Phonetic alphabet 'meanings'

[machineman9]

Hey, ive just been wondering about something about phonetics

on things like flight sim, and when people are doing radio practise at the ATC... they sometimes say a phonetic like it has a meaning. for example 'tell traffic controller if you have quebec' or saying 'charlie charlie' means 'everyone'


has someone got a reference for what the phonetics mean. i know the phonetic language as i learnt it at lunch on friday, but i dont know the meaning behind the words


ive googled but to no avail


cheers

[Craig.]

In this case it means the ATIS information.
The ATIS information updates every hour I believe and is tied to Zulu time. Every hour is given a referance to by use of the phoenetic alphabet.

[machineman9]

aah right... so its not like 'with golf' means 'you have 5 tonnes of plastic explodes on board' or anything like that

so its just to keep you updated.

[Brett_Henderson]

oops.. I'm slow to post, but I'll leave it..

[machineman9]

yeh, the only other use for it i knew of was for spelling things... and as i found out by listening down an aircraft's radio... it is easy to mix up sounds, so phonetics are very good.

[MCAntonio aka AN21]

aah right... so its not like 'with golf' means 'you have 5 tonnes of plastic explodes on board' or anything like that

so its just to keep you updated.

No,no,no that would be: with Tango November Tango 5 Tango

[beaky]

LOL! " 'Landing with Charlie'... who cares what the FO's name is? I don't get it..."

When reception's even a little weak or part of a transmission is not heard, it's very useful (consider the problems with "P", "V", "D", "G","E" "T", "B" ","3") ... and besides that, it's a fun alphabet to learn, and makes you feel part of a secret club or something.

Here it is, BTW:

A      Alpha
B      Bravo
C      Charlie
D      Delta
E      Echo
F      Foxtrot (sometimes Fox)
G      Golf
H      Hotel
I      India
J      Juliet
K      Kilo
L      Lima
M      Mike
N      November
O      Oscar
P      Papa
Q      Quebec
R      Romeo
S      Sierra
T      Tango
U      Uniform
V      Victor
W      Whiskey
X      X-ray
Y      Yankee
Z      Zulu

[C]

In this case it means the ATIS information.
The ATIS information updates every hour I believe and is tied to Zulu time...


...It's just letting the controller know you have the latest airport information which can include anything from weather information, to closed runways/taxiways and notices of people on the airfield or inactive ILS'.

An ATIS can last several hours without changing on some days. They will change when there is a significant change - but sometimes vis, cloud, temp and pressure can remain almost unchanged for a long period.

As for the letter, when the airfield opens it'll be "alpha", and will go on until the airfield closes. If they get to "Zulu", it'll revert back to "Alpha"...

As Brett says, when you make initial contact with an airfield frequency, you add to the end of the call the ATIS code letter and pressure setting (QFE, QNH as required) you have copied...

[machineman9]

aah right... so its not like 'with golf' means 'you have 5 tonnes of plastic explodes on board' or anything like that

so its just to keep you updated.

No,no,no that would be: with Tango November Tango 5 Tango

hehe

thanks rotty... but ive already got it on a print out in my blazer pocket incase i forget  ;)

[machineman9]

In this case it means the ATIS information.
The ATIS information updates every hour I believe and is tied to Zulu time...


...It's just letting the controller know you have the latest airport information which can include anything from weather information, to closed runways/taxiways and notices of people on the airfield or inactive ILS'.

An ATIS can last several hours without changing on some days. They will change when there is a significant change - but sometimes vis, cloud, temp and pressure can remain almost unchanged for a long period.

As for the letter, when the airfield opens it'll be "alpha", and will go on until the airfield closes. If they get to "Zulu", it'll revert back to "Alpha"...

As Brett says, when you make initial contact with an airfield frequency, you add to the end of the call the ATIS code letter and pressure setting (QFE, QNH as required) you have copied...

how do you mean 'pressure setting'? where and what would that be? (or is it down to atmospherics?)

[beaky]

how do you mean 'pressure setting'? where and what would that be? (or is it down to atmospherics?)

That's the local barometric reading... flight crews set their altimeter to that value so that it will read correctly. Very important for clearing obstacles and being at the altitude assigned to you by ATC.

[machineman9]

how do you mean 'pressure setting'? where and what would that be? (or is it down to atmospherics?)

That's the local barometric reading... flight crews set their altimeter to that value so that it will read correctly. Very important for clearing obstacles and being at the altitude assigned to you by ATC.

is that similar or different to setting your altimiter to ground/sea level depending on your distance of flight? and would the ATC just tell you the pressure when you check in for taxiing to runway?

[expat]

Just to go off on a tangent slightly, but why do the US police use different phonetics than the world wide standard. Even Fire and EMS use what is "normal"

US Police phonetics:

A       Adam            
B       Boy            
C       Charles            
D       David            
E        Edward            
F        Frank            
G       George            
H        Henry            
I         Ida            
J         John            
K        King            
L         Lincoln            
M       Mary
N        Nora
O       Ocean
P       Paul
Q       Queen
R       Robert
S       Sam
T        Tom
U       Union
V       Victor
W      William
X       X-ray
Y       Young
Z       Zebra

Matt

[beaky]

Here's a sample of a typical US airport ATIS, which I've just picked up from KEWR:

"Newark Airport Information Echo..."
-the name of the latest ATIS update, with the airport name just in case-

"One Five Five One Zulu..."
-The time that the report was updated: 15:51 Zulu (Greenwich Mean time)-

"Wind two niner zero at seven..."
-Wind is seven knots from 290 degrees-

"Visibility one zero..."
-vis. ten miles-

"Few clouds at one five thousand; two five thousand scattered..."
-cloud heights and coverage (few at 15,000 feet; scattered at 25,000)-

"Temperature eight; dewpoint minus 6..."
-temp (Celsisus); dewpoint (temp at which water vapor will form visible moisture given the relative humidity at the time)-

"Altimeter three zero three four..."
-pressure is 30.34-

"ILS Runway Two Two Left approach in use..."
-landings will usually be made on 22L using the ILS... also means the ILS is working-

"Departing Runway Two Two Right from Intersection Whiskey..."
-takeoffs will be made from 22R, at the point where taxiway Whiskey meets that runway-

"Available departure distance: One zero thousand, one hundred and fifty..."
-how much runway (10,150 feet) there is from intersection W... toal length of 22R is 11,000 ft.-

"Continental ramp procedures in effect..."
-refers to some procedures (unknown to me) specific to Continental, which is the main carrier based at KEWR-

"Read back all runway hold-short instructions..."
-or you'll get yelled at.... this is very important at KEWR! Ground must be certain you hear and understand all instructions-

"Use caution for birds and cranes in the vicinity of Newark Airport..."
-a typical "heads up" in case one is unfamiliar with the area... there is a major shipping port nearby, and many gulls-

"Advise on initial contact you have Information Echo..."
-the transmission ends with this repetition of the designator ("Echo")-

This is what pilots must listen to as the prepare to land at or depart from Newark Airport, and they must acknowledge they heard it when they contact tower for landing or departure.

[C]

how do you mean 'pressure setting'? where and what would that be? (or is it down to atmospherics?)

That's the local barometric reading... flight crews set their altimeter to that value so that it will read correctly. Very important for clearing obstacles and being at the altitude assigned to you by ATC.

is that similar or different to setting your altimiter to ground/sea level depending on your distance of flight? and would the ATC just tell you the pressure when you check in for taxiing to runway?

In the UK ATC will pass you the QFE (Pressure, (Air)Field Elevation) in millibars - in theory this should, once set on your altimeter, have it reading 0ft (+/-30ft or so, as 1mb is equivalent to 30ft) at the threshold of the runway in use...

Other things you may hear are QNH, which is a pressure setting at sea level for a given region - when you flew yesterday you may have heard the word "Barnsley" or "Cotswold" (not too sure without looking which one of these Cosford is in). http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/64/DAP_ACD_Altimeter.pdf. The regional pressure is updated hourly. If you were to have QNH set at the end of the runway, your altimeter would read (in theory) the published elevation above sea level, of the runway threshhold.

Finally you may hear of the "Standard Pressure Setting" (SPS, "Standard"), which is the same across the world, being 1013.2mb, or in the US 29.92in (of mercury). This is set above what is called the "Transition Level" (generally between 3,000 - 6,000ft in the UK, in the states around 18,000ft IIRC), and is what you'll find all the commercial traffic using in the "airways".