasus01 for the microlight CFI and Pegasus02 for the AFI.

Kemble06 was a Hawker Hunter operated by Delta Jets. I always kept a good lookout when he was inbound!

So can you just make one up and use it.

I'd like "aerobatics one" ...can I just start using it tomorrow?

No. You have to jump through all sorts of CAA hoops to get your own personal call-sign; I believe they don't even issue them anymore to individuals, only aircraft. Even then, there is probably a wealth of form-filling and a fat fee to pay.

Cheers

Whirls

Reminds me of an amusing R/T exchange I heard at the old Speke Airport in the mid 70s during their annual Air Display. The Mosquito had just called for start, and ATC queried what callsign the pilot would be using for his display. Back came the pilot's reply: "Mosquito, it'll be Mosquito!"

Whirlygig:

Not quite - ICAO controls callsign allocation, and you can send them a form with a choice of names and they'll see which is suitable. Bear in mind it's possible that callsigns on one aircraft might be heard in London on on day and Sydney the next, hence the global co-ordination.

I seem to remember it's free, too.

As an aside, I was pleasure flying at an airshow some years ago, and was asked to use the callsign "Jetranger" - made it easier for all the f/w folks to see and identify me. There were times when I was asked to stop flying - sometimes the display pilots were ok with me flying a deconflicted route away and back from the airfield, sometimes not. On about the fourth call for start, I asled for a callsign change to "Optimist 1" - got to go flying too !

I remember 'Strike1' and 'Strike2', the Jet Provosts at Norwich International Airport. From a practical point of view those callsigns just roll off the tongue.

The next two in the sequence being:
"Strike3" and
"Yer Out!"

:}

A callsign is for a company or organisation, not an aircraft. The whole point is that ATC know (and can bill) the operator, not the owner.
It is to make things easy for everyone:
The crew don't have to remember a different reg no each time.
The passengers (if it's an airline) don't need to know the reg, just the route.
ATC can recognise a route from a flight number and have been known to coordinate flights for the same company.
Eurocontrol can bill the correct people first time instead of chasing owners and/or former owners.
Dispatch/accounts can tell who flew the flight if you use a pilot-identifying flight number or the date if you use that as the number or even the aircraft type.
It is/or was free if you can convince the CAA/ICAO that you have a good reason for having one. We got ours to simplify the job of the charge-collectors at the Nav Service providers....our callsign means that the bill comes to me, not the current registered owner, the former owner or the lessee. Easy.

The formation flying courses at North Weald use callsigns for each group. Each course has a different theme. One year it was animals, but no-one thought it was funny when we in the tower started calling them 'Hamster Formation'. :hmm:

The formation course callsigns have a daily theme - e.g. storms - "Tempest", "Typhoon"...but on 'snake' day last Spring the suggestion of having "Viper", "Cobra" and "Trouser" was vetoed...well, "Trouser" was anyway.

I prefer 'Scooby' as a formation callsign....as in

"Scooby...Check"

"Scooooooooby Two!"

I don't see why not. If they use 'themed' callsigns for the formation courses at North Weald on a daily basis I don't see how these can have been pre-registered with ICAO etc.
Just pass the callsign you want to use and the associated aircraft registration when you book out. Any landing fees etc. can then be allocated correctly by the ATC facility.
If you are away from your home base and the callsign is not recognised they will ask for the registration.

Had a AS350 into Perth a few years ago using the callsign "Ghostrider zero zero seven"

we were in stitches when the guy on the radio mumbled (off air):

"...should have been called "Pretentious One"..."

"Aerobatics one" it is then..... thought I'd get in quick before Mr Harding bagged it


ZA

Too many syllables - you want something with two or three at the most - you know..."Viper", "Vodka"...or...er...."Dipstick"....something like that...:E

TNT the cargo compant use Nitro.......... I like that!