Short Final

Editorial Staff

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

Verified

Key Takeaways:

U.S. air traffic controllers near the Canadian border are often unfamiliar with Canada's alphabetic aircraft registration system.
This unfamiliarity leads to confusion and communication difficulties when Canadian aircraft make radio calls using their full alphabetic callsigns.
An example illustrates a U.S. tower struggling to understand a Canadian aircraft's callsign, referring to it as "Canadian alphabet soup."

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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