Does the military use the same phonetic alphabet?

[Way2Broke]

Does the military use the same phonetic alphabet found in the aim (4-2-7)? Also, whats up with the gear down and locked call you have to make when flying out of a military field, like Ft. Wood. I know its a military thing, but why? Thanks.

 

[Ragansundowner]

The military does use the same phonetic alphabet. As for the gear down call, all Air Force (that's the only service I can speak for) aircraft are required by regs to report gear down prior to crossing the threshold at both civilian and military fields. This may just be an AETC thing, but I believe it's Air Force wide. I would assume that when civilian pilots land at military fields they are required to make the call because they're talking to military controllers.

V/R
R.S.

 

[Fury220]

The whole "gear down" call is because USAF (and other military branches, as well, IIRC) controllers are trained to challenge aircrews on it, and what Ragansundowner already said.

What's probably happening with you is the following radio sequence:

"(CALLSIGN), check wheels down, cleared to land, 15C."

You: "(CALLSIGN), cleared to land, 15C."

"(CALLSIGN), confirm wheels down..."

You: "Uh, sure...whatever...gear down..."

^This is mostly because of their training and the fact that they're so used to hearing the "gear down" call.


I've never heard of a military controller actually sending someone around for not making a "gear down" call, though. What usually happens is the controller pesters you until you finally cry uncle and acquiesce to his demands.


Perhaps you've heard a USAF aircraft make a "base--gear--stop/option--left/center/right" call. This is used as a military jet rolls off the perch at non-SUPT bases to call base, check the gear down, advise tower of the full stop/option, and to offer clarification of the runway in question.

For example: "FOXY69, base, gear, stop."

 

[KC-10 Driver]

In my experience (at least at McGuire), it goes something like this:

Me: "McGuire Tower, Opec 76, final approach fix, runway 24, gear down."

Tower: "Opec 76, check gear down, runway 24, cleared to land."

Me: "Roger, Opec 76, gear down, cleared to land, runway 24."


Pretty redundant, isn't it?


What's really pathetic is when I call gear down to a major int'l airport tower (when flying for the company), like I did once at JFK. I get confused sometimes, I guess.

 

[Fury220]

In my experience (at least at McGuire), it goes something like this:

Me: "McGuire Tower, Opec 76, final approach fix, runway 24, gear down."

Tower: "Opec 76, check gear down, runway 24, cleared to land."

Me: "Roger, Opec 76, gear down, cleared to land, runway 24."


Pretty redundant, isn't it?

That's pretty standard here at KSPS, too, as they snooze in the tower from time to time...

 

[talondriver]

Also, whats up with the gear down and locked call you have to make when flying out of a military field, like Ft. Wood. I know its a military thing, but why? Thanks.

Maybe it's because we still have pilots (young and old) who try to land gear up. We've even had a pilot or two make their "gear down" call with the gear warning horn going off in the background.

Like Fury said, it's part of our reg. We have more retractable gear aircraft than fixed gear cessnas in the military.

Speaking of gear down calls...have you guys seen this? At least one of them had their gear down.

http://images.military.com/Video/050906_MadHATR.wmv

 

[Fury220]

Speaking of gear down calls...have you guys seen this? At least one of them had their gear down.

http://images.military.com/Video/050906_MadHATR.wmv

Haha -- "sorry about that, sir..." YGBSM.

 

[AD SUPT Hopeful]

Navy Training commands have the same gear down call requirements.

 

[Way2Broke]

Thanks guys, I just didn't know why they give it to the civilian guys as well. There is alot to be said about doing it the same way everytime.

 

[405]

Haha -- "sorry about that, sir..." YGBSM.

I had pilots asking for "forgiveness" more than once when I was a military controller. Don't forget that we're all human. Controllers screw up sometimes and so do you.

 

[405]

7110.65 (ATC handbook)

Gear down checks:

http://www.faa.gov/atpubs/ATC/Chp2/atc0201.html#2-1-24

 

[slacker]

Everyone screws up

I had pilots asking for "forgiveness" more than once when I was a military controller. Don't forget that we're all human. Controllers screw up sometimes and so do you.

No doubt everyone is human, but the stakes are a little different. If I screw up - i'm dead, my fault. If the controller screws up- I'm dead, and I will still be found at fault because of all the regs that say the pilot is responsible for...blah, blah, blah. The controller still gets to go home to the wife and kids and tell them how bad his day was. Meanwhile, my family gets to watch the news as my body is recovered with a wet-dry vac, a pair of tweezers and a spatula.

Everyone makes mistakes- Reading back a clearance wrong, giving the wrong freq, using the wrong callsign, bad vectors to final, these are mistakes. Airplanes swapping paint- a little more than a mistake.

 

[trashhauler]

I got my private pilot's license at a military aero club in a fixed gear Cessna, and I still had to make a gear down call before landing!

 

[VVJM265]

Actually all USN aircraft are required to make the gear down call, not just CNATRA aircraft. (http://neds.daps.dla.mil/Directives/3710/six.pdf Para 6.2.c). Personally I think it is a good idea, even if the landing checklist has already been done, I force myself to look at the indicators to double check while making the call. If we switch to tower early, I'll call them back after the gear is down and locked, even if at a non-military field.

 

[SuperFLUF]

I got my private pilot's license at a military aero club in a fixed gear Cessna, and I still had to make a gear down call before landing!

When flying into EFD for some practice approaches or lunch at Pee Tee's I always got the "check gear down" call no matter what the airplane.

Response was "gear down and welded...................."

I'm glad they do it, nobody's perfect and in single pilot airplanes you've got nobody to verify the "three green". If a military airplane comes in gear up it costs us all (well, most of us) $$$$.

 

[stonewall]

All USAF aircraft are required to make a gear down call regardless of where they are landing. We fly out of a civvie airport everyday, and they couldn't care less whether we make the call or not. We have to remind each other in the 4 ship sometimes. We may be cleared to land when we report 5 mile initial, but we still make the "Base, gear, stop" call or the "Glideslope intercept, gear down" call. It usually not acknowledged by the civ controllers, but we're still required to make the call. I'm all for it. Although I've never tried to roll off the perch gear up in 11 years, there is a first time for everything. As a single seat guy, you ask for all the help you can get sometimes...hence the 300-1 req. Lot's of 200 hr C-172 guys have told me, 'hell, I'm 200-1/2.' Congrats. But when is the last time you saw a single seat guy crash on an ILS solely due to WX? Guess it's working.