Saying 2.5 instead of 2500, etc?

CC268

Final Approach
Joined
Nov 4, 2015
Messages
5,532
Display Name

Display name:
CC268
I hear quite a few folks using 2.5,3.5,4.5, etc instead of saying the full 2500,3500,etc for altitude.

What do you guys think about this? Bad habit? Doesn’t matter?
 
I do it on occasion, not sure where I picked it up either but Im guilty of it. Less to say less clutter. hahaha

Atlanta Center, Cherokee 1234, 2.4

or

Atlanta Center, Cherokee 1234, two thousand five hundred.

Heck even more to type, ugh.
 
eh, I guess I'm used to hearing it at this point. not sure if I've used it more than once or 1.5 times. see what I did there?
 
Plenty use it, especially them airline boys. :D
 
Do the other parties know what they mean? If so, Id say its ok. People gripe about someone saying he's landing on oh eight. But everyone knows what runway he's referring to. Eight, oh eight, they both get the point across.
 
I use "angels two point five" myself. ATC never has a problem with it. ;)
 
I use it for 'leaving' reports. Outta four point five for six thousand, etc. I think it is a bad habit to use it for assigned altitude.

Yes absolutely I should have specified that
 
I like to sound like the Big Boys, so I always say "Cessna 123 With you at Three point Fiiiiiiive.."

(It's a joke)
 
I use it for the passing altitude in a climb or decent. Example, “6.2 climbing 8 thousand”. I do not use it for the cleared altitude or in a readback. For example I would not say “descend and maintain 6.5” or “out of 7 climbing 9.5”.
 
Wait a minute....I thought you were a helo guy. Isn’t everything cherubs to you?

Lol! Yeah I think Navy/Marine helos use Cherubs for anything less than 1,000 ft. Army sticks with standard AIM stuff when it comes to altitude reporting.
 
Don't get me started on the faux euro-trash folks saying "decimal" instead of "point" gawdammit. This is 'Merica. They probably draw horizontal lines through their sevens too.
 
Lol! Yeah I think Navy/Marine helos use Cherubs for anything less than 1,000 ft. Army sticks with standard AIM stuff when it comes to altitude reporting.

What’s a cherub? 100 feet?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
What’s a cherub? 100 feet?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

The Navy / Marine helo folks, when flying in a tactical theater, will generally use Cherubs for altitude reporting in hundreds of feet. So "Cherubs one" would be 100 ft.

Not an official term in the Army. They use a bunch of tactical terms over the radio but not Angels or Cherubs.
 
Last edited:
So what you guys are saying is that I should say something like, "Cherokee 1RM with ya 5.5 for 7.5, no joy on that traffic buster brown, tally ho!"
 
I hear quite a few folks using 2.5,3.5,4.5, etc instead of saying the full 2500,3500,etc for altitude. What do you guys think about this? Bad habit? Doesn’t matter?

I'd say 2.5 and 2500 are equally incorrect. It's supposed to be two thousand five hundred.

Once you're going sloppy, go all the way, I guess.
 
It's supposed to be two thousand five hundred.

Actually, two thousand fife hundred! ;)

Seriously, it’s all fun and games until there’s a miscommunication that causes an incident or accident. Phraseology is standardized for a reason.

That said, I hear a lot of controllers and airline pilots get pretty sloppy in their transmissions, so there’s that.
 
I'd say 2.5 and 2500 are equally incorrect. It's supposed to be two thousand five hundred.

Once you're going sloppy, go all the way, I guess.

Can't tell if your being 100% serious, but of course I say "two thousand five hundred", I don't literally say two five zero zero. :rolleyes:
 
Touche! The main reason I want to finish my IR is so I won't have to say fife hundred anymore :)

And I hear people say "twentyfivehundred" all the time and that is what I thought you meant.
 
But lots of folks say “twenty five hundred”, which is what I think he meant.

If a student pilot, I’ll try to coach him or her back to the recommended phraseology. Experienced pilots not so much.

Oh...no I don't say that. While I am sure many here would like to make the assumption that I use bad phraseology...I certainly don't. I have read Bob's book, "Say Again, Please" and read the AIM. Not to mention the fact I have learned to fly in some of the busiest airspace in the US, which has definitely helped my radio skills. That said, there are a lot of very professional pilots out there that seem to use some short hand phraseology and it seems ridiculous to call their phraseology sloppy. Just my opinion.
 
Don't get me started on the faux euro-trash folks saying "decimal" instead of "point" gawdammit. This is 'Merica. They probably draw horizontal lines through their sevens too.

And the radios don't show the horizontal line or all of the digits of 135.975

Do they say the pointless "point" and the trailing "fife" in their readback?
 
That’s because the Navy guys get nosebleeds if they go above 1k!

No, that is the A-10 Warthog drivers.

Seriously, the "out of 18.5 for 20.0" language originated with the Flight Level Boys and was picked up by us bugsmashers. IMO, anyways...

-Skip
 
No, that is the A-10 Warthog drivers.

Seriously, the "out of 18.5 for 20.0" language originated with the Flight Level Boys and was picked up by us bugsmashers. IMO, anyways...

-Skip
Never heard of 20.0
 
it is dangerous and could overlap with a radio freq as radio freq is also point.
 
I use the point what ever all the time. 2.5, 3.0, 4.0 ... Never use it when talking to ATC. The difference were I fly is folks announce position reports on 122.9. Example Funter Pass 2.5, Juneau or, Benjamin Island, 2.5, Haines.

Works good in the high traffic areas in SE Alaska.
 
technically, its not 2.5...it's TWO point FiFE... I was taught that way many moons ago.... I only use it in reports, not readbacks...
 
Back
Top