Mercury?

[wrigley23]

Well I did a search to see if I'm the first jack@$$ to ask this and didn't see anything so...when did Shuttle America start calling themselves Mercury and why are you guys going by both? Now you have Shuttlecraft, Mercury, Brickyard, and Chautauqua call signs all under one roof? I heard controllers and pilots interchange Mercury with Shuttlecraft all week. SA guys, must be odd eh?

 

[RollinOnMy22sYo]

Ground: "Give way to that Mercury...."

"The Grand Marquis or the Cougar?"

 

[siucavflight]

I think mercury sounds good, but I agree why so much crap at chilly taco?

 

[Corbon]

It was Crossroads with the initial change but there was immediate confusion with ATC because that was too close to "Cross runway" clearances so that got nixed a day or two after it started and we went back to "Shuttlecraft".
Then it was suddenly decided we were "Mercury" and that's been our official callsign for a couple weeks now but Sometimes ATC still calls us "Shuttlecraft" out of habit. Most of the time they'll say "Shuttlecr....correction MERCURY 7510...." or we'll correct them. As time goes on and they get more used to the callsign, you won't hear Shuttlecraft at all.

 

[Smarta$$]

Why Mercury?

 

[The Drizzle]

Why Mercury?

Because "Arsenic" was already taken.

 

[siucavflight]

Because "Arsenic" was already taken.

Ha, awesome!

 

[Scapegoat]

If your gonna say a callsign 100 times a day you think it would be something shorter than 3 syllables. If predict a short life for this callsign as well.

 

[CFIse]

It was Crossroads with the initial change but there was immediate confusion with ATC because that was too close to "Cross runway" clearances so that got nixed a day or two after it started and we went back to "Shuttlecraft".
Then it was suddenly decided we were "Mercury" and that's been our official callsign for a couple weeks now but Sometimes ATC still calls us "Shuttlecraft" out of habit. Most of the time they'll say "Shuttlecr....correction MERCURY 7510...." or we'll correct them. As time goes on and they get more used to the callsign, you won't hear Shuttlecraft at all.

It ain't just ATC - yesterday a crew calls in with Shuttlecraft and the controllers says "you can't have it both ways, what is it, Shuttlecraft or Mercury" and the crews apologises and says they'd like Mercury please. Of course the controller gets it wrong and catches himself 2 transmissions later.

It's going to be a while......

 

[GFunk20]

Our management are Freddy Mercury fans. Haha.

No I believe it came from someone being previously employed at NASA.

 

[Flooder305]

No you're all wrong!

It was mgmt's attempt to speed you guys up. "On-time performance is in the crapper guys, what can we do?" "Oh I know sir!" (says the juco educated middle-manager) "We'll call ourselves MERCURY, Then everyone will think we're fast no matter what!":smash::beer: "Well done Snodgrass, now go get my coffee!"

 

[Captain X]

We heard a "Mercury" crew given a descent clearance 3 times the other day with no response.

Finally the controller issues the clearance with "Shuttlecraft" at the beginning and the guys read back the clearance and start the descent.

They read it back with "Mercury." :laugh:

 

[flyer172r]

Anyone still saying Shuttlecraft is doing it out of habit, it's a hard one to break. Apparently when the FAA approved Mercury, they didn't tell all the ATC facilities about the change so most controllers didn't know about it until we started telling them.

Of course, the New York and Miami controllers don't seem to care, they just keep calling us Shuttlecraft no matter what.

 

[zawillif]

Ground: "Give way to that Mercury...."

"The Grand Marquis or the Cougar?"

The better one is: "Follow the Freedom".

Respond with: "We'll follow the Mesa".


I've gotten flipped off for that one.

 

[sweptback]

Anyone still saying Shuttlecraft is doing it out of habit, it's a hard one to break. Apparently when the FAA approved Mercury, they didn't tell all the ATC facilities about the change so most controllers didn't know about it until we started telling them.

Of course, the New York and Miami controllers don't seem to care, they just keep calling us Shuttlecraft no matter what.

When ASA changed our callsign, we switched ICAO codes from CAA to ASQ. That seemed to jog the minds of the controllers, although some still called us Candler. Are you guys still using TCF?

 

[DrewBlows]

If your gonna say a callsign 100 times a day you think it would be something shorter than 3 syllables. If predict a short life for this callsign as well.

Con-ti-nen-tal seems to be doing just fine.

 

[flyer172r]

When ASA changed our callsign, we switched ICAO codes from CAA to ASQ. That seemed to jog the minds of the controllers, although some still called us Candler. Are you guys still using TCF?

Yes, we are still using TCF. We've been told emphatically that it won't change. No idea why.

 

[NEDude]

It was Crossroads with the initial change but there was immediate confusion with ATC because that was too close to "Cross runway" clearances so that got nixed a day or two after it started and we went back to "Shuttlecraft".

Funny, the feds jump on that change very quickly, but seem to be dragging their feet on making that STL rj operator change their call sign from "gateway" even though it routinely gets mixed up with "getaway" and has caused safety issues. And yes, "getaway" has been around longer than "gateway" so they should change.

 

[BoilerUP]

Funny, the feds jump on that change very quickly, but seem to be dragging their feet on making that STL rj operator change their call sign from "gateway" even though it routinely gets mixed up with "getaway" and has caused safety issues. And yes, "getaway" has been around longer than "gateway" so they should change.

Hulasjet would be an appropriate callsign for them...because I doubt the feds would approve "Gofarkyaself".