Hi, I recently started using VATSIM with msfs and I am curious of something.I noticed that every British airways flight is referred to as ,,speedbird’’ and I was wondering: if I want to make a BA flight, which callsign do I enter in V-pilot when I connect to VATSIM, the standard BAW callsign and just be referred to as speedbird, or is there a special callsign?

To my understanding the callsign is associated with the AOC (Airline Operator Certificate), under which a flight is conducted. AFAIK in the BA realm there are also AOCs for BA CityFlyer (IATA code CFE, callsign FLYER) and BA Euroflyer (IATA code EFW, callsign GRIFFIN). In these days, with airlines setting up more and more subsidiaries, it has become quite confusing, and you can't  deduce the callsign from the livery. If you enter the IATA code "BAW" into v-pilot, you indicate that the flight is conducted under the parent companies (British Airways) AOC and therefore you will be adressed as "speedbird".

Edited August 15, 20232 yr by Tom_L

Here is a list of call signs and their 'call name'

https://123atc.com/call-signs

 

Thank you very much👍🏼

If you’re operating a UK domestic (LHR/MAN/NCL/GLA etc), your call sign would be SHT and spoken as Shuttle.

2 hours ago, mikethe6th said:

UK domestic call sign would be Shuttle

Interesting. I wasn't aware of that and wasn't able to find out if those flights are conducted using a seperate AOC, but I guess not, as it seems to be something nostalgic. I found a brief history of the "Walk on Shuttle" service. So for anyone interested, here's the link.

1 hour ago, Tom_L said:

Interesting. I wasn't aware of that and wasn't able to find out if those flights are conducted using a seperate AOC, but I guess not, as it seems to be something nostalgic. I found a brief history of the "Walk on Shuttle" service. So for anyone interested, here's the link.

Nostalgia overload!  
I remember watching the Shuttles go in and out of Heathrow all day while standing on top of the Queens Building.
It was an iconic photo opportunity to see all of those Trident tails lined up in a row with the all moving tail-planes sloped backwards - I wonder why they did that?  Hydraulics off?
I would love to see one in the sim as it is a unique aircraft in so many ways.  Best we had was the David Maltby version for FS2004.

2 hours ago, Tom_L said:

...here's the link.

Hey Tom!  That is a great little online aviation magazine there.  I have bookmarked it - Thanks!

https://simpleflying.com/

“Speedbird Concorde” was unique in that it included the aircraft name. Only used on first contact so controllers were aware they were handling that aircraft with its different procedures.

Why mention it now, twenty years after it last flew? Well FS Labs are soon to release a new Concorde which will no doubt appear on VATSIM. P3D first followed by an MSFS version.

Thanks Guys for all The help😃. 
I flew a few times with BA and it was great. After some more flights I’ve seen that many airport require runway crossing during taxi, and that’s when another question popped up:). Do I have to request to cross a runway to the Atc, when that is needed, or can I just cross it on my own?:)

Most radio call signs are the airline name, like “United”.  Some are nicknames. Speedbird is for any British Airways flight, and comes from one of their predecessors, BOAC, that had a stylized (fast) bird as the tail logo.  It’s not just for Concorde  

4 hours ago, BufordTX said:

It’s not just for Concorde

???? 🤔 I didn’t say it was. I just said the callsign included “Concorde” on first contact. Thereafter it became “Speedbird [flight number]”.

5 hours ago, Hyper14 said:

Thanks Guys for all The help😃. 
I flew a few times with BA and it was great. After some more flights I’ve seen that many airport require runway crossing during taxi, and that’s when another question popped up:). Do I have to request to cross a runway to the Atc, when that is needed, or can I just cross it on my own?:)

Unless you’ve been categorically cleared to cross the runway, don’t. Just hold position. They would normally only clear you so far along your taxi route.

South African is Springbok and I believe TW Express was Waterski.

On 8/15/2023 at 9:16 AM, Hyper14 said:

Hi, I recently started using VATSIM with msfs and I am curious of something.I noticed that every British airways flight is referred to as ,,speedbird’’ and I was wondering: if I want to make a BA flight, which callsign do I enter in V-pilot when I connect to VATSIM, the standard BAW callsign and just be referred to as speedbird, or is there a special callsign?

not to mention they use shuttle and griffin as well.  alas not many of the kids on vatsim have figured that out yet.