Call Sign's

[my72jeep]

Simple Question for the rotor crews, We had 3 Griffons in Wawa Yesterday, As they came in they were using Personal Call sign's not the Aircraft call Letters. I work part time at a Helicopter company and 2 of the pilots asked me why they were doing that. I said Don't know but I'll ask.
The 3 birds were blue, grey, green.

 

[Strike]

Call signs are usually based on Squadron and then position of the person who is the aircraft captain, or what number they are in a formation.  Sometimes the call sign is based on the mission.  I don't ever recall using a call sign that was based on a CF aircraft tail number.

 

[Zoomie]

Tactical Callsigns are what RCAF aircraft use while conducting flying operations within the confines of Canada.

Like Strike mentioned - these callsigns usually consist of a word followed by a number.  That number may either be the last three digits of the tail, or a number assigned to the Aircraft Captain.

Some examples.

442 (T&R) Sqn uses SNAKE as their day-to-day callsigns.  The number to follow SNAKE would be the last three of the aircraft's tail.  SNAKE 456 is a Buffalo while SNAKE 904 is a Cormorant.  This sort of call-sign is prevalent throughout the transport/rescue community.

Usually if you find a two digit number following a call-sign, it is most probably a personal callsign assigned to the pilot upon arrival at the Squadron.  When I was an instructor, I was given the number 94.  Therefore, while flying in Canada, my call-sign was MUSTANG 94.

All this changes when you leave Canada - as tactical callsigns are not authorized.  Only the CANFORCE ## is permitted - albeit quite a few haven't quite figured this out yet.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

In the MH world, the aircraft call sign is Squadron (Talon, Stinger, Shark, etc) plus the last two digits of the tail number.  This seems to differ from the three digit practice of the rest of the RCAF, for god only knows what reason.  Probably a holdover from the RCN days (the first time) when the Sea King only had a two digit tail number.

I have noticed a trend on deployments to give the aircraft a call sign that associates it in some way with it's ship.

That said, if you have to do something involving an ICAO flight plan overseas, you must use CANFORCE XXXX as a call sign.

 

[my72jeep]

Thanks that will answer the pilots questions.

 

[Good2Golf]

MyJeep, if it's a tactical helicopter (non-SAR Griffon or a Chinook), the # often is the same as an Army fixed call-sign, i.e.  9 = CO, 19 = OC A Flt, 9B = OpsO, etc.. So "Gander 9A" would be 408 Sqn's DCO captaining the ac.  For a formation, you may hear a call sign associated for the lead aircraft, than a plus number for the other helicopters in the formation, i.e.  Griffon 29 + 3, for a 400 Sqn formation of four aircraft. A formation may also just have a squadron designator and a colour, i.e. Wolf Blues (403 Sqn).

Regards
G2G

 

[Loachman]

Griffin 29 + 3, for a 400 Sqn formation of four aircraft

Griffon is the helicopter that the Griffin Squadron flies.