Do you have to say Niner?

In conclusion, not all pilots say “niner”, but it is a common practice among aviators. The term “niner” is part of the phonetic alphabet used to ensure clear communication between pilots and ground stations. Even if a pilot is not using the phonetic alphabet, they may still use the term “niner” in their transmissions.



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Changing “nine” to “niner” adds another vowel sound, which may help distinguish them when radio reception is poor. Niner is spoken for the numeral 9 to avoid it being mistaken for 5.

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Niner is how 9 is said as part of a phonetic alphabet. This is similar to how one might say Bravo for B. Niner was chosen especially for Civil Aviation as to help differentiate it from the German Nein, meaning No. Some of the other numbers are actually supposed to be pronounced slightly differently.

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Pilots pronounce numbers similar to regular English, with a few exceptions: The number three (3) is pronounced “tree.” The number five (5) is pronounced “fife.” The number nine (9) is pronounced “niner.”

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“5-0” (pronounced five-oh) became a popular nickname after the television show Hawaii Five-O which aired from 1968 to 1980. “Five-o” referred to the Hawaiian police force in the show, based on Hawaii being the fiftieth state to join the union.

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The word heavy means a larger aircraft type, with a Maximum Takeoff Weight of 160 tonnes or more. These aircraft create wake turbulence from their wings and require extra separation between following aircraft, and the use of heavy reminds other pilots of that fact.

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Regarding the number of people onboard an aircraft, the term soul was used to count the number of passengers and crew. The word can be traced back to the great sailing ships of the 18th century. Back then, many ships were lost at sea, and the missing dead sailors were called lost souls.

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Pan-Pan, short for “possible assistance needed,” is used to communicate an urgent, but not emergency, situation over VHF radio, in the case of aviation, to air traffic control. Examples could include a recreational pilot getting lost, or perhaps needing to climb to a higher altitude to sort a problem out.

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How do pilots greet each other in the air (from different planes)? You pull up alongside, perform the line action for undoing your window (remember manual windows in cars?), and when both yours and his windows are open, it is typical to ask for a cup of sugar.

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A Proper Takeoff Call First, let them know who you are, where you are, and then what you'd like to do. Try to give them as much information as possible so they can plan appropriately.

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The callout from the pilots like LOC blue serves to remind themselves of the current flight guidance modes, and to maintain awareness of mode changes. This is also to ensure that their mental idea of what the aircraft will do next is up to date and fits to the current flight situation.

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