Short Final

Editorial Staff

Sunday, March 12, 2017 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Many U.S. air traffic controllers are unfamiliar with Canada's alphabetic aircraft registration system (e.g., C-ABCD).
This unfamiliarity often leads to confusion and communication difficulties when Canadian aircraft interact with U.S. towers.
An example illustrates a Canadian pilot repeatedly failing to get a response from a U.S. tower due to the controller's inability to understand their callsign format.

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Not many controllers away from the northern border of the U.S. are familiar with Canada’s alphabetic aircraft registration system and it can cause confusion.

C-ABCD: XXXX tower this Canadian Civil Charlie Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta. Request runway in use.

No response

C-ABCD: Again XXXX tower Canadian Civil Charlie Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta requesting runway in use.

No response

C-ABCD: Wichita tower,Canadian Civil Charlie Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta requesting runway in use.

XXXX Tower: Canadian alphabet soup aircraft calling XXXX tower please say again.

Pete Simpson