What do you say on radio if you're flying a rare plane?

kicktireslightfires

kicktireslightfires

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kicktireslightfires
Hi Y'all, Student pilot here! Question: If you’re flying a rare plane, how do you say your plane type over the radio? Do you say “Experimental 123ST” or what? Everyone knows what a Cessna 172 is so anyone in a 172 can say “SkyHawk 123ST” but what if you’re in a plane that 99% won't recognize? Skip the model entirely and just use your N number, or say "experimental" or something else in front of your N number?

Thanks in advance!
 
The value of saying “172” in your call is to help other pilots identify you visually. It would be helpful if you said something like “red experimental low wing” or if that is too long for you, just “red low wing”.

-Skip
 
If your callsign is "North American 12345" or "Boeing 23456", that usually grabs people's attention.
 
"I'm warm in the center, lightly brown on the outside, bright red in the middle"
 
"Experimental" should, in theory, be tacked on the end when you call an FAA facility if and only if you are operating an aircraft with an experimental certificate - "RV-10 N1234 experimental"...

In practice - I drive a Merlin GT (rag and tube E-AB that no one else has ever seen or knows about), I will typically say "experimental N123 slow mover" and everyone seems OK with that.

If you are just driving something "rare" or "unusual" you would just say "Funk N1234" (assuming you are flying a Funk).

Then, there are those who will say things like "red and white high wing..." without silly things like N numbers because it is a "better way" to identify yourself to other traffic. Of course, this does not conform to regulations; but who cares about those silly regulations anyhow? (Unless you are doing something someone doesn't like, then it's THE LETTER OF THE LAW!!!!")
 
There's always "November". Even if it's a rare model, if it's certificated, we've probably heard of the manufacturer, which is another option. If it's an experimental, then "experimental" would be the correct callsign.

write-stuff said:
If your callsign is "North American 12345" or "Boeing 23456", that usually grabs people's attention.
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Like "Douglas"?
 
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While made by a mainstream manufacturer, the Lance is a little odd enough that some controllers don't immediately recognize it. They are more apt to recognize Saratoga than Lance. But, damn, that's too many syllables. Haha!

Yes. I know it's a PA-32 of which millions were made. But, I get called Lanceair a lot.

So now I've been doing my first checkin as "Piper Lance 20817". I drop the Piper bit in subsequent radio calls.
 
When I fly my Aerotrek LSA, its type designation is "EFOX" (for Euro Fox). My Flight Design CTLS designator is "FDCT." When I call for flight following, I often must repeat myself to ATC because those aren't very common types. I tried saying "experimental" and "light sport" to make it easy, but that's too general - they wanted the actual type codes.
 
I call it what it is. If the controller doesn’t know they can look it up. Sometimes you’ll get comments or confusion on the radio but the inquiries usually start once you land somewhere.
 
"LA Center, Aspen 3-0, have you got a ground speed read out for us?"

 
When I used to fly a Debonair, I eventually gave up and just called it a Bonanza on the radio.

Now, I have to emphasize the "TWIN" in TWIN Bonanza. I still rountinely get called Bonanza, Baron, Twin Cessna or, on rare and nice occasions, I get upgraded to King Air.
 
mondtster said:
I call it what it is. If the controller doesn’t know they can look it up. Sometimes you’ll get comments or confusion on the radio but the inquiries usually start once you land somewhere.
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Exactly right.

You might also want to be prepared with a more common aircraft type that has similar performance to your less-know aircraft. With that, if a controller asks for more information about your type you can tell him that your performance is similarly to an XYZ so that he will have an idea what of he can expect.
 
Rgbeard said:
Yes. I know it's a PA-32 of which millions were made. But, I get called Lanceair a lot.
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When I stopped in El Paso and was taxiing to the self serve pumps, Ground Control advised me to watch for the "Lancair" opposite direction. When I saw that it was a Piper Lance, I stopped looking for it...

It was not worth it to bother correcting anyone, so I ignored it and kept going...
 
Controllers like to know what you're flying so they know what kind of performance to expect, like cruise speed, rate of climb, etc. Saying "Experimental" doesn't really give them useful information. Most aircraft, even rare ones, have an ICAO Type Designator. So, if the controller needs something more than specific than "Experimental" (s)he'll say "Say aircraft type" or something similar. You should know that designator for the aircraft you're flying. An example is the Cessna 172 type designator is "C172."

You can search for the type designator here:
https://www.icao.int/publications/DOC8643/Pages/Search.aspx

What aircraft make/model specifically is the rare plane you're referring to?
 
Quite a few years ago, this was a bit of a problem flying a CAP Gippsland GA-8. For ATC, GA-8 was the code for some flavor of Grumman and there actually wasn't a code for the Gipps. I'm not sure I ever flew the thing IFR, so I don't remember how I solved that problem if I ever did.

For untowered fields I simply identified as "White Cessna CAP xxx" It looked like a Cessna, though a bit oversized. So people knew what to look for. Identifying as a Gipps would just have produced puzzlement for most people who heard that call.
 
ATC or CTAF? CTAF, no one cares. ATC, you’ll find some controllers familiar and others not. If it’s a common EAB (Velocity) :D that has an identifier, then model / type should be fine. If it’s rare, then I’d stick with “experimental” and HXA/B/C on the flight plan.
 
IK04 said:
When I stopped in El Paso and was taxiing to the self serve pumps, Ground Control advised me to watch for the "Lancair" opposite direction. When I saw that it was a Piper Lance, I stopped looking for it...

It was not worth it to bother correcting anyone, so I ignored it and kept going...
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Most of the guys there have a sense of humor ... "Negative contact with the Lancair";)
 
On the rare occasion I talk to ATC, I say "experimental biplane 205GM". In my case "biplane" is the model name, if they ask for aircraft type I give them the whole thing, "5GM is a Hatz Biplane charlie-bravo-one". I should probably add, "slow mover" at this point as somebody suggested.

Then they ask me to ident, even at a simple class D, and I have to give them "negative transponder"...
 
Timbeck2 said:
I can see it now, "approach, Cessna 123 level three thousand direct POSLE"...."approach, Cessna 123"....approach...CESSNA 123, MAINTAIN RADIO SILENCE, I'M LOOKING SOMETHING UP!!" ;)
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Ha. Today the local controllers requested that I fly by the tower to see what I was in. Apparently they were too lazy to look it up! :)
 
I don’t know the extent of ATC aircraft references but the particular aircraft might not even be in their books / computers. Could use a smart phone but don’t think there’s anything standardized for using that on position.

We used to have a Jane’s all the worlds aircraft in radar but I’m not even sure tower had anything. In training we had a binder with all the common and not so common aircraft we’d talk to. Later that went to digital. I actually have Miramar’s old ATC aircraft ID binder at home. Lots of rare aircraft in that one. ;)
 
Timbeck2 said:
We used to have Jane's every time they came out. Now we have Google.
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I forgot, we had a 7360.1 also. Not sure how extensive it is or if it’s even of much use for ATC training purposes. Weight class being probably the most important thing in it.
 
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I’ve found that controlled fields prefer “Experimental” in my case. Almost all of them ask “Say Type” which rarely clears things up for them lol. I more often than not get treated like a turboprop which is good and bad. I can’t descend like a turbo prop so I almost always have to ask to start down.

Uncontrolled fields I usually announce as “Questair”. I find it gets their attention better and they recognize I’m faster than your typical airplane.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
"Experimental" should, in theory, be tacked on the end when you call an FAA facility if and only if you are operating an aircraft with an experimental certificate - "RV-10 N1234 experimental"...

In practice - I drive a Merlin GT (rag and tube E-AB that no one else has ever seen or knows about), I will typically say "experimental N123 slow mover" and everyone seems OK with that.

If you are just driving something "rare" or "unusual" you would just say "Funk N1234" (assuming you are flying a Funk).

Then, there are those who will say things like "red and white high wing..." without silly things like N numbers because it is a "better way" to identify yourself to other traffic. Of course, this does not conform to regulations; but who cares about those silly regulations anyhow? (Unless you are doing something someone doesn't like, then it's THE LETTER OF THE LAW!!!!")
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"Slow mover" Haha! I would chuckle if I heard that over the radio.
 
Thanks everyone for all of the answers. Read them all. Much appreciated for all the knowledge (and the laughs)! Sounds like the way to go here is just to say the name of my airplane model knowing full well most won't recognize it and then if asked "say aircraft type" I'll just tell them a common plane that has similar performance profile.
 
kicktireslightfires said:
Hi Y'all, Student pilot here! Question: If you’re flying a rare plane, how do you say your plane type over the radio? Do you say “Experimental 123ST” or what? Everyone knows what a Cessna 172 is so anyone in a 172 can say “SkyHawk 123ST” but what if you’re in a plane that 99% won't recognize? Skip the model entirely and just use your N number, or say "experimental" or something else in front of your N number?

Thanks in advance!
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Pedantics 101: All Skyhawks are 172s, but not all 172s are Skyhawks. The Skyhawk was the deluxe model.
 
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