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Is "base leg" the same as "cleared for the ILS"?

I have flown through the localizer several times, in all of those ATC had forgotten about me. Therefore I usually do it like AeroPlus but sometimes that gives you a remark like “I would have given you intercept vectors in due time”.

Sometimes these instructions, especially intercept and approach clearance, come very late and as a private pilot with little routine and experience, I dislike that very much.

This happened to me on my IR skills test!

The Bournemouth controller must have forgotten about me and let me fly straight through the localiser. The examiner could see I knew what had happened, though I didn’t know how to alert the controller. I remained on my assigned heading for probably 30 seconds (I was heading out over Poole Bay in Class D so no imminent danger) while I thought about what to do, then the examiner keyed the PTT and requested a radio check whereupon the controller apologised profusely and vectored me round for another go.

The irony was the amount of trouble I had gone to in reconfiguring my transponder to allow Flight ID entry, just so I could have the benefit of an Exam callsign and hopefully get an easier ride from ATC

Taxying back after the test, I said to the examiner that I’d remember his form of words in case it happened again. He replied that if it hadn’t been an exam he’d have used a much fruitier phrase!

In the debrief with my instructor, he suggested the phrase “Confirm you want me to go through the localiser.”

EGBJ / Gloucestershire

Controllers forget you regularly, so indeed you have to think for yourself and communicate with the guy. Don’t be afraid to initiate a question or ask for something or get something clarified. They are after all just humans :-)

EDLE, Netherlands

That’s funny – the same happened to me at Bournemouth. He just forgot.

But I’ve had a LOT of really really tight vectoring to the LOC, sometimes too tight to intercept the GS and had to disconnect the autopilot and bring the plane onto the GS by hand, from above the GS.

Last Edited by Peter at 13 Apr 17:48
Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

… an Exam callsign …

Fascinating. The UK is only 300NM miles away, but one could think they are on a different planet

Last Edited by what_next at 13 Apr 17:48
EDDS - Stuttgart

I heard the EXAM callsign enables Eurocontrol to validate flight plans which they would otherwise reject. Or, more likely, it makes London Control not chuck it out because they think it is “beneath” them.

It’s a funny system. Each CAA examiner, and then each “industry” examiner capable of doing an initial IR test, has been given an EXAMxx callsign which stays with them for life.

Last Edited by Peter at 13 Apr 17:51
Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Each CAA examiner, and then each “industry” examiner capable of doing an initial IR test, has been given an EXAMxx callsign which stays with them for life.

I think before I retire I have to find a way to become a CAA examiner then – I really would enjoy my own callsign The only person I know here in Germany who ever had his own callsign was astronaut Reinhard Furrer who got himself the callsign “Astronaut One” (why that one, he only knew himself, because he was neither the first nor the only astronaut). But it didn’t last long, because he killed himself in a stupid airshow accident.

EDDS - Stuttgart

Do you know how our beloved Stuttgart FTO got their call sign “Aero Beta”? I want one, too…

Do you know how our beloved Stuttgart FTO got their call sign “Aero Beta”? I want one, too…

As a commercial operator or FTO, you can apply for your own callsign with “Bundesnetzagentur” if I am not mistaken. It is issued by the telecommunications agency, not the aviation authorities! Back in the days when I had my share in an air taxi company one needed to have jets above 5,7t in the fleet in order to get one, but this has changed obviously. Aero Beta only applied for their own call sign after “we” got ours. And we got ours because our boss didn’t like it how the competition from Mannheim were using “professional” callsigns while we were flying on tail numbers. The most childish thing I have come across in my whole time in aviation…

Theoretically, you can just put your own callsign in the flight plan and spell it out in the /RMK section and it will work without anyone taking offense. Just file a plan with ACA001 and /RMK callsign ACHIM AIR and /REG DExxx . When a colleague left our company some time last year, his FO (whose girlfriend works with ATC) had the callsign changed to “Last Flight” for the occasion and everybody thought of this as a funny idea. Not so our operations manager (who was not informed before and heard it on the radio)…

EDDS - Stuttgart

Be carefull when choosing your callsign. When Airwork had a big CPL etc training operation at Perth, with many foreign students,they used “Airschool #”. One quiet evening, I heard what sounded like “Scottish Information Ar**hole #” in a rather tense voice.. No reply. After several repetitions, Scottish suddenly replied “Airschool #, pass your message”.

Maoraigh
EGPE, United Kingdom
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