Squawk [code] "coming down!"
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 422
Likes: 5
From: 5° above the Equator, 75° left of Greenwich
It's always amazed me how US pilots talk on the radio, even airliners in foreign non-English speaking countries. Top in my book are an AA 737 pilot who told an ATCO in a South American country they were "low on gas". Jesus...
And there was this guy who read back the altimeter setting 30.00 as "all balls on the altimeter".
Seriously, where do they get this stuff from?
And there was this guy who read back the altimeter setting 30.00 as "all balls on the altimeter".
Seriously, where do they get this stuff from?
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 658
Likes: 1
From: Ankh Morpork, DW
But, "We'd like to put a request in for FL340, if available," drives me nuts. This isn't Mother, May I?
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 2,633
Likes: 137
From: USA
Apart from the usual garbage RT here in the US, this annoys me:
Center, ABC123...
ABC123, Center, go ahead
ABC123 would like to put FL380 on request
Who teaches this nonsense? Is it that some people get paid for superfluous transmissions?
Center, ABC123...
ABC123, Center, go ahead
ABC123 would like to put FL380 on request
Who teaches this nonsense? Is it that some people get paid for superfluous transmissions?
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 578
Likes: 7
From: uk
Some people like to customise their language and just like customising cars it seldom works aesthetically except in the eye of the perpetrator and makes everyone else laugh or cringe.
Adding superfluous words to big up simple phrases is rife in all walks of life, vide "onward journey", an utter nonsense phrase if ever there was one as you can't perform a journey backwards. Cabin crew often use the appallingly inappropriate "final destination" - which is the grave of course, where you are going is simply your destination. Some train lines use the excruciating expression "station stop" instead of "station" and "terminate" their trains at the end of the line which is surely a shocking waste of a perfectly good train. Most modern (over)use of "absolutely" is completely unnecessary, as is the appalling "like".
Just human nature I guess.
Shame some pilots aren't like a bit more, like, Professional about it though...
Adding superfluous words to big up simple phrases is rife in all walks of life, vide "onward journey", an utter nonsense phrase if ever there was one as you can't perform a journey backwards. Cabin crew often use the appallingly inappropriate "final destination" - which is the grave of course, where you are going is simply your destination. Some train lines use the excruciating expression "station stop" instead of "station" and "terminate" their trains at the end of the line which is surely a shocking waste of a perfectly good train. Most modern (over)use of "absolutely" is completely unnecessary, as is the appalling "like".
Just human nature I guess.
Shame some pilots aren't like a bit more, like, Professional about it though...
Gender Faculty Specialist
Joined: Mar 2002
Aviation Qualifications: ATPL
Posts: 2,325
Likes: 434
From: In your head.
Reading back squawk ident is mandatory isn't it? How do ATC know if the correct person is squawking otherwise.
Jwscud, you bugger, you edited!
Jwscud, you bugger, you edited!
Last edited by Chesty Morgan; 13th July 2016 at 12:12.
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 4,581
Likes: 0
From: flyover country USA
Not only in the cockpit:
On descent a few decades ago, F/A says - "The captain has eliminated the no smoking light"
and
"Welcome to Boston Logan airport, or wherever your final destination may take you" (think about it...)
On descent a few decades ago, F/A says - "The captain has eliminated the no smoking light"
and
"Welcome to Boston Logan airport, or wherever your final destination may take you" (think about it...)
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 422
Likes: 5
From: 5° above the Equator, 75° left of Greenwich
Mind you we're not doing so great in my Spanish speaking country. For some reason ATC needs to constantly tell every pilot they are "correct" when they readback every single instruction.
- ATC: ABC123 turn left this heading
- ABC123: Turn left this heading
- ATC: Correct
Jeez..
And then there's the ground controllers instructing aircraft to taxi via "diagonal" X and "parallel" Y... For some reason we like to make things a bit more difficult than they are...
- ATC: ABC123 turn left this heading
- ABC123: Turn left this heading
- ATC: Correct
Jeez..
And then there's the ground controllers instructing aircraft to taxi via "diagonal" X and "parallel" Y... For some reason we like to make things a bit more difficult than they are...
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 2,166
Likes: 86
From: Planet Earth
Can't beat the 'practice pan' in the UK for sheer inanity.
Transmitting over guard and using this frequency for a pretend emergency, compromising it for those that really have one is allowed is beyond me.
Transmitting over guard and using this frequency for a pretend emergency, compromising it for those that really have one is allowed is beyond me.
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 4,507
Likes: 4
From: last time I looked I was still here.
Can't beat the 'practice pan' in the UK for sheer inanity.
Before this takes off again into an extended rant this topic has been done to death on '121.5 morons' topic.
JFK ATC, "XYZ cleared for takeoff RW XX."
XYZ. "OK, here we go, see ya."
I kid you not; as was the slidy GP comment.
Before this takes off again into an extended rant this topic has been done to death on '121.5 morons' topic.
JFK ATC, "XYZ cleared for takeoff RW XX."
XYZ. "OK, here we go, see ya."
I kid you not; as was the slidy GP comment.
Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 1,270
Likes: 0
From: The World
Maybe "coming down" is left over from the days before radio and transponders? When they wrote their designation on a piece of paper (for the younger once: paper is an ancient analog version of an ipad with no touch screen), put it in a small gunnysack and bucked off over a reporting station? ;-)
Joined: Mar 2010
Aviation Qualifications: ATP+Mil
Posts: 181
Likes: 21
From: Hamburg
Yes, sadly, the vast majority of extraneous, verbose RT does seem to be heard in the USA, or from US crews elsewhere in the world. Some of the jargon used seems to have a military origin, often unsuited to the civil RT environment.
In those parts of the world where English is not in common use, both the verbosity and jargon sometimes result in cringeworthy RT exchanges that could easily be avoided if brevity and standard ICAO phrasing were adhered to. Ho hum.
In those parts of the world where English is not in common use, both the verbosity and jargon sometimes result in cringeworthy RT exchanges that could easily be avoided if brevity and standard ICAO phrasing were adhered to. Ho hum.