ATC phraseology

[Hardy Heinlin]

Good evening,

when ATC wants you to contact Duckburg Tower on 123.4, the most common phrase is "Contact ...".

Is there any country where "Call ..." must be used instead of "Contact ..."?

Or are both versions alright anyway and anywhere on the planet?

"Contact Tower 123.4"
"Call Tower 123.4"

Does anybody know?


Cheers,

|-|ardy

[Matt Sheil]

Contact

[Hardy Heinlin]

In Stanley Stewart's book "Flying The Big Jets", in the "London to New York" chapter (p. 222 ff), it's always "Call ...", never "Contact ...".

I have both versions in my audio library. I could make the decision random controlled.

[jtsjc1]

In the US I don't think I've heard call only contact.

[Matt Sheil]

if you get asked to "Call the Tower" it normaly has a phone number attached  :lol:

"EZR contact tower 120.5"


or on the ATIS

"on first Contact with Tower or Approach notify reciept on Delta"

In Australia we always use Contact, but not sure about other countries, Have both as you suggested

[kOOk]

Hi Hardy, congrats for the huge work. You can count me on the first buyer's list of this beauty.

Back to topic, one can heart quite often "call" in... Germany. Simply yesterday : "call Rhein on xxx.yyy tchuÛuuss"

[Peter Lang]

Back to topic, one can heart quite often "call" in... Germany. Simply yesterday : "call Rhein on xxx.yyy tchuÛuuss"

Ah  tschüüüüs ..  This sounds like the nice female voice in Langen :-)

To the question:

Yes we have several options here in southern Germany:

[Callsign] Call [Station] on [Frequency] bye / tschüüüüüs
[Callsign] Call [Frequency] -"-
[Callsign] Contact (now) [Station] on [Frequency]
[Callsign] Contact (now) [Frequency]

If the crew was instructed to fly a certain heading or speed, or requested a certain heading to avoid weather and this was approved, there is another option:

[Callsign] Report (your) heading / speed (now) to [Station] on [Frequency] bye (or tschüüüs) :-)

Peter

[Mandjare]

Servus PS13 & PSX family :-)
would be interesting to have "call" and "contact" as random ATC-phraseology here in middle-europe... if possible.  ATC in Germany, Austria and Suisse is using both quite often in their daily work, especially at the departure / arrival position.

Thanks in advance,
André

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

"Call" is a bit shorter than "Con-tact" and we know that Lufthansa once reduced "Vee one" to "Go" just for this reason...


Hoppie

[Hardy Heinlin]

In my ATC model I have a mode named isIcao. This mode is off if the first letter of the referred airport starts with K, P or C (USA or Canada).

isIcao:
- Decimal
- No "heavy" suffix
- Read you five
- QNH
- Line up and hold
- Identified

Else:
- Point
- "heavy" suffix
- Loud and clear
- Altimeter
- Taxi into position and hold
- Radar contact


I could add a mode named saysCall. This mode shall be on if isIcao is on AND the first letter of the referred airport doesn't start with Y (Australia).

saysCall:
- Call or Contact at random

Else:
- Contact


Cheers,

|-|ardy

[Hardy Heinlin]

Another question ...

118.000
118.005
118.010
118.015
118.025
118.030
118.035
118.040
118.050
118.055
118.060
118.065
118.075
118.080
118.085
118.090
118.100

For the frequencies I marked red: Should ATC speak the third digit after the decimal?

E.g. 118.020 cannot be tuned, it's not a valid frequency. If I hear ATC say "118.02" it's clear that 118.025 is meant.

Any difference between ICAO and FAA?

For the blue frequencies: Trailing zeroes are omited anyway, for all frequencies. No problem there.

So in spoken language it actually goes:

118.0
118.005
118.01
118.015
118.02 ?
118.03
118.035
118.04
118.05
118.055
118.06
118.065
118.07 ?
118.08
118.085
118.09
118.1


Cheers,

|-|ardy

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

Something changed and the Americanadians now use "line up and wait".
http://www.faa.gov/airports/runway_safety/news/current_events/lauw/

Beginning on September 30, 2010, the words "Position and Hold" will no longer be used to instruct a pilot to enter the runway and await takeoff clearance. Under the new "Line Up and Wait" phraseology, the controller will:

 - State the call-sign.
 - State the departure runway.
 - State "Line Up and Wait".

Be aware the phrase "Traffic Holding in Position" will continue to be used to advise other aircraft that traffic has been authorized to "Line Up and Wait" on an active runway.

The same document says ICAO terminology is "wait", not "hold."


Hoppie

[Hardy Heinlin]

See. Folks. That's why I can't give a release date :-)

Always something new :-)

...

I have "Kuwaiti" among the call sign sounds. I'll try to extract a "...wait..." from there.


| |ardy

[Lasse]

Hi

Well ATC are suppose to say all 6 digits in all airspaces using 25 khz spacing, and we are suppose to read back all of them too. However once here and there you hear its skipped..

For the call or contact question I have to agree its randomly used.

/Lasse

[jtsjc1]

I listen to a lot of ATC transmissions from JFK, EWR etc and "line up and wait" is used quite often in the northeast airports :mrgreen:

[Hardy Heinlin]

Roger, Clarence.

[Shiv Mathur]

Airport?


(AirPLANE, rather).

[Hardy Heinlin]

Victor?

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

What?

[Peter Lang]

Hello,

today during my flights I listened very carefully into the radar frequency.

I can confirm the following:

the trailing zero (6 th digit) was omitted
eg: 125.050  ->  one two five zero five (no decimal, no point, no trailing 0 which also was not read back)

the decimal/point often was omitted.
eg: 132.275  ->  one three two two seven five

call / contact also was omitted several times.  [callsign] [station] [frequency]
eg: LHxxxx Rhein Radar xxxyyy

Peter

PS: very often the controllers give instruction for climb or descent rates.
eg: climb level 170 with 1500 or more until out of 120

would be nice for PSX  :mrgreen: