How do you identify your airplane on the radio?

I used to just say "November blah blah" but frequently got requests for what a "PS2" is so to ATC I always say "Pitts blah blah blah" In the pattern around airports I'm just "Pitts" unless we're arriving as a flight of two or more than then I'm "Pitts flight of three, left down wind" followed by "Pitts #1 base to final".

I still say "Columbia blah blah blah" for the COL4 that I fly. Same thing when I used to fly an AC-11 - ATC would ask me what it was so I just started calling myself "Commander whatever..."
 
Radio? What's a radio? If I do remember to take along the handheld, I'm Aeronca One Niner Six.
 
I fly a PA-25, call sign "Glider Tow 11Z".

Only a couple times a year when we ferry to the annual and return, "Pawnee, 11Z".
 
Fearless Tower said:
The point is, dude, you could have the whole book memorized and it won't help you know the difference in a situation where multiple airplanes can have the same name.

There is a big diff between a Travel Air biplane and a BE-95. A 'skymaster' could be a DC-4 or a Cessna 337. That book and all the knowledge on the net isn't going to help that situation.
Click to expand...


Which is why trying to tell someone what your plane is over the radio is pretty useless if that person has no idea what your plane is, particularly in a high density area. Dude.
 
Warrior, Cherokee, Piper, all that good stuff.

Gets interesting when all 3 Warriors are on with Pitt Approach...262ND, 266ND, and 272ND.
 
Steve said:
Which is why trying to tell someone what your plane is over the radio is pretty useless if that person has no idea what your plane is, particularly in a high density area. Dude.
Click to expand...

Yes, you are clueless
 
Hahahahaha. You've obviously never met Steve. He's about the least clueless as they come.
 
gprellwitz said:
I generally fly Cessnas, but there's a pretty big difference in performance between a 152 and a Citation (neither of which I fly), and even a fair amount of difference between the Skyhawk, Skylane, and Centurion, all of which I do fly. Therefore, I announce as the model, since they're all pretty recognizable (with the possible exception of the Centurion). I know that if I'm preparing to depart, it matters to me if it's a 152 or a twin Cessna turning final. If someone isn't familiar with the type, they can always assume it's fast and will be on them soon! :)
Click to expand...
Yes I use Skylane when I fly my 182. If in a 206 then I say Stationair.
 
Pilawt said:
172s were built for six years before the name "Skyhawk" was first used, and even then, until 1975, it only referred to an optional equipment package. So not all 172s are Skyhawks. Cessna 210s were built from 1960 to 1963 before the name "Centurion" was dreamed up for the '64 model. And "Commuter" was just one of the three option packages available on Cessna 150s until the last year or so of production, when the brochures finally referred to the 150 as "Cessna Commuter".
Click to expand...

Then I'd better start calling myself a "Skylane II" since our aircraft was ordered with the fancy ARC avionics upgrades in 1975 to be a "II" and not just a "Skylane". :D

Marketing... sheesh. :rolleyes2:

(Which also means it was $27,950 out the door at Cessna back then. Makes ya wanna cry, doesn't it? :cryin: )

I think I'll stick with "Skylane". If the controller hasn't figured out what the second most popular GA aircraft ever built is called, by the time I check in, they'll know it by the time I leave the frequency. And there'll be a few more following along in a few minutes! :thumbsup: :cornut:

Cessna cranked 820 of them out the door in 1975 alone. Serial numbers 18263476 through 18264295.
 
The last two airplanes I owned were both Experimental, so I used "Experimental 530xx or 630xx"
 
SkyHog said:
One of the most annoying things to hear besides ATITAPA is an aircraft ifentified as a Cessna. At least Cherokee is more specific and only refers to 3 or 4 models.

My Cherokee 180 was Cherokee 8816J
Cessna 172 is Skyhawk 7242G
Cessna 152 is either Commuter or Sparrowhawk 1234X
Arrow is Arrow. Warrior is Warrior.

No need to ever user Cessna, Piper, Beech, etc. as types.
Click to expand...

Since there is a regional airline that uses the callsign "Commuter" (I've heard them on the radio, but never bothered to look up who they are or what they fly) I'd rather not see that used. Besides, Commuter and Sparrowhawk are both an extra syllable over Cessna, and distinguishing between the two is completely useless.

Most old 172's aren't much faster - I trained in 172's and called in as "Cessna." Now in the 182 I'll call in as "Skylane" because I'm 30% or so faster and can climb twice as fast, so it's worthwhile to distinguish from the 150 thru 172 models.

When you've got P28A on your data tag, though, they'll call you all kinds of stuff! :rofl:
 
Heck, even with PA24, I got called...

Comanche, Twin Comanche, Aztec, and Saratoga

...all on one flight from FMY to SGJ.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
That's what I don't like about the "Twin Cessna" call sign. It can mean a 310, 335, 340, 401, 402, 404, 414, or 421. And quite technically, Mari's Citation is a Twin Cessna. Some 421 operators call them Golden Eagles. Otherwise, it's just a Twin Cessna.
Click to expand...

How many of the "Twin Cessnas" had names? :dunno: Calling in as "340 12345" would be mighty confusing.

I've debated with going by "Sky King" for the 310, and see how they respond. Seeing as tower yells at me for "Twin Cessna Four Eight Eight Sugar Pop" they'd probably yell at me even more if I changed it to "Sky King...".
Click to expand...

Maybe you need to switch it to something alcohol-related - I'm sure Laurie has told you about "Whiskey double-shot."

Or get a callsign for Cloud Nine - Wouldn't it be cool to call in as "Furball One"? :D

What about in the case of Greg's 195? Or a Beech 18? A J-3 is obviously "Cub..." but not every plane had a name. The 310 didn't, and it's just "Twin Cessna." "Twin Beech" is about as descriptive.
Click to expand...

The Beech 18 is the only thing I've ever heard called "Twin Beech." The others all seem to call themselves Duchess, Baron, Queen Air, Duke-mayday-my-tail-just-fell-off, etc.
 
Ron Levy said:
Given the latitude in the AIM guidance, I'd say use what you think has the best chance of conveying the necessary information to the party to whom you are speaking.
Click to expand...

flyingcheesehead said:
We have a winner. :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Thank goodness we don't have to do that on the Internet! We would have never made it to multiple pages on this one! :cornut:

(By the way... folks who count the pages and give numbers... you do know there's a setting for "number of posts displayed per page", right? We could have a "my pages are bigger than yours" contest. :D )
 
ScottM said:
Usually the only time I correct my call sign is when they think I am a helo instead of a fix wing.
Click to expand...

Doesn't say much for the speed of your airplane when they do that. ;)

Although it can be fun to be thought of as a helo. I was passing Milwaukee on the lakeshore and ATC asked if I could transition the airspace at 1000 feet. The lake itself is like 700 feet MSL. Hmmm sounds like fun, I was tempted.
Click to expand...

The lake is at 580 MSL, but that still sounds like fun. :goofy:
 
denverpilot said:
(Which also means it was $27,950 out the door at Cessna back then. Makes ya wanna cry, doesn't it? :cryin: )
Click to expand...

No, what makes me cry is that was the equivalent of $116,296 today, and in reality a new 182 costs over three times that. :frown2:

I think I'll stick with "Skylane". If the controller hasn't figured out what the second most popular GA aircraft ever built is called, by the time I check in, they'll know it by the time I leave the frequency.
Click to expand...

I love me my Skylanes, but it's not "the second most popular GA aircraft ever built." If you believe Wikipedia, the 172 is (duh) the most popular at 43,000. But, there have been nearly 33,000 Cherokees built (yeah, they're kinda cheating by including all of them) and 23,954 C150's built. They claim 23,237 C182's built as of 2007 (source: Cessna), and the GAMA numbers indicate 214 for 2008, 133 for 2009, and 100 for 2010 for a grand total of 23,684 so still probably a couple years shy of passing the C150. Of course, that's not counting the nearly-equivalent C152 of which another 7,584 were built.

I was actually a little bit surprised to see that there weren't more J-3's (20,038) built than 182's but it's unclear if that number includes all the L-4's built for WWII, and it does NOT include the gaggle of other derivatives of the Cub - Heck, if they're gonna count the Cherokees all together, they might as well include the Taylorcraft, the J-2 through J-5, PA-12 through PA-18, Top Cub, Sport Cub, Legend Cub, Pick-a-word Cub, and even the Husky. Those combined may well rival the 172 in total numbers.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
No, what makes me cry is that was the equivalent of $116,296 today, and in reality a new 182 costs over three times that. :frown2:
Click to expand...

But back then the option list was pages long. And adding the various "Nav Pac" avionics groups would run that initially low number up fast.
 
Trapper John said:
I always thought it would be cool to have a C-320. Being able to call "Skynight" is pretty darn close to "Sky King".
Click to expand...

I might be getting old but..... Wasn't the 'name of Sky Kings plane, Songbird ???? I seem to remember the name Penny and maybe Festus that drove nelliebell too ...:dunno::dunno: :idea:

Ben.
 
N801BH said:
I might be getting old but..... Wasn't the 'name of Sky Kings plane, Songbird ???? I seem to remember the name Penny and maybe Festus that drove nelliebell too ...:dunno::dunno: :idea:

Ben.
Click to expand...

They didn't show Sky King reruns much when I was a kid, so I don't remember. But I did watch Ripcord a lot.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
I love me my Skylanes, but it's not "the second most popular GA aircraft ever built." If you believe Wikipedia, the 172 is (duh) the most popular at 43,000. But, there have been nearly 33,000 Cherokees built (yeah, they're kinda cheating by including all of them) and 23,954 C150's built. They claim 23,237 C182's built as of 2007 (source: Cessna), and the GAMA numbers indicate 214 for 2008, 133 for 2009, and 100 for 2010 for a grand total of 23,684 so still probably a couple years shy of passing the C150. Of course, that's not counting the nearly-equivalent C152 of which another 7,584 were built.
Click to expand...

The numbers I have at home are from CPA, and the claim of "2nd most popular" may have been inaccurately stated in their book, and might mean "2nd most popular Cessna GA aircraft ever built". That I'd believe. I'll check tonight and see what their book actually says. I could have copied the statement wrong, or they may have printed it wrong.

But I do see their point. There aren't any other airplanes out there other than Cessnas, right? ;)

flyingcheesehead said:
I was actually a little bit surprised to see that there weren't more J-3's (20,038) built than 182's but it's unclear if that number includes all the L-4's built for WWII, and it does NOT include the gaggle of other derivatives of the Cub - Heck, if they're gonna count the Cherokees all together, they might as well include the Taylorcraft, the J-2 through J-5, PA-12 through PA-18, Top Cub, Sport Cub, Legend Cub, Pick-a-word Cub, and even the Husky. Those combined may well rival the 172 in total numbers.
Click to expand...

I'd be more interested in total numbers built of all of them, versus total number still flying/registered. I guess here in the States the FAA is working on that "registered" thing but decided it was such a big scary project it would have to take years, so by the time they're finished, the numbers will be all wrong again. They can spot the John and Martha King "Terrorists" on their Instrument flight plan in near-real-time on a "stolen" N-number, but they can't count the registered airplanes.

Makes me so proud to be a taxpayer. Even brings a little tear to my eye. LOL!

We fell in the first group of re-submittals for the renewal of the registration and did our part for the "Airplane Census", so I hope they start handing out the limited amounts of "G'ubmint cheese" in the form of free ADS-B In and Out receivers and 406 MHz ELTs soon to all of us who re-registered early, since they've clearly decided that both systems had to change.

(Bwahaha... right...) LOL!

;)
 
Aah, another nice thing about us M20's. We are "Mooney" to ATC. So simple.
Traffic "Lockheed" was called out to me today on the way back from Memphis, so I asked the controller what it was. C130 flying VFR.
 
Trapper John said:
But back then the option list was pages long. And adding the various "Nav Pac" avionics groups would run that initially low number up fast.
Click to expand...

I got the impression from Nate that his plane came from the factory loaded - And even if it weren't, you're not going to triple the price of an airplane with avionics. :no:
 
flyingcheesehead said:
How many of the "Twin Cessnas" had names? :dunno: Calling in as "340 12345" would be mighty confusing.
Click to expand...

Oh, I don't disagree. And in reality, the difference between a 310 and a 421 in performance isn't huge. Actually, the best out of them all is a RAM T310R. But to answer your question, other than the 320 (Skyknight) and the later 421s (Golden Eagle), I seem to recall that the 414 was "Chancellor" or something like that. There was the 404 Titan, as well. So it's interesting how they chose to name some, but not others.

Maybe you need to switch it to something alcohol-related - I'm sure Laurie has told you about "Whiskey double-shot."
Click to expand...

Oh yes, I'm aware. But there's a reason why the 310 is Sugar Pop, and it's staying. :)

Or get a callsign for Cloud Nine - Wouldn't it be cool to call in as "Furball One"? :D
Click to expand...

I'd had a couple ideas for callsigns if we convince the FAA to give us one, but "Furball" wasn't on the list. ;)
 
flyingcheesehead said:
I got the impression from Nate that his plane came from the factory loaded - And even if it weren't, you're not going to triple the price of an airplane with avionics. :no:
Click to expand...

Yeah. "Skylane" was without the fancy ARC/Cessna avionics in the 70s. "Skylane II" was what you got if you bought the upgrades. Same aircraft, different stack. Different Marketing name.

Most of our ARC stuff is gone other than the wing leveler and the transponder. The rest is 90's vintage King stuff.

And I think if we put a full Garmin stack in it today we just might triple the cash outlay price for the aircraft, actually. And never get it back. ;)
 
Ted DuPuis said:
But to answer your question, other than the 320 (Skyknight) and the later 421s (Golden Eagle), I seem to recall that the 414 was "Chancellor" or something like that. There was the 404 Titan, as well. So it's interesting how they chose to name some, but not others.
Click to expand...
Cessna also made a Crusader 303 for a while. It didn't look like any of the other Twin Cessnas.

Cessna.crusader.arp.jpg


Cessna really got weird when it came to naming and numbering the jets. Why is a Citation 2 a 500? An X is a 750 and the 3s 6s and 7s are 650s. So many of them have two numbers, a popular name and a type designator, which don't correspond to anything as far as I can see.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Oh yes, I'm aware. But there's a reason why the 310 is Sugar Pop, and it's staying. :)
Click to expand...

Oh, do tell! :)

I'd had a couple ideas for callsigns if we convince the FAA to give us one, but "Furball" wasn't on the list. ;)
Click to expand...

Heh... Well, what was on the list? After the other recent discussion, maybe "Flatulent One" would work. :rofl:
 
Everskyward said:
Cessna also made a Crusader 303 for a while. It didn't look like any of the other Twin Cessnas.
Click to expand...

I knew that I was forgetting the weird one with the cruciform tail! I just couldn't remember the number. :)

Everskyward said:
Cessna really got weird when it came to naming and numbering the jets. Why is a Citation 2 a 500? An X is a 750 and the 3s 6s and 7s are 650s. So many of them have two numbers, a popular name and a type designator, which don't correspond to anything as far as I can see.
Click to expand...

I've wondered the same thing as far as that goes. For a while when I saw C525s coming in I was wondering what kind of weird Cessna that was. Oh, it's a Citation. :)

flyingcheesehead said:
Oh, do tell! :)
Click to expand...

See:

http://www.cloudninerescueflights.org/archives/903

The summary is "That airplane was born Sugar Pop, and it's going to die Sugar Pop!" :)

flyingcheesehead said:
Heh... Well, what was on the list? After the other recent discussion, maybe "Flatulent One" would work. :rofl:
Click to expand...

:rofl: No, I've been thinking of things that are far more mundane. Like "Dog 1" etc.
 
Wow, I like that 303. The front has kind of a Duke look to it. Trailing link mains too.
 
Lance F said:
Wow, I like that 303. The front has kind of a Duke look to it. Trailing link mains too.
Click to expand...

Yes, but I don't think the tail falls off in flight as frequently. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top