Why do pilots say Niner for nine?

Why do pilots say Niner instead of nine? It comes from military use of the alphabet and numbers to prevent confusion over the radio. Over a staticky radio, “nine” may be confused with “five”. Making nine into two syllables relieves any possible confusion since the only other two syllable number is seven.



People Also Ask

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.

MORE DETAILS

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.”

MORE DETAILS

AFAIK, “niner” was adopted as the international ATC pronunciation for” nine” many years ago, along with several other reforms in the use of language (english) in ATC, for the purpose of minimizing miscommunications between aircraft and ground controllers, particularly when one or both parties do not have english as ...

MORE DETAILS

(In 1957, the English phonetic alphabet changed the R to Romeo, but by that time, Roger was deeply embedded in the minds of pilots.) So, in short, Roger means r which stands for received. The word Roger means nothing more.

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

Therefore, when pilots say the word rotate on takeoff, it serves as a clear reminder for them to carry out the rotation. The pilot needs to make sure that they lift the nose of the airplane off the ground at the precise time required for the plane to take off.

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

I love dream puns! It means to die. Its an adaptation of an older phrase “To go West” which mean to follow the setting sun, as in dying.

MORE DETAILS

Once the crew completes the pre-flight gear inspection, it's time to ignite the engine and take to the sky. These days however, it's much more common to hear pilots announce that the plane is “cleared for takeoff” — particularly on commercial flights — for the sake of brevity.

MORE DETAILS

Why do pilots tell you how high you are? Answer: It is normally part of the welcome aboard announcement as a matter of interest. We provide the time of the flight, the cruise altitude, landmarks of interest along way and the weather.

MORE DETAILS

At cruising altitude, most commercial airplanes fly at a speed of roughly 500 to 600 mph. When landing, however, they must reduce their speed. A typical 747, for instance, has a landing speed of about 160 to 170 mph. And upon touching the runway, airplanes must quickly brake until they come to a complete stop.

MORE DETAILS

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

MORE DETAILS