"Flight Number...Lima"

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djackd

Well-Known Member
On a center frequency yesterday I heard a United flight using the following call sign: "United 776 Lima"

Anyone know what the "Lima" means?
 
There was another United 776 in the air at the same time as the flight you heard. For example UA 928 is Seattle-Chicago-London but the domestic and the international segments are serviced by different aircraft. If the domestic is late for some reason, the two flights will end up in the air at the same time and one of them will get the extra letter at the end of the call sign.


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=47.650535,-122.349725
 
My favourite.. there is a certain airline who when this occurs uses two letters...

Airline 226MikeYankee

Really? 226 Mike or 226 Yankee were taken?
 
How do they decide what letter to use? And why do they sometimes replace the last number with it? We used to have a 2686, which sometimes became 268A. Just so somebody doesn't hear it wrong if they say 2686A?
 
JordanD said:
How do they decide what letter to use? And why do they sometimes replace the last number with it? We used to have a 2686, which sometimes became 268A. Just so somebody doesn't hear it wrong if they say 2686A?
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The letter choice is arbitrary. We always use -Alpha. I've heard British Airways uses the first letter of the Captain's name. As for why it drops the last number of the flight? No idea. Maybe ATC screens used to be able to only support 4 letter call signs?
 
BobDDuck said:
The letter choice is arbitrary. We always use -Alpha. I've heard British Airways uses the first letter of the Captain's name. As for why it drops the last number of the flight? No idea. Maybe ATC screens used to be able to only support 4 letter call signs?
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Airliner callsigns are 7 characters or less. So British Airways 4546 would be BAW4546. If you're going to add a letter, something has to give. I've seen callsigns remove the first or last digit in the flight number, I guess it depends. So it could be BAW546A or BAW454A, however the company decides to file it. Either way, the aircrew might still say "BAW4546" out of habit. Just happens.
 
That makes sense. I didn't think about the airline code being part of the display, but of course it is.
 
For what it's worth guys, there are regularily scheduled European carriers which utilize letter suffixes on the end of their callsigns on a daily basis. I work probably 30-40 of these every day just off the top of my head... and it's the same letter... Eg BAW45B so it's not about the Captain... it's just the callsign... A lot of Euro carriers are starting to use it it seems... I had assumed it was to start cutting down on confusion of callsigns in conjested airspace, especially in Europe with the plethora of accents/operators.

I mean, every day theres DAL118/UAL118/AAL118 all in the airspace at the same time (I don't remember if it's 118, but have seen all three airlines together) Maybe it's not the worst idea to start registering callsign numbers against routings somehow to eliminate this. Generally for the native english speaker it's not a problem, but throw in two separate frequencies/one controller and it gets mucked up everytime.
 
I agree, it's a pain in the butt when even our own airline has two flights in the same airspace with similar call signs.

I think it's all driven purely by marketing without any thought of having two arrivals into a busy airport like JFK with call signs like 118 and 18, or 44 and 24.

Before anyone says "One eighteen don't sound NUTTIN' like eighteen", well, for ICAO we have to use "one one eight" and "one eight".
 
Doug Taylor said:
I agree, it's a pain in the butt when even our own airline has two flights in the same airspace with similar call signs...
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A guy in TPA one day had "Delta nineteen-fourteen", "Delta fourteen-nineteen", "Delta nineteen-nineteen" and "Delta fourteen-fourteen" all in the final box at the same time.

Imaging the circus music playing while a dozen clowns get out of the same little car and run all around the place.

It was a riot... but not for him.
 
Ugh! Poor guy!

Probably the worst it really gets from me is going into a "non-Native English" country and having a very busy and overworked controller handle my flight and another flight with the same number.

WizzAir and Delta sound very similar in some parts of E. Europe.
 
My favorite over in Europe is when they don't know your prefix. "Charlie Mike Bravo 123" I've missed those calls before. Just don't hear it.
 
Ha,

Well goes both ways I get, while I know Camber, when I get a "Flying Olive" on frequency, I can't say I knew his phonetics!
 
Doug Taylor said:
Flying Olive?
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It's one of those, asking the controller handing this plane off

"What's his callsign?"

"Flying Olive"

"Ha, right... no seriously..."

Because at least where I work we have a off and on game of making up callsigns for "new" operators we haven't seen.

We managed to get one of our female controllers with CLS which is "Aristo" when she asked we told her "Cialis"

As in the Erectile dysfunction medication... well apparently she never heard of it... and the flight crew being foreign must have thought she was saying " C L S" That went on for about 30 minutes or so, after several controllers asking her "Is Cialis having a hard time with the ride?" and other various subtle hints she clicked in...
 
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