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What do you call the guys with wands?

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What do you call the guys with wands?

Old 22nd Apr 2012, 22:34
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What do you call the guys with wands?

I'm writing about the C-130 and the reason for its many-windowed goathead nose, which is to provide total visibility for crews that might have to maneuver, including backing up, at unprepared landing areas and without anybody to guide them from outside.

Question: what you you colloquially call the people in high-viz vests who wave wands to guide an aircraft out of a gate and onto a taxiway? The only term I can remember is "ramp ape," and that's not very polite...
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Old 22nd Apr 2012, 22:37
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table-tennis players?


....or maybe 'marshallers'
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Old 22nd Apr 2012, 22:39
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Probably "marshallers" ....
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Old 22nd Apr 2012, 22:41
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Aircraft marshalling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Old 22nd Apr 2012, 22:47
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Right, marshallers I know, but I was thinking of something more colloquial. Like calling flight attendants...well, I won't go there.
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Old 22nd Apr 2012, 22:54
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Bloke with the bats....

The batty bloke. Does that work?
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Old 22nd Apr 2012, 23:02
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I suppose you could say:

ground guide

wing walker

or

ground crew

and isnt' marshaller in this term martialer???
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Old 22nd Apr 2012, 23:04
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I never thought of it as a goathead....but perhaps a greenhouse canopy?
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Old 22nd Apr 2012, 23:13
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Goatherds?
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Old 22nd Apr 2012, 23:23
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Old 23rd Apr 2012, 05:14
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It's not the size of the wand, but the witch that waves it!!
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Old 23rd Apr 2012, 06:55
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'Bat(person)'??
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Old 23rd Apr 2012, 07:17
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Aren't they 'air traffic controllers'??

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Old 23rd Apr 2012, 07:50
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Right first time kookabat................
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Old 23rd Apr 2012, 09:27
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Originally Posted by stepwilk
What do you call the guys with wands?
How about 'magicians'?
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Old 23rd Apr 2012, 11:10
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Nigel, unless it's Ian in which case he's called Ian.
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Old 23rd Apr 2012, 11:24
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"Lowly paid who can easily ruin your day with one easy mistake and leave you filling in forms for a week - person" JB here we come.
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Old 23rd Apr 2012, 11:30
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Wanderers.
- Blokes (or blokesses) wot wander about with wands.*



*one has a sneaky suspicion that one's contributions are not as helpful as could be. But flying manual is dry reading, so easily distracted.
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Old 23rd Apr 2012, 15:24
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As an adjunct to your original post, the mass of windows of the front of the C130 do give us increased visibility when manoeuvring at low level however the extra, lower windows were originally intended to aid positioning for airdrops. As one approaches the DZ the DZ markers disappear out of sight through the main windows so the Navigator & pilots would use the lower windows to assess the release point for the drop.
You might've noticed that the C130J has one less frontal lower window and one less side "kick" window. The lower front window was replaced by panel to mount a defensive sensor whilst the rear side window was replaced by an area of aircraft skin where the AOA vane is mounted.

Just FYI of course......
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Old 24th Apr 2012, 15:28
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Aircraft Marshaller

Or the bloke who gets all the flak when the bloke in the left seat at the front thinks he knows better and gets it all wrong. Not so much needed at main airports where they should all be capable of following a line and a load of numbers painted on the ground but much more important if operating away from base. Generally he is to be obeyed unless there is a significant difference of opinion beween his directions and what the A/C captain thinks is safe. Known to personal experience on an airfield in Norway where I was marshalling the aircraft to follow a snow covered taxiway, the captain decided he knew better, taxied straight ahead across the snow and across the unprepared ground between the taxiways, almost bogged the aircraft down and left us some very big ruts to explain away to the Norwegian authorities
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