okay I'm listening to a live radio from the boston tower and as the pilots descend, approach, land, etc they talk in numbers and codes (ex: runway 22 left clear to land hold short on landing; 124784 vehicle traffic causing beyond the runway.... and they say other things with whole bunch or numbers) can you explain to me what that means?
oh and if you're a airline pilot or a commercial, please say so cuz i'd like to ask some more questions by e-mail.
Thanks!!
2006-10-04 12:17:01 · 6 answers · asked by ? 6 in Cars & Transportation ➔ Aircraft
Strings of numbers, usually starting with "one-one" or "one-two" are uually instructions to change to a different radio frequency. For example, after a plane lands and clears the runway, Tower might tell them to "contact ground one-one-eight-point-five good day." which means to talk to Ground Control on 118.50 mHz. Or, after taking off, they might be told something like "Contact departure one-two-three-point-six-five" which means talk to Departure Control on 123.65 mHz. Sometimes, though, especially with flights on Instrument Flight Plans, the pilot knows in advance the frequency he'll be using after takeoff, and Tower will just say "frequency change approved."
Incidentally, many big airports have multiple tower frequencies. Logan has four: 128.8, 128.8, 132.225 and 124.725 for helicopters.
2006-10-04 13:29:02 · answer #1 · answered by Berry K 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
You have good answers above.
During approach the controller will usually vector the aircraft with altitude and heading information: "turn left to 310, descend to 3000".
Eventually they will clear the airplane for the approach: Delta 111 cleared visual approach runway 23, contact tower 122 decimal 8 (meaning 122.80 Mhz radio freq) or United 888 cleared ILS runway 33, maintain 3000 until established, contact tower 118.95
(this is: type of approach -ILS- runway to land -33- altitude to maintain -3000- and tower frequency)
Additional information when landing will be the wind, that will sound like "220 at 7" meaning from 220 degrees at 7 knots.
Sometimes you will hear "altimeter 2997" meaning that the altimeter should be set to 29.97 inches to get a proper read for the airport's elevation.
You may also hear at some airports "Land and hold short runway 05", this meaning that two runways intersect and you must land and stop before crossing the other runway or let the tower know if you are unable to do that.
Additional information about ground traffic, vehicles, other airplanes taking off, etc may be given so that the pilot does not have to worry wondering if the tower is aware of that other vehicle or plane.
2006-10-05 06:54:46 · answer #2 · answered by Marce X 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
cleared to land 22 means you are cleared to land on the runway with a magnetic heading of 220* (Southwest). If the clearance includes a Left or right, it means to use either left or right runway. They will run parallel to each other. Hold short means to stop on the yellow lines on the taxiway joining the runway and wait for further instructions. Runway numbers are the magnetic heading of that runway. Taxiways have different designations, usually alphabetical. The othe numbers you are hearing are probably aircraft identification numbers (Delta 5886, American 786, etc. are commercial aircraft, Cessna 59 Sierra Papa would be a civilian Cessna aircraft with an identification number ending in 59SP. There is a lot more to all this, but I hope this helps a little.
2006-10-04 12:33:17 · answer #3 · answered by colglennlarson 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I am a C-5 Galaxy Instructor Pilot and licensed Airline Transport Pilot. I have flown to many different airports around the world.
There are lots and lots of standard terms that take place between pilots and controllers. In all reality, there are too many of them for me to list here. In fact, there are several books that have been written about this topic alone.
Feel free to ask me any questions about the airlines or military flying. This has been my career (although I am currently chasing after a career in alternate energy that I would do in addition to my flying).
2006-10-05 16:57:46 · answer #4 · answered by Kelley S 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
All of the above answers are correct.
2006-10-04 14:59:06 · answer #5 · answered by walt554 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
BRILLIANT :-) I am scared of flying but even at 35,000 ft it would have made me laugh. Keep up the good work.!
2016-03-27 05:11:57 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋