n88kb From Australia, joined Jun 2010, 53 posts, RR: 0 Posted (1 year 1 month 1 day 10 hours ago) and read 1512 times:
Hi Folks,
Would like to know how pilots, ground crew and mechs identify and talk about the aircraft in the fleets.
Are the planes referred by tail number or the names given to the plane? For example do pilots refer to the old Wunula Dreaming as Wunula or by its reg -OEJ?
Fabo From Slovakia, joined Aug 2005, 1111 posts, RR: 1 Reply 3, posted (1 year 1 month 1 day 8 hours ago) and read 1471 times:
From what I gathered around me, airlines used a mixture of registration, or part of registration, official name, and nickname.
for ex. OK AT42 OK-VFI was most times refered to as Skyrider, its official name, while one of the other was nicknamed Garfield after it was AOG because of a stray cat hiding somewhere in the airplane.
In NE then, most planes were refered by last character of their reg.; but then there was of course Adriana... etc.
The light at the end of tunnel turn out to be a lighted sing saying NO EXIT
wilco737 From Greenland, joined Jun 2004, 8473 posts, RR: 78 Reply 4, posted (1 year 1 month 1 day 7 hours ago) and read 1451 times:
AIRLINERS.NET CREW HEAD MODERATOR
We call our 744's by the last two letters of the registraion. Means. D-ABTD is called 'tango delta'. That makes it 100% clear which 744 is meant as they all have D-AB and then the last two letters identify the airplane.
flyingturtle From Switzerland, joined Oct 2011, 1283 posts, RR: 2 Reply 5, posted (1 year 1 month 1 day 4 hours ago) and read 1414 times:
One of the funnier A/C nicknames I heard on this forum were "Badly Maintained", "Badly Broken" and "Badly Damaged", all based on the last two letters of the respective registration...
Even a letdown, if it is thoroughly and final, is a step forward.
e38 From United States of America, joined May 2008, 231 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (1 year 1 month 19 hours ago) and read 1291 times:
We use "Ship number" which is a four digit number "internal" to the company. It is different than the tail number or registration number (N-number in the United States). In some cases the "Ship number" is similar to the registration number, but not necessarily; particularly if the aircraft was acquired from another company and not directly from the manufacturer.
AirframeAS From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 14150 posts, RR: 26 Reply 8, posted (1 year 1 month 16 hours ago) and read 1267 times:
Quoting n88kb (Thread starter): Are the planes referred by tail number or the names given to the plane?
At F9, it is two ways: The mechanics don;t give diddly squat about the animal on the tail, so they use the tail number in numeral format (IE: 926, 803, 202, etc etc...) but some rampers and most Aircraft Appearance Agents use the animal on the tail to see who is coming in and whatnot.
Quoting yeelep (Reply 2): Reg. number at my all 737 airline, 7xx = -400's, 6xx = -700's, 5xx = -800's, 3xx = -900's.
Hello, AS!
A Safe Flight Begins With Quality Maintenance On The Ground.
skyhawkmatthew From Australia, joined Oct 2005, 99 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (1 year 1 month 15 hours ago) and read 1243 times:
Aircraft are named by registration at Qantas - for most aircraft series there are fewer than 26 examples, so only one letter differentiates all the ships in each fleet.
planejamie From United Kingdom, joined Sep 2011, 572 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (1 year 1 month 5 hours ago) and read 1169 times:
Quoting flyingturtle (Reply 5): One of the funnier A/C nicknames I heard on this forum were "Badly Maintained", "Badly Broken" and "Badly Damaged", all based on the last two letters of the respective registration...
Would that be for BD? G-WWBM G-WWBD G-WWBB I think were the registrations of the 3 BD A330s (when they had 3), now it's just WBM and WBD
I know with the flying school I use, we refer to the aircraft by their two last letters, e.g. G-GAEA we call "Echo Alpha", G-GAEB "Echo Bravo", we all know which aircraft they are as the Cessnas and Cirrus have totally different registrations.
ak907 From United States of America, joined Mar 2012, 36 posts, RR: 0 Reply 13, posted (1 year 1 month 2 hours ago) and read 1119 times:
At Polar Air and Atlas Air, we use registration. For example 416 Mike Charlie or 419 Mike Charlie. For the Polar planes, we only use the numbers, like 450 or 451. We also get the Dreamlifter, but we only call them Dreamlifters.
Fabo From Slovakia, joined Aug 2005, 1111 posts, RR: 1 Reply 14, posted (1 year 4 weeks 1 day 23 hours ago) and read 1095 times:
Quoting flyingturtle (Reply 5): One of the funnier A/C nicknames I heard on this forum were "Badly Maintained", "Badly Broken" and "Badly Damaged", all based on the last two letters of the respective registration...
Oh yes, reminds me. VGZávada (VG Fault) or VRAk (wreck)
The light at the end of tunnel turn out to be a lighted sing saying NO EXIT
bohica From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 2409 posts, RR: 0 Reply 15, posted (1 year 4 weeks 1 day 5 hours ago) and read 1020 times:
At my former airline, we used the first three digits of the N-number, which was also the ship number. However there were some planes which had names such as Dead Airplane, F..kin Broke, Junk Machine, Maintenance Trainer, Many Troubles, Sh!t Bucket, etc. which corresponded to the last two letters of the N-number. There was a plane we called Christine, due to it always going tech, or Hangar Queen because it spent so much time in the hangar. One we called Greyhound because it was hit by a bus.
KPWMSpotter From United States of America, joined Dec 2006, 325 posts, RR: 2 Reply 18, posted (1 year 4 weeks 22 hours ago) and read 964 times:
At Delta TechOps all DL aircraft are worked to the Ship No (which may or may not have any correlation to the N-Number), while non-DL customer aircraft are referred to by their registration (and identified in documents by both their registration and S/N or line number).
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