"Northwest Four Two, Delta Colors..."

derg

Apparently a "terse" writer
Staff member
FAA moves to avoid confusion during Delta-Northwest integration
By John Croft


The FAA has issued new phraseology rules in an effort to "avoid confusion" over the identification of Northwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines aircraft for pilots and controllers as the companies combine operating certificates and more than 350 Northwest aircraft are painted in Delta colours over the next 12 to 14 months.

Until the merging operating certificates under the Delta banner is complete, pilots and controllers handling Northwest flights will continue to use the "Northwest" aircraft call sign and the "NWA" three-letter identifier in flight plan, regardless of the paint scheme of the aircraft, says the FAA.

The policy calls for pilots of flights carrying Northwest call signs but painted in Delta colours to include the phrase "Delta colours" at the end of certain radio calls and on written flight plans.

FAA says the temporary policy, effective for one year starting 14 December, is required to avoid confusion when Delta and Northwest aircraft "are communicating with air traffic control but are not painted in the colours of the airline matching the call sign they are using."
 
By "certain radio calls" I assume it means on the ground and the approach environment when the paint scheme matters. I suppose that wouldn't be too annoying unless it was coupled with some other stuff.

Northwest lifeguard 445 Delta colors heavy ready to taxi!
 
"Ewes...Uh...Cactus 1127, Piedmont colors"

or

"Brickyard 3511, with Cactus-post-merger-US Airways Colors"
 
We've already had the laugh here about that. We can already see the confusion in DTW and MSP.

FO: "Yeah, Flagship 123, Delta colors short of K ready to taxi"
CA: "DUDE! We're still NWA colors."
ATC: "Uh, Flagship are you behind the NWA colors?"
Other FO: "Nah, that's us. Flagship 124. At least, I THINK we're Delta colors."
 
We had our 200s and 700s repainted from blue to white. Actually, I think there are still a few blue ones running around. Anyhow, AWAC has all white RJs except for maybe one or two blue ones. So originally it was very easy to tell which company was which. But now the majority of the RJs are white and it is much harder to tell which white top to follow around.
 
At one time a certain regional airline had five active different paint schemes. The controllers didn't seem to care, except for the occasional IAH guy that called the flight by its code and not its colors. The pilots didn't seem to notice nor care, either.
 
I've long wondered why they haven't applied this rule to regionals. Doesn't it get confusing when you have 2 Skywest planes next to each other and one is Delta and the other is United?
 
We still have some old CRJs in the "bowling shoe" paint scheme. God, I hope those are the first ones to get the Delta colors. They've needed repainting since I've been here. Probably gain 10 kts TAS just by repainting them....
 
Ahem, the preferred nomenclature is:

1. The Woolman

l1011dla.jpg


2. The Ron Allen

N1605_DR_170108.jpg


3. The Leo Mullin/Deltaflot

b777dlta.jpg


5. ???? (No name for the new one)

IMG_0178.jpg
 
Ahem, the preferred nomenclature is:

1. The Woolman

l1011dla.jpg

I think I barfed in the back of that airplane on a flight from SEA-ATL when I was a kid. All them FA's filled me up full of waffles with strawberries on top, sausage, and ice cream. I guess they thought I was cute until I hurled. :)
 
Number 1 ! I love the retro look. :) What ever happened to those 1011s? They didnt seem to be in service at DL too long.
 
Number 1 ! I love the retro look. :) What ever happened to those 1011s? They didnt seem to be in service at DL too long.
Victorville. Some are intact, the others not so lucky. They used one in the movie SWAT for one of the training scenes.
 
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