"zero" versus "oscar" versus "sierra"

Bill Denton ) wrote:

As a former disc jockey, let me give you a hint. By and large, the
understandability of a communication is not really dependent upon how fast
the words are spoken.
snip

I'll give it a try. Thanks for that, Bill.

--
Peter

"Mike Adams" wrote in message
newskIwd.56$iD.12@fed1read05...
This reminds me of an interesting radio exchange I heard at DVT a few
weeks ago. There was an
airplane departing with a zero in its call sign, I can't remember, but
let's say N1023A. The pilot, called
himself "one-oh-two-three-alpha". The controller never corrected him on
this and never offered him a
shortened call sign, but instead responded to him as "november one oscar
two three alpha". The pilot
didn't catch on for the longest time, continuing to read this back as "one
oh two three alpha". The
controller continued to give him extra traffic callouts and instructions,
still with the full "oscar" ident, until
finally the pilot woke up and realized the situation and said, "and tower,
that's one zero two three alpha",
to which the controller just said "thank you" and that was the end of it.
The games people play....

Mike

I used to fly Learjet N1DC. We would always check on as One Dallas Cowboys.
The controllers everywhere would come back the same except the ones in the
northeast. Of course this was back when the Cowboys were winning Superbowls.
: )

In the air it
turns out that "zero poppa" and "sierra poppa" sound an awful lot alike

"SIERRA" is a failure as a phonetic letter and should be changed, IMO.
"SUGAR" was better, but it is too much of an oddball pronunciaton to be
successful internationally. How about "SUPER?"

(try it), which has occasionally led to confusion when both planes are
in the pattern. (I've taken to saying a very exaggerated version of
ZEEEEEE-ROW-OOOO when I'm flying.)

Some pilots with "SIERRA" in their tail #s get sick of the continual
confusion and substitute "SUGAR." Controllers always accept it, even use it
themselves sometimes. Normally I am opposed to non-standard phraseology but
I make an exception in this case. "SIERRA" sucks.
--
Dan
C-172RG at BFM


Man, just call yourself oscar pop!

In article ,
Bill Denton wrote:
Fast or slow, "zerolimapappa" will never be as intelligible as "ZEEro -
LEEma - PAppa".

When I bought N8674P I found that I was getting a lot of incorrect
readbacks from ATC. This prompted me to use a very crisp, deliberate
style like you describe. My experience was that it was pretty much a
wash. If you slow down too much it seems to be harder for the controller
to recall the sign. I get the best results with a crisp enunciation but
at full speed.

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/

Ron Garret wrote:

Allowing "zero poppa" to be "oscar
poppa" instead would alleviate this confusion.

So would using your full N-number.

George Patterson
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.

G.R. Patterson III wrote :
Ron Garret wrote:

Allowing "zero poppa" to be "oscar
poppa" instead would alleviate this confusion.

So would using your full N-number.

I think Ron previously mentioned that his full number is identical to
the other plane's, with the exception of the second to last character
(0 vs. S).

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

I used to fly Learjet N1DC. We would always check on as One Dallas Cowboys.

Some twenty years ago at Teterboro (TEB) there was a something Mike
Mike, which everyone referred to as "Mickey Mouse".

Jose
--
Freedom. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message
...

Allowing "zero poppa" to be "oscar
poppa" instead would alleviate this confusion.


So would using your full N-number.


Not if the other characters are identical, as they are in this case.

that's about as bad as Kilo and Quebec... Q in the military jargon was
pronounced KayBec..

don't know how many times I would write down a K instead of a Q and have to
go back and check it when decoding messages..

BT

"Dan Luke" wrote in message
...

"Ron Garret" wrote:
In the air it
turns out that "zero poppa" and "sierra poppa" sound an awful lot alike

"SIERRA" is a failure as a phonetic letter and should be changed, IMO.
"SUGAR" was better, but it is too much of an oddball pronunciaton to be
successful internationally. How about "SUPER?"

(try it), which has occasionally led to confusion when both planes are
in the pattern. (I've taken to saying a very exaggerated version of
ZEEEEEE-ROW-OOOO when I'm flying.)

Some pilots with "SIERRA" in their tail #s get sick of the continual
confusion and substitute "SUGAR." Controllers always accept it, even use
it
themselves sometimes. Normally I am opposed to non-standard phraseology
but
I make an exception in this case. "SIERRA" sucks.
--
Dan
C-172RG at BFM

In article et,
"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote:

"Ron Garret" wrote in message
...

No. The identifiers are identical but for the 0 and the S: N880P and
N88SP are both based at VNY.


Then you're just going to have to live with it. The letter O is not used in
identifiers to avoid confusion with zero. Are the aircraft the same type?

I'm not sure. 880P is a Cirrus. I thought 88SP was a Cessna, but
Google says it's a King Air. I've never actually seen 88SP.

rg