For example, British Airways flight 75 would use the call sign Speedbird Seven–Five, since Speed-bird is the telephony designator for British Airways and 75 would be the flight identification. The flight identification is very often the same as the flight number, but could be different due to call sign confusion, if two or more flights close to each other have similar flight numbers (e.g. By ICAO Annex 10 Chapter 5.2.1.7.2.1 - Full call signs type C, a call sign consists of the telephony designator of the aircraft operating agency, followed by the flight identification. Commercial airline Ĭommercial operators, including scheduled airline, air cargo and air taxi operators, will usually use an ICAO or FAA-registered call sign for their company. Therefore, abbreviated signs are used only so long as it is unambiguous. The use of abbreviated call signs has its dangers, in the case when aircraft with similar call signs are in the same vicinity. Alternatively, the initial letter of the call sign can be concatenated with the final two or three characters, for instance a British aircraft registered G–BFRM may identify as Golf–Romeo–Mike while the American aircraft might use November–Eight-Charlie-Papa. Sometimes the aircraft make or model is used in front of the full or abbreviated call sign, for instance, the American aircraft mentioned above might then use Cessna Eight-Charlie-Papa. Īfter an aircraft has made contact with an air traffic control facility, the call sign may be abbreviated. In air traffic management systems (ATC radar screen, flow management systems, etc.) and on flight plan forms, the dash is not used (e.g. The dash ("-") in the registration is only included on the fuselage of the airplane for readability. In days gone by, even American aircraft used five letter call signs, such as KH–ABC, but they were replaced prior to World War II by the current American system of civilian aircraft call signs (see below). Ground-effect vehicles (hovercraft) in Canada are eligible to receive C–Hxxx call signs, and ultralight aircraft receive C-Ixxx call signs. Canadian aircraft have a call sign beginning with C–F or C–G, such as C–FABC. For example, all British civil aircraft have a five-letter call sign beginning with the letter G. In most countries, the aircraft call sign or "tail number"/"tail letters" (also known as registration marks) are linked to the international radio call sign allocation table and follow a convention that aircraft radio stations (and, by extension, the aircraft itself) receive call signs consisting of five letters. For example, Skyhawk eight-Charlie-Papa left base (see below). This is especially true at uncontrolled fields (those without control towers) when reporting traffic pattern positions, or at towered airports after establishing two-way communication with the tower controller. At times, general aviation pilots might omit additional preceding numbers and use only the last three numbers and letters. However, in the United States a pilot of an aircraft would normally omit to say November, and instead use the name of the aircraft manufacturer or the specific model. For example, an aircraft registered as N978CP conducting a general aviation flight would use the call sign November-niner-seven-eight-Charlie-Papa. Aircraft registration numbers internationally follow the pattern of a country prefix, followed by a unique identifier made up of letters and numbers. In this case, the call sign is spoken using the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) phonetic alphabet. In most countries, unscheduled general aviation flights identify themselves using the call sign corresponding to the aircraft's registration number (also called N-number in the U.S., or tail number). Aviation call signs are communication call signs assigned as unique identifiers to aircraft.Ĭall signs in aviation are derived from several different policies, depending upon the type of flight operation and whether or not the caller is in an aircraft or at a ground facility.
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