putting a "the" in the callsign
 

right,has anybody noticed the use of "the" in callsigns lately? Like "HEATHROW DIRECTOR THIS IS THE KLM XXXX"etc. or "ZURICH GOOD DAY,THIS IS THE EMIRATES 003".

it seems to be becoming more and more prevalent,not that i have a problem with it,but would just like to where the practise originated.I have a feeling it may have its origins amongst the Dutch,but does anyone know for sure?

It gives me a laugh for sure. Listening to ATC replies without the 'The' and then the next transmission emphasises 'THE'. Unneccessary and elitist. There has been many threads on this before.

I heard a 'The British Midland xyz.....' the other day.

yeah,you hear it all over these days...in the last few days have heard 'the SpeedbirdXXX' and 'the EmiratesXXX',but perhaps linguistically it has Dutch origins?:confused:

Hmmm....
Dunno about the origins of "the", but I 've noticed the equivalent
in Spanish on the Central American FIR CENAMER Freqs.
.... TA flights usually.

Is it of any importance what style people use? Are we going to make up some extra meaning out of the practice?

Can't see the problem with this really ?

It would seem to have a gramatical purpose when talking about one of many. For example if asked what flight you were travelling on, it would not be incorrect to say the 10:30 flight as opposed to just 10:30 flight.

If a flight is checking in and announces itself as the skylight 4546 it would seem to emphasise the flight as being one of many which may well be the case. Given that the actual number is the prime differentiator it can be argued that the use of the leading the is redundant.

Given the need to keep R/T calls to a minimum it seems a bit at variance to add a word, but beyond that I can't really see why anyone cares.

Sports teams refer to themselves as 'the' Portsmouth Football team, we are 'the' basketball team, 'we are 'the' drain company come to Drainorod your drains Madam', we are 'the' A Team!, we are 'the' Inland Revenue come to do a search of your house!, we are 'the' Police...........

And 'the' problem with using 'the' is?.........

:=


THE .... is commonly known as call sign SPANKING

Several pages of education on the term and use can he found in this thread

:ok:

Heard on London the other day:

ATC: " Was that the ABC 123 checking in?"

ABC 123: " No, just an ABC 123; there will be another one same time tomorrow."

Sorry, can't remember the actual callsign

jayteeto - believe me, i've heard ATC in both THE UK and THE UAE use the word THE when they talk to THE Emirates:ok: :ok:

This subject is almost as irritating as re-establishing contact before making a request:

"Paris, this is the wakka wakka 123"

"wakka wakka 123 this is Paris go ahead"

"Paris, the wakka wakka 123 requests climb flight level 330"

.....now that is irritating....

It's obvious to all that you must be far more important if you call yourself "The". Not.. :yuk:

Those of us who really ARE important, are just happy anyway, because ATC call US "sir", so we don't need to say it :E

This is similar to the way people address the Concorde aircraft:
Why does everyone say 'I flew on Concorde' or 'Concorde landed while I was at heathrow', etc. You don't hear people saying 'TriStar landed while I was at Luton airport' or 'We flew on 146'! It's not like there's just one of them, there were about 14 doing the rounds at one point.

But thinking about it, does it really matter? It just sounds better over the r/t if a little extravagant?

All a load of balls really - now of course in a different world it is always THE Arsenal.......................

Who is "Wakka Wakka"?:) :) Just kidding.

I do remember hearing "the speedbird concorde 001" on LATCC, and we became "the flyer ATR 58CK". Then there was shortly "THE Midland boeing 23mx" and "the British Jetstream 581" Next call was just "Speedbird 1":E :E - Does that sound good to you BN-3????

I found myself doing it the other day, I think it just slips out sometimes. I've heard it from ATC and other aircraft but I doubt those people do it all the time, when you key the mic. a few hundred times a day it just happens I guess.

Too many extra words
 

The use of 'The' before a callsign is simply poor R/T, nothing more, nothing less.

Another example (of poor R/T) in common use is the expression '... with you...' after a frequency change (as in 'Paris, Anyjet 123 with you flight level 260...'

None of us is perfect, but we are all supposed to be professional aviators. The least we can do is try to keep our R/T as concise as possible.

i have no problem with the use of "with you" or "the" ...find myself using these terms sometimes.Just curious as to the linguistic/cultural origin,since it seems more common with certain groups.Interesting replies though:ok:

Seems weird to me to grumble about the use of 'the' when on all fronts we are assaulted by bad English:
Apple's, Pear's, Orange's
Brought/bought
Their, they're, there
don't do'nt
spelling beyond comprehension
total lack of capitalisation
non existent punctuation

The thread started off with this example:
Now how many errors there? Shall we sort them out before criticising verbal use of 'the'?
Also:
........more comprehensible when you add punctuation mentally.
The best example used was from this little individual:
Hallelujah! At least we got a full stop, but we seem to have picked up another elevated full stop in 'i'm'! But then this was from the same individual who subsequently emailed me:
....so we mustn't expect too much from him! I tried, Lord knows I tried to point out to the nasty creep you always start sentences with capital letters, and not to forget punctuation, but I think I was wasting my time!

Let's not worry about a minor infringement of RT etiquette by using 'the' when not needed- there are BIG problems afoot!