Do some controllers use "Oxford" instead of "Oscar"?

LongRoadBob

LongRoadBob

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Trying to get used to comm, have been listening to liveatc, and several call signs I'm hearing "Oxford" for O. At least it sounds very much like it to me.

Man, some of those controllers talk so fast!

I am listening to Mesa Arizona now, (tower only available on livatc) but never hear anyone calling in from ten miles out...would that be because the original may be on a different freq.?
 
"Oxford" may be a flight school or charter call sign. I've never heard any controller use "oxford" for "oscar."
 
Oxford is indeed a large flight school based at Falcon Field in Mesa AZ (KFFZ). Rather than the airplane's tail number, they use the callsign "Oxford xxx" on the radio. You frequently hear them at various airports in the Phoenix area.
 
Indeed, Oxford Aviation Academy is at FFV
 
LongRoadBob said:
Trying to get used to comm, have been listening to liveatc, and several call signs I'm hearing "Oxford" for O. At least it sounds very much like it to me.

Man, some of those controllers talk so fast!

I am listening to Mesa Arizona now, (tower only available on livatc) but never hear anyone calling in from ten miles out...would that be because the original may be on a different freq.?
Click to expand...


Its the flight school @ FFZ - all their aircraft are referred to Oxford xxx
 
I used it when i was...oh better not say that. Velocity might be online. No, we used Oscar as that's standard in the ATC Handbook.
 
We used "Oboe" when I did ATC. Times have changed I guess. ;)
 
LongRoadBob said:
Trying to get used to comm, have been listening to liveatc, and several call signs I'm hearing "Oxford" for O. At least it sounds very much like it to me.

Man, some of those controllers talk so fast!

I am listening to Mesa Arizona now, (tower only available on livatc) but never hear anyone calling in from ten miles out...would that be because the original may be on a different freq.?
Click to expand...
I've tried to listen to my flights on liveatc before and some transmissions were missing, I think it just depends on the reception that the guy gets who is piping the feed to liveatc, it is not as good as what the tower is using. The one I'm referring to doesn't pick up ground at all, from the aircraft, but does pick up ground messages from the tower.
 
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exncsurfer said:
I've tried to listen to my flights on liveatc before and some transmissions were missing, I think it just depends on the reception that the guy gets who is piping the feed to liveatc, it is not as good as what the tower is using. The one I'm referring to doesn't pick up ground at all, from the aircraft, but does pick up ground messages from the tower.
Click to expand...

Plus FFZ runs two tower freqs and LiveAtc broadcasts them merged
 
Pilawt said:
Oxford is indeed a large flight school based at Falcon Field in Mesa AZ (KFFZ). Rather than the airplane's tail number, they use the callsign "Oxford xxx" on the radio. You frequently hear them at various airports in the Phoenix area.
Click to expand...

Thanks, all, for that! That's definitely what was going on. Of course...I should have realize because of where it was in the transmission. But I hear a to of variations on what they teach about communication so I thought I was hearing the planes numbers.
 
exncsurfer said:
I've tried to listen to my flights on liveatc before and some transmissions were missing, I think it just depends on the reception that the guy gets who is piping the feed to liveatc, it is not as good as what the tower is using. The one I'm referring to doesn't pick up ground at all, from the aircraft, but does pick up ground messages from the tower.
Click to expand...

Thanks also for that. I was beginning to suspect this because I was hearing all kinds of artifacts in some of the pilots radios and wondering how in the hell the tower could understand them. I was trying to attribute this to me not having radio ears yet, but some were so garbled I was waiting for tower to say "say again"...I mean like it was sounding more like a mood synthesizer running through a fuzz pedal. Yet tower responded.

What you wrote makes much more sense.
 
I know in Saudi Arabia they use 'Washington' instead of 'Whiskey'.

Never figured out why they didn't just go with 'William'.
 
LongRoadBob said:
Thanks also for that. I was beginning to suspect this because I was hearing all kinds of artifacts in some of the pilots radios and wondering how in the hell the tower could understand them. I was trying to attribute this to me not having radio ears yet, but some were so garbled I was waiting for tower to say "say again"...I mean like it was sounding more like a mood synthesizer running through a fuzz pedal. Yet tower responded.

What you wrote makes much more sense.
Click to expand...

The antenna LiveATC's feed is coming from is not the antenna that ATC is using, so they are likely hearing a much better version. I know with our local airport on LiveATC, any aircraft on the ground are unintelligible.
 
You probably heard a lot of "Mesquite" call signs as well as Oxford. I know that I've sure heard a lot of Mesquite call signs lately; very little of it is good. Oxford is the Brits, Mesquite is the Asians.
 
These callsigns are just corporate vanity. It's not like Riddle or OSU where it's an operational necessity. Riddle has most of their planes ending in ER. You might end up with several 3EchoRomeos in the pattern, so they N73ER becomes Riddle73. (My wife learned to fly in ex-N73ER, rebadged 73FR after Riddle sold it...I stuck an "I'm an Embry-Riddle Alumni" button that I got at Oshkosh in the head liner).

Similarly, Ohio State has a lot of planes that end in 0SU. That would be real confusing with six Cessna ZERO SIERRA UNIFORMS in the pattern. They become BUCKEYE 73 or whatever.
 
But.....But.....Won't I get confused when I arrive and they say "Riddle349?"

This photo may be viewed "freeform" in 3D, using the cross eye method(top) or parallel method(bottom.)
cherokee3d_zpsdrroqt7j.jpg
 
Yup at Eglin AFB aero club there were 25 planes, all assigned "aero club xx" for local flying. Think they have 4-5 planes now so maybe they don't use anymore.
 
The
kgruber said:
But.....But.....Won't I get confused when I arrive and they say "Riddle349?"

This photo may be viewed "freeform" in 3D, using the cross eye method(top) or parallel method(bottom.)
Click to expand...
I suspect if you fly into Daytona Beach or Prescott, they won't bat an eye at that callsign. You might find yourself magically transformed into riddle49 without even asking.
 
Never heard of this before, but I tend to draw out my "whissskeyyy"...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Overheard on ground once..... probably as the atis was being changed.

ground 12345 ready to taxi east departure.

12345 taxi runway 8 Charlie intersection say if you have whiskey.

taxi 8 Charlie no whiskey on board.....

(different voice) better get some whiskey so your passengers will enjoy the flight....
 
The other well-known substitution is "Dixie" at KATL. Kinda obvious why they do that and not use delta...
 
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