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Big Wing to T-45 IP?
- Thread starter Ozarky
- Start date
Except it is surfaced with tarmac.
I think you mean isn't surfaced with Tarmac. We haven't used Tarmacadam for any surface that an aircraft will be on in decades because it's a really crummy material for anything heavy.
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Maybe I'm the odd duck, but it was always "the ramp," "the flightline," or similar. I literally never heard anyone in my aviation career ever call the paved area between the hangars and taxiways "the tarmac."
If the FAA is listening….they all mean “the apron.” But, if we are being historically minded, then the VP guys have roots to the word “ramp” since it refers to the old seaplane days. “Tarmac” is a grand old word from the RAF and when I hear it I hear my uncle (WWII P-38 guy) where my father jokingly called every runway the “flight deck.” I guess that leaves the helicopter guys with words like “pad” and “spot.”
So it's the Saufley Field of Texas . . . SNAs and prison inmates.
I want to say the prison was there when I went there, but I may be making that up. When I landed there, the airfield was closed and there was just a pad to land on. Looking at Google Maps now, there's no "X" on the runways, but a lot of connexes on the taxiways and ramps. It also looks like Sikorsky has left since the hangars I was at now all have trailer/connexes everywhere around them.
Funny but I was reading the company Flight Ops Manual (like an SOP in mil terms) today and noticed that they have a chapter called "Tarmac delays". So I guess it is an official thing, at least with our hometown airline. I agree, have never used the term, and I think I would vomit a little if I ever did say "tarmac".
Other countries use the term a lot- I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. The one I get tripped up by when I'm overseas is calling the "pattern" a "circuit". Also, slot times and asking permission to start. Ugh.
I still feel that way about "Line up and wait". It has been 3 or 4 years now, but I continued to use position and hold in read backs and never got any guff. Still use it, but in my reduced capacity as a recreational/hobby pilot of a certain age, I suppose they just roll their eyes and comment off the mic.
And for 8-10 years, before I went out for medical, I still used posit and hold. You saying after 12 years I should just knuckle under the oppression of ICAO? I was a 'Murican Airlines pilot. Position and hold was good enough for Ernie Gann and Charles Lindbergh. Good enough for the world! Hell, I still use WILCO.I gotcha... although I have to point out, that was changed about 12 years ago.
OK, then. Not trying to start anything here. I still use "Wilco" too- just didn't see a reason to die on that particular hill.
Smilies, and shit.