Finals?
 

The thread Reducing flaps on short finals makes me wonder where "finals" comes from and why it is so prevalent on the radio. That term isn't used in either the Pooleys or AFE PPL manuals (which is as far back as my training goes), nor CAP413, which all use "final" - presumably as a contraction of "final approach". Does anybody know where "finals" comes from?

Well it does not come from North America, 'cause we don't say it here!

I don't know either, and I would make more fun of it, other than a senior British pilot who frequents these pages to the benefit of all, and whom I really respect says it, so it can't be all bad! ;)

My understanding is that Finals is a military term?

Step turn is right, English originated from Great Britain and the word 'finals' is English and used here. Generally speaking, it's 'finals to land' or 'finals 27R'

Also commonly 'cleared to land' in an ATZ

As my flying instructor put it "students at university do finals, pilots fly a final approach, any pilot that calls finals on the radio is talking b0ll0x". CAP413 would seem to agree.

Rans6.......

This was covered in another thread a couple of months back. The conclusion was it is bulls hit.

So Fujii, that's final? ;)

At the College of Air Traffic Control we were instructed that a runway has only one final approach. "Finals" was regarded as vulgar, and reprimands followed.

Fujii And Andrew are right.

That doesn't help with the derivation as it implies there's more than one final approach being flown.

OFFS all of you!!!

Interesting. I learnt on a UAS and finals were called when you were straight in / lined up on the runway (height 400ft).
problem though with the size of circuits lots of people fly, finals could be anything from 1000ft up and 5 miles out.....

However I have used it ever since (25 years) and nobody has ever said anything. If I am flying a straight in approach I call long finals when I begin the descent from circuit height

This stupid pointless chestnut gets hauled out once again. The fact as I see it is some people are not told that there is no plural to a final (only) approach so they utter "finals" because it falls off the tongue easily. Then pedantic stuffed shirts jump up & down squealing like big girls, "final, final!"
Does it really matter?
I'm going to start saying "Last bit".

I prefer "pre-crunch". Expected ATC response "cleared for the crunch and slide"

No need to get nasty! I wasn't criticising anybody, just trying to find out where the term comes from. You're of an older generation than me, so was it on the syllabus when you learned to fly?

It is sometime back since I used that term being confined to CAS. The important bits are "cleared for XYZ " and a landing clearance and it is always the landing clearance which determines your landing.

Final or finals was always an indication to other aircraft and tower or who ever was giving a FIS that you are in the final stages before landing.

Sadly the term was abused and used to being 6 miles out on the runway centreline :ugh: rather than a specific distance from the threshold to indicate that you are about to land and that needs to be clarified to have any real meaning with death by hanging if you panic call it at 6 miles out :E

Pace

Missing the point of the OP's question again!

soay - It was an old military habit that had no obvious derivation other than the result of sloppy speech and lack of logic - though it did find its way into print. q.v. Cliff Richards and Dean's Cross!

(And "final" and "long final" are defined!)

2 s

Thanks 2 sheds.

To me, not being a pilot,:O "finals" signifies "final checks, final adjustments and final preparations to final approach to runway"

Compared with some of the tortuous misuse of the English Language, the "s" is a minor transgression that makes perfect sense.

CS, to me as a pilot and now retired tower controller "finals," although seemingly minor, is one of those little things which trigger a small alert in a controller's mind and makes the controller treat the pilot a little differently. The pilot may not notice but it is there. Of course if operating on speaker rather than headset, everyone in the tower gets to hear it usually accompanied by some comment.

Another example was British Airways pilots adding "the" to the callsign. E.g. "The Speedbird 11." Also hard to get them to say "eleven."

For a bit of drift, would any other controller care to mention any small cues that make you treat pilots a little differently?

A lot of this stuff is steeped in history. The overhead join which I consider to not always be the best or safest join went back to the days of non radio aircraft when you needed to join overhead to get a view of the runway layouts and signal square.

The same with ATC chatter! Things have moved on from the days when there were limited access to navaids! Now with most aircraft sporting GPS units its more easy to give accurate distance to the threshold so pilots can call their distance out on the centre line.

As they say nothing in aviation changes quickly