How many times do you correct your tail number before giving up.

My last 3 digits are 630 which they like to change to 360. Was caught off guard once near my own Class C when ATC addressed me as American 360. I get "November", "Grumman" or "Tiger" 99% of the time so thought that call was for an airliner:confused:. We got it fixed fast ....
 
Other than Uniform becoming Unicorn, I got lucky with my tail number. 1236U just rolls off the tongue.
 
I flew for a volunteer org, and all our aircraft call signs started with "CAP 18xx"; there were four or five of us in the pattern, or inbound, to KHGR one day. Tower lost his mind. Hearing the cluster eff in-bound, I reverted to my airplane's N number on initial call-up.
 
Was flying the other day and tower kept calling me 37Z...I am 37L. I kept correcting on my call but she just kept calling me 37Z. I thought about not responding anymore to see if that might fix it but then thought...nah it's not worth it. Then they tried to shove me into a neighboring navy airspace. I got barked at because I wasn't maintaining the heading given and I politely said 37L can't current heading will put me in the navy airspace. She came back and said 37Z Roger once clear turn 090. Hahaha oh well good times
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
I heard a controller once say it is better to hear numbers in pairs and that has helped mine to be better recognized over the years. Also, say the pairs as a two digit number;

Yours: N6185H

"Sixty-one,....Eighty-five,...Hotel."
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And it comes back as "Fifty-one, Eighty-five, Hotel".
 
With my accent, two is heard as 3 and 3 is heard as 2. Don't get me started on 8.
 
Sundancer said:
I flew for a volunteer org, and all our aircraft call signs started with "CAP 18xx"; there were four or five of us in the pattern, or inbound, to KHGR one day. Tower lost his mind. Hearing the cluster eff in-bound, I reverted to my airplane's N number on initial call-up.
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CAP always has that problem due to the way they allocate callsigns. It gets real fun at a large event where there might be 15 aircraft. I've been to two such events. Fresno controllers were flawless. SLO, not so much.

I had a fun time once flying CAP 481 with the glider tow pilot flying CAP 483. Both of us usually flew the other plane, so we used each other's callsigns more than once. Oops.
 
My Mooney's tail number is N3833T. Confused controllers more often than not, so I started saying, very slowly, "Mooney tree eight tree tree tango" and that seems to help.
 
hindsight2020 said:
Mine has always given problems. Mostly, like @Fearless Tower example, there's an expectation that the last two characters be letters, but then yours has a number. In my case with 10P, when pronounced with nominal quickness inflight, it's phonetically hard to distinguish from the all too common "SP", as found in re-start production Cessnas. So unless I make a point to pronounce it sllooooooowly as in , bla bla One-zeROOOOOOOWWWW....PAPA! it just gets read back Sierra-Papa. It's a PITA. Additionally, since comanche tail numbers tend to end in Papa as well, I get called a comanche as well too, though that one is inconsequential to me.

Of course, I could always go the overnugget/carrier-break dooshbag RV-driver route and just use a tactical callsign. :D
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Had the same problem with zeros on my former tail number. N8045W. I'd get them thinking it was 8S45W or 8SW etc...come to think of it 8S45W doesn't even make sense.... silly Atc..
 
They always confuse mine, 5660U thinking its 566SU even through I emphasize the ZEE-ROW. The problem is that I fly out of Tucson all the time and I KNOW most of the controllers who work there and they know me and the plane I fly. I've reserved N962TM for my RV-7. Can't wait until I can start using it.
 
"Foo tower, three three one two uniform is a bonanza 10 miles east of lake chalet, with hotel, inbound for landing"
"Banana tree one two tree unicorn, make lake chalet arrival, cleared to land, number 2, for one six"

in COMPLETE fairness, I've screwed up far more calls as a pilot than erroneous calls from ATC that I've had to correct.

i did have a guy last weekend insist that I was eight six Juliet, despite calling that I was nine six Juliet probably 5 times during our communication as I approached, landed and taxied. Great controller though, very helpful, as most are, at a little contract D.
 
I have to correct my tail number almost every handoff. For some deep neurological reason, controllers often refer to 59L as 95L. It's like a standing bet that our first callup will be read back wrong. And you can say five-niner and it still comes back niner-five. Go figure. If I was one number higher or lower I bet it wouldn't be a problem.And my previous plane also had nines and fives which were eternally confused. Sigh.

Cheers,
 
Someone just based another Cessna at our home 'drome ending in Niner Seven Mike, and we're Seven Niner Mike.

The new Cessna must fly a lot (I've heard it up a couple of times when we were also up) and it's stuck in the controller's heads...

I've had to make multiple tail number corrections now every time I've flown in the last couple of months. Sometimes even after correcting Ground they're either writing it on the strip wrong or the next controller is just stuck in the same way, and the takeoff clearance (we get sequenced to the hold line and "monitor tower" 100% of the time) is jacked up, too. So you're correcting the tail number while getting moving (since we have the main runway closed right now and it's a zoo) -- a lovely setup for a distraction and a problem. I go on full red alert double-checking everything while fussing with correcting the controller.

Guess I need to figure out what airplane it is and when it typically flies and go taxi out at the exact same time to get the lightbulb to go on up in Tower-land. Haha.

Starting to get annoying. Really annoying.
 
Seems to me we need another way to say ZEE-ROW, or another identifier for S.... Depending on the transmission quality, coffee level of the controller and a whole host of other factors, ZEE-ROW often comes across as Sierra.
 
On the way down to DC Monday I heard ATC talking to another plane with a tail number starting with 828, and also to another juliet tango that didn't start with 828. Things got a little confusing when, after a handoff, a controller insisted on calling me eight-two-juliet since that was exactly when the other 828 was being given instructions.

I probably should have, but didn't, explicitly correct the controller. I just replied with my full, correct call sign and hoped she would realize her mistake. Fortunately she got it right on about the third try.
 
Caramon13 said:
Seems to me we need another way to say ZEE-ROW, or another identifier for S.... Depending on the transmission quality, coffee level of the controller and a whole host of other factors, ZEE-ROW often comes across as Sierra.
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"Ser-roh" usually works.
 
denverpilot said:
Guess I need to figure out what airplane it is and when it typically flies and go taxi out at the exact same time to get the lightbulb to go on up in Tower-land. Haha.

Starting to get annoying. Really annoying.
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You could possibly make a letter of agreement with the tower that allows you to call yourself something snazzy like some of the bigger flight schools. Maybe even extend the agreement to include the approach control, too.
 
Caramon13 said:
Seems to me we need another way to say ZEE-ROW, or another identifier for S.... Depending on the transmission quality, coffee level of the controller and a whole host of other factors, ZEE-ROW often comes across as Sierra.
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I vote naught.
 
Cpt_Kirk said:
I've had it happen a lot over time. Just don't ever accept your "new" tail number. Always read back your entire correct tail number to the clearance.

Good controllers will advise when a similar tail number is on freq. But, always listen to all the other transmissions to be sure.
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Exactly!!! Never, Never, Never just acquiesce because the controller can't do his job. Politely, at first, then as forcibly as necessary, MAKE the controller use the correct call sign.

For example, "approach, you keep calling me N12345 and my call sign is N1235C. And if that doesn't get the point across say "Approach, you keep calling the wrong call sign and that is dangerous. I am N1235C!".

ATC is not the only ones driving the train. We are part of a team effort WHICH INCLUDES YOU THE PILOT.

tex
 
There's another aircraft in my area with the same last three digits. When we're both in the air at the same time and ATC starts to abbreviate N numbers for time, I always have to ask which one they're talking to.
 
upstateny said:
There's another aircraft in my area with the same last three digits. When we're both in the air at the same time and ATC starts to abbreviate N numbers for time, I always have to ask which one they're talking to.
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I don't know what the ATC rules say, but common sense says they should NOT be abbreviating call signs when they're working two different aircraft whose abbreviated call signs are identical.
 
In all fairness, I think it's a matter of one of us being up first and ATC gets into a pattern. When the other shows up, they don't recognize the problem right away.
 
upstateny said:
There's another aircraft in my area with the same last three digits. When we're both in the air at the same time and ATC starts to abbreviate N numbers for time, I always have to ask which one they're talking to.
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If that were to happen in my pattern, one of you would be Jim and the other Bob +last three digits.
 
Better yet is when they can't seem to get the aircraft type correct. In one trip alone I was called a Cherokee, Arrow, Seneca, and a Mooney??!
 
I went to a NATCA forum at Oshkosh and the controllers there said specifically to retry until the call sign was right.
 
Used to have N7ZY, always got "is that all of it" and always incorrect. Got tired of saying zulu, like the African tribe.
 
N13EJ is known by the controllers locally, but when venturing afield, I get the same question about full call sign. I also got in the habit of “November 13 Echo Juliet” on initial callups.
 
My father has two 172s. C-FGCH and C-GCGH. It is fun flying together into a Class D airport in the US at roughly the same time. There is also a 150 in the family with C-FUHK. That one usually gets a few chuckles. I have had it happen here in the states that I will call the tower with the tail number and they will respond with "Canadian airplane...".
 
I used to own a Grumman Cheetah N116MC. By coincidence, based at another field three miles away was a Grumman Tiger, N16MC. I had lunch with the Tiger's owner one day, and he jokingly suggested we fly in formation to a nearby tower-controlled field to shoot some touch-and-goes and play with the controller's mind. :p
 
Mine is 3 digits. Even when I use "November One Two Three" they come back with "say full call sign". I'm used to it.
 
MadseasoN said:
Mine is 3 digits. Even when I use "November One Two Three" they come back with "say full call sign". I'm used to it.
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Try using both type and November together. Like "Cessna November one two three." That often helps get the point across that 123 is the full call sign.
 
Paulie said:
Used to have N7ZY, always got "is that all of it" and always incorrect. Got tired of saying zulu, like the African tribe.
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I had Pitts N3QQ, a noisy airplane with a crappy radio. The local controllers would say "oh crap. Not this guy again."
 
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