Pilot Slang on Radios

Ft Worth Center

"Delta with the emergency, stand by"

"American, go ahead...what was that ball score you wanted"?

Atlanta tower (observing a 737 taxiing very fast)

"Delta 233 kind of going balls to the wall today aren’t we?"

(female voice) "Uh, tower, we call it wide open"!

Gander oceanic to a KC10 over the North Atlantic

"Opec 24 can you climb to a higher altitude"?

"Gander, what else can you do when you climb except go to a higher altitude"?

True story...the Barksdale KC10 reserve unit had the call sign "Opec" as we had ALL the gas. First time we deployed to Saudi Arabia the French filed a protest with the Defense Attaché Office as we motored over Kermitville. But the Saudi's loved it! I guess the French won the battle though as we had to use "Hoist" for future overseas missions. The "Opec" call sign is still used today (I think) by the reserve KC10s at McGuire.
 
Years ago when I drove the Supertug I was waiting to get out of the ramp and the controller was working his butt on to sequence everyone. It was a east bound operation and he was working the northside. Those of you who have had to pleasure of ATL in a east bound operation know what I am talking about with the loop.

All kinds of planes calling ground
ATL Ground: "would everyone shut the hell I can hear a damn thing anyone is saying".
The radio went silent and then making them wait he calls us and tell us we are clear to tow to the jetbase.
5 min later he was back to making it look like a piece of cake to sequence everyone.
 
Reminds me of LaGarbage :D

There were different philosophies there. When things got hectic some controllers would get all hyper and start shouting. Some would get really calm and quiet. And a couple would get funny ...

NWA "Ground we've just seen 4 planes go by us that pushed after us!"
Grnd "ok everybody relax. If I skipped anyone I'll make it up to you. Tomorrow."
 
Its so good to know some controllers have a good sense of humor.

Their was one at ATL named Buzz. He was the smoothest controller I experienced in over 3 yrs of moving planes. I dont care how crappy the weather was or if it was the 1700 or 1900 push he kept the planes rolling. And not matter what he always said "have a great flight ya'll "
 
We had a similar guy in IAH, now at EWR. The "Jet Lincoln" guy. Guess he figured he'd even the score since big brother got "Continental"
 
ROFCIBC said:
Ft Worth Center

"Delta with the emergency, stand by"

"American, go ahead...what was that ball score you wanted"?

Atlanta tower (observing a 737 taxiing very fast)

"Delta 233 kind of going balls to the wall today aren’t we?"

(female voice) "Uh, tower, we call it wide open"!

Gander oceanic to a KC10 over the North Atlantic

"Opec 24 can you climb to a higher altitude"?

"Gander, what else can you do when you climb except go to a higher altitude"?

True story...the Barksdale KC10 reserve unit had the call sign "Opec" as we had ALL the gas. First time we deployed to Saudi Arabia the French filed a protest with the Defense Attaché Office as we motored over Kermitville. But the Saudi's loved it! I guess the French won the battle though as we had to use "Hoist" for future overseas missions. The "Opec" call sign is still used today (I think) by the reserve KC10s at McGuire.
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Gold, every word gold.
Excellent post ROFCIBC.
 
Tower:Cessna 6426foxtrot, cleared to land runway 19'er # 1 for landing
Cessna:cleared to land cessna 6462foxtrot at runway 19'er, your damn right im # 1.
 
Back in the Fredoom Air days:

"Albuquerque, Free*WOOOOOO*"

"Last call, you were stepped on."

"F*WOOOOOOO* *WOOOOOOOOO* 210 for 310"

"Last call you were stepped on."

Then the FAA stepped in and started investigating.

There's a couple of "radio jokes" that involve Lufthansa but I'm not touching those with a ten-foot pole.
 
GoJets (Gateway) was having the same problem in ORD. FAA allegedly put in a second and/or third receiver to triangulate location of the calls or something
 
I had somebody in a gulfstream call my seminole an indian. Tower told him to look for us on downwind and he said "I've got the Indian in sight". I thought that was pretty funny. I was bsing with a controller once who did some flight training at ATP in the aircraft we were flying over Virginia. He said "Seminole 790GK, you guys ATP?" and then he went on to tell us about his experience with ATP. It was pretty cool.
 
You wouldn't believe the number of captains I have to tell to stop saying SCAB over the radio every time Freedom says something these days. I had one try to deny a jumpseater the other day. The kid was like 20 years old and probably hadn't even been in an airplane when the old freedom was flying.
 
Had radio problems the other day under IFR. Talked to the controller afterward, and he kept on mentioning the term "NORDO". Assume that refers to no contact between the pilot and controller, but curious where they get this word from.

Any thoughts?

BTW, to add to the slang, airliners call the "Dawghouse" all the time when coming in visual for Sea-Tac.

-ColM
 
ColMustard said:
Had radio problems the other day under IFR. Talked to the controller afterward, and he kept on mentioning the term "NORDO". Assume that refers to no contact between the pilot and controller, but curious where they get this word from.
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I believe NORDO is what shows up in your block on the radar scope when you squawk 7600. It stands for NO RaDiO
 
Makes sense. Thanks!

BTW, folks flying in and out of LAS, do ya still here the Space needle reference for the Stratosphere?

-ColM
 
Heard this a few weeks ago on Miami tower on a windy day.

Controller - "American 1234 the last departure reported some trash blowing across the runway, do you see anything?"

American 1234 - "No sir, that's just an Airbus clearing the active."
 
Mr_Creepy said:
Well you won't hear that anymore. I got a little education from an Orlando controller today. Due to an accident being blamed on the controller for someone who went in to position and hold on the wrong runway (not the one assigned) the NATCO leaders have issued the directive - "No more position and hold because we don't want the liability."

Repeat, this is not from the FAA, this is from NATCO!

(At least that's what I was told today)
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I see you haven't been flying in a little while...I posted the ORL controllers ending TIPH when I was down there...slow poke. See the other thread about it.:D
 
Ahhhh...gotcha! Thanks for the info. Glad to see they didn't just do it for a few days down there (read: to me).
 
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