Can anyone tell what a pilot means when they say something like "Landmark 532 with (letter of phoenetic alphabet)." Thanks for any help on this.Regards,Canadian HawkC-GTGK

>Can anyone tell what a pilot means when they say something>like "Landmark 532 with (letter of phoenetic alphabet).">Thanks for any help on this.It means that they have a specific weather update. I believe the day is broken up into intervals, and the ATC ATIS is updated at each interval, and the phonetic alphabet letter is incrimented.Or something like that ;-)

S

it's first wind direction and then speed: e.g. "Cleared to land, wind is 240 at 12Of course, the situation where the pilots says his received ATIS designator, could laso occur on initial contact with clearance delivery, ground control, or approache.g. "Heathrow ground, this Speed Bird 190 Heavy with Hotel, request taxi"Denis, I'm sorry to say, but when changing from approach to tower, airline pilots will never say the ATIS designator.

Thanks guys. This helps alot!Regards,Canadian HawkC-GTGK

Seba,I was sure that pilots did give the ATIS designator when contacting the tower from approach, but it has been nearly four years since I worked at Heathrow and carried a scanner. I don

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Don

"The other thing I noticed, the term

Thanks Ton,I have often wondered why the term

Hi Denis," At Heathrow one saw the rare executive jet, but never any light private aircraft."At Schiphol there are light aircraft but they use a seperate runway (the old "Fokker" runway were they started their test flights)"As for the Nimrod, well Heathrow is almost surrounded by reservoirs and quite recently they drained one to recover a World War II V1 flying bomb (Doodlebug), but enemy submarines in the reservoirs, again hardly likely."Never underestimate the enemy ;-) ;-) "The mystery was solved when I learnt that BA had the paint contract for RAF aircraft, hence the visits"That is strange! Probably cutting the costs!Ton

"Heavy" is used in reference to the aircraft's weight class for wake turbulence separation. "Heavy" is any aircraft over 225,000 lbs, "Large" is any aircraft between 41,000 lbs and 225,000 lbs, and "Small" is any aircraft less than 41,000 lbs.(Interestingly, the Boeing 757 is called out for special treatment in ICAO documents because although it is a "Large" aircraft its wake turbulence is equivilent of many "Heavy" aircraft.)Only the term "Heavy" is used in ATC communications to identify aircraft requiring additional care in separation for wake avoidance.The wake categories are ICAO standard, so I'm a bit suprised that "Heavy" is not used in Europe. Anyone have a reference for this?

Hi Martin,"The wake categories are ICAO standard, so I'm a bit suprised that "Heavy" is not used in Europe. Anyone have a reference for this?"Like I said before: In Europe there is little mixed traffic on the major airports. The light aircraft are all stationed at regional airports and the "heavies" land on the major airports. The terminal controllers does not have to separate lights from heavies and wake turbulence is only an issue when a Saab or a CRJ are sequenced behind a 747. Ton