Center: Say type aircraft... Me: Citabria 7GCBC, Center: Ahhhhh???

Nik wrote:
Ok so I requested flight-following because my route took me into pretty
high traffic areas (inside Class B and surrounding)
I was on a Flight Plan and requested center to give me flight
following, ok call made, radar contact established 10 miles NW of XXX.
Then he asked me: say type aircraft, I said: Citabria 7GCBC, the
controller seemed confused for a second, and just said in reply,
allright we'll lookout for you.
Other than that the flight went on perfectly and as planned.

Is the type I am saying wrong? Should it be CH7A instead of Citabria
7GCBC?

Help me out here guys...

The controller (Oakland Center and/or Norcal Approach out here in
California at least) was asking for the equipment code, e.g. /U
(Transponder with Mode C), /A (Transponder with Mode C, DME equipped, etc...

E.g., when calling for flight following, after ATC acknowledges my
initial call, I say "Cessna 1514V is a 172 slash alpha, location,
destination, request flight following"

Once I included the "/A" to my request, I since never have been asked
"say type aircraft".

Deane Judd
Cessna R172K N1514V
Hollister CA

On Tue, 03 Oct 2006 23:41:58 GMT, Deane Judd
wrote in :


Once I included the "/A" to my request, I since never have been asked
"say type aircraft".

There's no correlation between the Equipment Code and the Type
Designator, that I'm aware of.

What type aircraft are you flying?

Larry Dighera wrote in
:

There's no correlation between the Equipment Code and the Type
Designator, that I'm aware of.

What type aircraft are you flying?

I got a real kick one time when NorCal asked for my aircraft type and
I responded "RALL/A" and he responded "We don't get many of those ..
are you a Commodore?"

It's just rather surprising someone knows about the Rallye line.


--

Larry Dighera wrote:
On Tue, 03 Oct 2006 23:41:58 GMT, Deane Judd
wrote in :

Once I included the "/A" to my request, I since never have been asked
"say type aircraft".

There's no correlation between the Equipment Code and the Type
Designator, that I'm aware of.

Agreed.


What type aircraft are you flying?


I fly a 1977 Cessna R172K (XP). It has a DME installed as well as a mode
C transponder, so the equipment code is "/A".

The point I was trying to make was that although ATC is stating "say
type aircraft", I believe they want to know the equipment code, in
addition to the type of Cessna. My experience was that saying, "Cessna
172," resulted in their repeating the question (statement). Once I
learned to say, "Cessna 172 /A", they were satisfied. I've not been
asked "say type aircraft" for the last 10 years or so, ever since I
added the "/A".