I'm going to start doing it just to annoy all you constipated pedants out there!
If you're not "the" flight in question what exactly are you?
While I'm at it I'll start saying "with you" and "coming down"at every opportunity
:ok:
ps Redstripe, I hope your RT is more concise than your spelling.

There is only I more thing more annoying than using 'The' in the callsign...Its the thread.

Let me explain. There was I flying and nothing like this used to bother me. Then I read this thread, and a few days later 'The Monarch' calls on to London, then Gatwick app, director, tower and finally ground (following us). Now it never used to bother me but 'The monarch' now had me screaming!

Perhaps I should 'Chirp' PPRuNe as having a negative effect on flight safety...;)

ps...Why on earth did he only use 'The' on first call, subsquent calls only used 'Monarch'?

I thought Arsenal was always prefixed with " Boring Boring ....."

:} :} :}

Great idea, I think I might starting using "Charles" instead of "Charlie" as well.

While we're all being constipated I might as well add: Air Canada's 345.

what-EVERRR

Oh how true DJ! I was trying to think what our version of this was, I knew we had one :cool:

Redstripe,you're correct,none of us is perfect.
(Sorry,I just couldn't resist it-nothing personal!):rolleyes:

Notso-

I recommend the book 'Eats, Shoots & Leaves', by Lynne Truss. Billed as 'The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation', it's actually a very entertaining read.

I work with guys who's first language is not English, so you can expect some serious grammatical mangling. The two that irritate me are:
"2350 coming down" having been allocated a squawk, and the worst,
"(The!)Callsign XYZ 20nm East abeam this time".

What are these people? Time Travellers?

From flying down here in the caribbean and hearing "the" used all the time I always figured it was some rasta R\T thing.

But I do fly in the Nertherlands Antilles, so that brings up the question of the dutch again. Maybe KLM picked it up down here and then proceeded to infect the rest of Europe?

Timts

It annoys me though when a certain aviation monthly KEEPS ON referring to airports in the following manner:

London's Heathrow Airport and
London's Stansted Airport...

It is both shorter and less annoying to write:

London Heathrow, Stansted.

Those that are sad enough to read it (like me) will know what I mean! :8

:ok:

Anyone else out there old enough to remember Alain Delon, "Ello Parees, zis is ze Concorde". To which he receives the reply..."You are cleared to land!".
Incidentally, this was on first contact with Paris!
Oh if only life was so simple!

I fly with a dutch captain, and he says it.

BTW, some people seem to get very hot and bothered over other users grammatical accuracy on threads. Get a life, we're not applying for jobs, just messing around on a computer, probably half pissed at midnight before going to bed.

I'm off for some milk and cookies!

So, Monty, I'm sure you won't mind me pointing out that the possessive of "who" is "whose", and that "who's" can only mean "who is" or "who has". It's just like the confusion over "it's", really! Terrible language, this English!
;) :p

Jockflyer,
Merely highlighting the incongruity(?) of whinging about harmless verbal grammatical foibles by the use of foibled text!
When did Hadrian's Wall become the Irony Curtain?
Let's start a thread on how irritating the phrase "get a life" is.;)

To answer the original question, I think it all started in the US.

I remember in the 60's it was always "The" Clipper XXX. Then a UK long haul airline seemed to take it up in a big way when they got the 707.

It's good to know there can be no serious problems in aviation if such an irrelevant and unimportant nonentity of a minor facet of RT phraseology practice generates such a serious discussion!

In nearly 36 years of using the 'Speedbird' callsign I have never been guilty of this. However in the past couple of weeks, after reading this thread, I have started to do it, quite unintentionally. It must be the subconscious power of PPRuNe.

The Airclues

I have never heard any other airline other than BA use "THE SPEEDBIRD" - we always piss ourselves laughing (which is very unfortunate for the next person who has to fly in our seats). [It always seems to be some pompus person who says it!]
Needless to say as others have mentioned, we too become "THE XXXX" , and a a miracle ensues - THE SPEEDBIRD, suddenly changes callsign, and becomes just SPEEDBIRD!

Always fantastic for a laugh. Keep it up!

blueloo

If airlines other than BA were to use "THE SPEEDBIRD" then it could be very confusing for ATC. :)

Airclues

Captain Airclues - I have heared it rumured that a small outfit called GSS sometimes does just that.