Questions tagged [call-sign]
Questions about the callsigns that aircraft use to identify themselves when communicating over the radio or other systems.
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Is it acceptable to abbreviate “Foxtrot” to “Fox”?
My instrument instructor pointed out that I’ve been saying “Four Seven Fox” instead of “Four Seven Foxtrot”. I realize I’ve been doing this for years now, but this is the first I’ve ever been called ...
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What's the deal with time-varying alphanumeric callsigns?
The other day a friend of mine was flying Dubai to Washington (OMDB->KIAD) and the IATA flight number was EK231. I decided to track the departure on FlightRadar24 (hereafter F24). F24 told me that ...
user69764
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When are what type of callsigns used?
Some callsigns are in the format (Something) "(Number)-(Number)". Other callsigns are in the format of one word, such as the famous examples of Pete "Maverick" Mitchell and Bradley ...
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Why do Presidential flights have special call signs?
"One of the most powerful people in the world is on this airplane" does not seem like something you would want to broadcast, but "Air Force One" is effectively a code-word for that ...
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Can a private pilot flying a passenger to a hospital use a MEDEVAC callsign?
Normal air ambulance flights in medical emergency situations use a callsign consisting of the word "MEDEVAC" followed by the registration number excluding the prefix (e.g. N912MF is "...
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My N number showed up on another plane's flight on FlightRadar24. How does that happen?
My Cessna 150F has never had ADS-B out. It has had the same N number since 1967. But yet, FlightRadar24 shows a flight a few weeks ago, perfectly tracing the coast north of San Diego, 2,000 miles from ...
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When did FedEx acquire it's current callsign and airline ID's?
FedEx currently uses the callsign "FedEx" and has the IATA and ICAO ID's of FX and FDX respectively.
Back in the 1990's they used the callsign "Express" and the IATA code was FM. (...
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Why didn’t AFR4590 use heavy in its call sign?
https://aviation-safety.net/investigation/cvr/transcripts/cvr_af4590.php shows that AFR4590 didn’t use heavy in its call sign even though Concorde had a MTOW greater than 300,000 lbs. Unlike BAW, AFR ...
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What does an XXXX ident mean? [closed]
A couple of guys who I met online yesterday claim to have been in the military. One of them was tracking flights earlier and saw a plane with a callsign of XXXX. He said that this was very bad and is ...
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Is there a minimum amount of time an airline has to leave between using two identical callsigns?
Does anyone know if there is a minimum time that an airline has to leave before reusing the same callsign?
I have noticed that airlines reuse callsigns, they usually leave a day or two between ...
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Is there a specific reason Delta Airlines is allowed to have a call sign that's also code word in the NATO phonetic alphabet?
This is a followup to Is there any specific reason why Delta Air Lines doesn't have its own callsign? I was... "helpfully" informed that, um, actually, Delta Airlines does have its own callsign, it's "...
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Is there any specific reason why Delta Air Lines doesn't have its own callsign?
Many airlines have their own callsigns for use over the radio. A British Airways plane is called "Speedbird", US Airways was "Cactus", etc. So why doesn't Delta Air Lines do the same? It would seem to ...
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Can pilots change the callsign shown on tracking websites mid-flight?
Today I viewed the following flight on FlightRadar24 website. It show a flight with a callsign of 'BLEED' and with the destination missing. Is this a problem with the website or can an aircraft change ...
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Who defines the callsign for radio communication? [duplicate]
I started flying with VATSIM and but I couldn’t find a proper answer to this question online. Who defines a callsign for a plane in a given flight? Is a callsign set to a airplane? Is it related to ...
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When can a tower's callsign differ from the airfield name, and how do I find the proper callsign?
It seems like a lot of air traffic control towers use callsigns that are much different from the name of the airfield. For example, Lehigh Valley International (ABE) has "Allentown Tower."
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