Bravo? Foxtrot? Huh?

aknowledge that you recieved the ATIS weather report. The report is in an alphabetical sequence

As nottobe says, it is a word of the phonetic alphabet that identifies the weather report. That lets ATC know whether or not you have heard the current weather through ATC. If you say you have information Delta for example, it means you have listened to, and understood the transmission from ATIS. At the end of the ATIS transmission, it will tell you that "you have information Delta".

😉

man, i never knew that!! its gonna save me a whole lot of frustration now!!

Cheers guys

Micah 😉

I guess it will make my online flying a heck of a lot more fun. Thanks 👍

Hey, are there any more of these little phrases that you know of 99J ?

crossland99 wrote:

Sometimes, not all the time, when I radio a tower that I'm ready to taxi or whatever, the audio for "my voice" says something like "Soar 207 ready to taxi, with Foxtrot" or something like that. I know that Bravo and Foxtrot are part of the military alphabet (Bravo for B, Zulu for Z etc). But what are they in this context? I can't seem to discern a pattern.

Just wondering.

An example of an ATIS report would be as followed:

"Hamilton information November, issued at 03:46, (UTC) expect visual approach runway 18, runway conditions dry, surface wind calm, visibility 40 km, cloud nil significant cloud, temperature 10, dewpoint 9, QNH 1013, forecast 2000 ft winds, 220° 10 knots, on first contact with Hamilton Tower or Christchurch Control, (apporoach frequency) notify receipt of November."

At the end of the report is the version of the ATIS, which happens to be November, the 14th ATIS broadcast of that partucular day. Every time there is a significant change in weather conditions, ATC will release an updated version.

In the US, at least, ATIS broadcasts contain more than just the weather (winds, temperature, dew point, visibility, barometric pressure). They almost always include which runways are currently in use for both VFR and IFR approaches and any temporary warnings for the airport. As an example, after the weather and runway information, I recently heard a warning similar to "Caution-heavy equipment and personnel working on taxiway Charley adjacent to runway 18/36". I've also heard warnings on ATIS for concentrations of birds in the approach or take off areas.

I also had been wondering this when I had my ATC scanner out and heard all the pilots saying this at the end of thier transmittions.

At the start of the day, the ATIS sends out a tranmittion stating the current conditions called 'Alpha' and everytime the weather conditions change, the letter assigned to it is changed by one 'Bravo, Charlie' etc etc

Don Wood wrote:

In the US, at least, ATIS broadcasts contain more than just the weather (winds, temperature, dew point, visibility, barometric pressure). They almost always include which runways are currently in use for both VFR and IFR approaches and any temporary warnings for the airport. As an example, after the weather and runway information, I recently heard a warning similar to "Caution-heavy equipment and personnel working on taxiway Charley adjacent to runway 18/36". I've also heard warnings on ATIS for concentrations of birds in the approach or take off areas.

Yeah I've often heard similar occurences Don, especially with the birds on the runway. If you're interested in knowing, NZ also puts in any temporary information such as NOTAMS, bird warnings, etc. 😉

BTW CT, have you ever heard a GA aircraft asking ATC where they were because they were lost? There was a lady on the scanner a couple of months ago who thought she was over Hamilton city - she was a lot further away then she thought though, I felt pretty sorry for here actually! 😂

BTW CT, have you ever heard a GA aircraft asking ATC where they were because they were lost? There was a lady on the scanner a couple of months ago who thought she was over Hamilton city - she was a lot further away then she thought though, I felt pretty sorry for here actually!

Hahaha! No I havn't actually but what I have noticed is that there are heaps of female pilots, flying GA and Air NZ links! I wonder if any females play flight sim ❓

cheekytrolly wrote:

BTW CT, have you ever heard a GA aircraft asking ATC where they were because they were lost? There was a lady on the scanner a couple of months ago who thought she was over Hamilton city - she was a lot further away then she thought though, I felt pretty sorry for here actually!

Hahaha! No I havn't actually but what I have noticed is that there are heaps of female pilots, flying GA and Air NZ links! I wonder if any females play flight sim ❓

Indeed, there are a lot of females flying for Air NZ Link, and a few for Air NZ international but nowhere near as much. After a month or so of listening to AKL approach frequencies, I think I have only heard one female Qantas pilot! 🙄

Well I suppose in a couple of years many females at Link will move up to Mt. Cook / Air Nelson and then up to Air NZ international, so the industry could become quite even in the near future - my opinion anyway!

Im not sure about New Zealnd, but here in the US the ATIS changed every minutes till the hour (I.E. 19:55) or when there is a "significant" change in weather. Significant is pretty subjective though and is pretty much up to the controller to decide.

I was thinking about jarred_01's comment about the GA female pilot asking ATC for directions and I guess the old saying also holds true in flying.....the men would rather try to figure out on their own where they are than simply ask for directions. George 😀

GWFlyer wrote:

I was thinking about jarred_01's comment about the GA female pilot asking ATC for directions and I guess the old saying also holds true in flying.....the men would rather try to figure out on their own where they are than simply ask for directions. George 😀

Very true George! 😉

I hope that is not true - any pilot, male or female who is lost, ought to have the skills to become unlost in short order. One of the skills taught to every pilot (I hope) in initial training is how to use ATC for automatic direction finding help from the flight service stations. With VORs, pilots should never need to avail themselves of that service but it remains available. If a pilot did not have a VOR in the aircraft, then, it may become one of the primary means of becoming unlost.