What do pilots say instead of yes?

Roger simply means you have received the transmission. In other words, Roger is an acknowledgement of a transmission. Wilco is rarely used, but it means you have received the message and will comply, some old pilots combine the two in the redundant Roger wilco.



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Affirm: Contrary to popular belief, pilots do not say “affirmative” when they mean “yes” – the correct term is affirm, pronounced “AY-firm”.

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Pilots Have Their Own Secret Language. Here's What They're Really Saying
  • “Let's kick the tires and light the fires” ...
  • “Feet wet” ...
  • “We've got a deadhead crew flying to Chicago” ...
  • “There's a pilot in the jumpseat” ...
  • “It's 17:00 Zulu time” ...
  • “George is flying the plane now” ...
  • “We're flying through an air pocket”


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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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If the pilot needs to warn you that you're going to have to eject in the near future, he will use the word “eject,” as in, “Hey, get ready, we are going to have to eject in about 30 seconds.” If things go horribly wrong and you need to blow out of the ship immediately, the command is, “bailout! bailout! bailout!”

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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 ICAO Phonetic Alphabet is meant to decrease risk and misunderstanding and improve communication between those involved in air travel. Many letters and phrases sound too similar, for example, the letters “p” and “b” may sound the same over the radio. So instead, pilots would say “papa” or “bravo”.

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All pilot/controller communication is carefully scripted and uses a standard phraseology. This is important because airplanes fly all over the world. Pilots and controllers everywhere expect each other to say certain things at certain times. This makes communication much easier.

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Aviators often speak “pilot English” to avoid miscommunications over radio transmission. “Tree” for instance, means three, “fife” is the number five and “niner” means nine, says Tom Zecha, a manager at AOPA. The variations stemmed from a desire to avoid confusion between similar-sounding numbers, he says.

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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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A newly-qualified airline or private jet pilot is allocated the rank of First Officer then later can become a Senior First Officer, before they take a Command Course. If this is successfully completed, this means they can become a Captain. In the military First Officers are called Co-pilots.

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In commercial aviation, the aircrew are called flight crew.

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To become a captain, a pilot must first log at least 1,000 flight hours as a co-pilot. This results in a captain having more experience than a co-pilot, which can qualify them for higher pay .

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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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