How do pilots say yes?

Affirm: Contrary to popular belief, pilots do not say “affirmative” when they mean “yes” – the correct term is affirm, pronounced “AY-firm”. Deadhead: This refers to a member of the airline crew who is travelling in a passenger seat.



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There is no interpretation. Affirmative and Negative come from the radio procedure words that went into the aviation world. As a comment above it also adds on more complexity and length to the statement so that the receiver can understand even if the transmission got garbled up or cut off in some parts.

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Moreover, there is a list of words with special meaning on flights. For example, “Roger” meaning “received”; “affirm” meaning “yes”; “approach” meaning “coming to land”, etc. The language of aviation is changing and nowadays following the current spelling alphabet pilots use “Romeo” instead of “Roger”.

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One of the issues on a long flight is that pilots tend to get bored and non-attentive so talking to each other helps. Someone has to say it: They have a choice of “Hi there!” or” 'lo there!”.

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Ladies and gentlemen, good morning / afternoon / evening. Welcome on board (flight reference). This is Captain / Co-pilot (your name) speaking and I have some information about our flight. Our flight time today will be (flight duration) and our estimated time of arrival in (destination) is (ETA)local time.

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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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The FAA (Federal Aviation Authority) and ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization), the world's organization overseeing aviation, require all pilots flying under their organizations to have attained ICAO “Level 4” English ability. This means all pilots must speak, read, write, and understand English fluently.

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The pilot-in-command of an aircraft shall have final authority as to the disposition of the aircraft while in command. ICAO Annex 2, par. 2.3. 1, specifically empowers the PIC to override any other regulation in an emergency, and to take the safest course of action at his/her sole discretion.

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Pilots say, “Mayday” when they are in need of assistance, usually in an emergency situation. That word is the English phonetic pronunciation of the French, “M'Aidez”, which, literally, means “Help me”.

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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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