Why do pilots say bravo?

Phonetic Alphabet
This is to avoid the possible confusion between letters if you would simply say the letter itself. For example, the letters B and V could easily be confused with each other when spoken on the radio. If we instead say "Bravo" or "Victor" it is almost impossible to confuse the two.
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What does Bravo mean in aviation?

A Bravo is generally that airspace from the surface to 10,000 feet MSL surrounding the nation's busiest airports.
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What does it mean when a pilot says Charlie?

Charlie-Charlie is a fancy substitution for a standard affirmative and accepted non-standard words roger and wilco. Standard phraseology is meant to prevent confusion, and has been improved after incidents/accidents where the communication between parties played a role.
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What do pilots usually say before takeoff?

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.
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What does Alpha Bravo mean in aviation?

Touch and Go - Landing practice in which an aircraft does not make a full stop after a landing, but proceeds immediately to another take-off.
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Why do PILOTS say "ROGER / WILCO"? Explained by CAPTAIN JOE



How do you greet a pilot?

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.
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What a pilot says after Roger?

The language of aviation is changing and nowadays following the current spelling alphabet pilots use “Romeo” instead of “Roger”. Sources: thesun.co.uk. express.co.uk.
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What do pilots say when crashing?

Mayday. And that's because it's a word that's been used for the last century to immediately indicate an emergency. The typical way of saying it is to call it three times in a row — Mayday! Mayday!
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Why do pilots say heavy?

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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Why do pilots say Roger?

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) officially defines the word "roger" to mean "I have received all of your transmission." For example, a pilot would say "roger" in response to an advisory from Air Traffic Control.
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What does Romeo mean in flight?

"Romeo" refers to the letter R (ICAO phonetic alphabet) and is short for WCHR which is an aviation-typical abbreviation for "Wheel chair to Ramp".
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Why do they say Niner instead of nine?

Changing “nine” to “niner” adds another vowel sound, which may help distinguish them when radio reception is poor. Show activity on this post. "Niner" is spoken for the numeral 9 to avoid it being mistaken for 5. This would be better as a comment once you gain enough reputation.
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What does Zulu mean in aviation?

Zulu time, used in aviation quite often, is another name for UTC (Coordinated Universal Time (French: temps universel coordonné)). It is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is, within about 1 second, mean solar time at 0° longitude; it does not observe daylight saving time.
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What does Bravo Tango Charlie mean?

The phonetic alphabet is often used by military and civilians to communicate error-free spelling or messages over the phone. For example, Alpha for “A”, Bravo for “B”, and Charlie for “C”. Additionally, IRDS can be used to relay military code, slang, or shortcode.
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How do pilots say numbers?

Pilots pronounce numbers similar to regular English, with a few exceptions:
  1. The number three (3) is pronounced “tree.”
  2. The number five (5) is pronounced “fife.”
  3. The number nine (9) is pronounced “niner.”
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What are Alpha Bravo Charlie called?

Briefly put, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, etc., are words used in spelling of the 26 letters of the Latin (resp. English) alphabet. They were designed to minimize the number of errors when spelling a series of letters during a radio transmission. The system is most commonly called the NATO phonetic alphabet.
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Why do pilots say V1 rotate?

Summary. Long story short, pilots say rotate as a verbal queue that the aircraft has reached its predetermined Vr and hence appropriate inputs can be applied to safely pitch the aircraft in a nose-up attitude to gain lift.
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Why do we say Mayday?

As much of the traffic at Croydon airport at that time was to and from Le Bourget Airport in Paris, Mockford proposed the expression “Mayday" derived from the French word “m'aider" that means “help me" and is a shortened form of “venez m'aider", which means “come and help me".
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What do captains say before landing?

To indicate the landing clearance or final approach, the Captain will either make the following announcement and/or blink the No Smoking sign. “Flight attendants, prepare for landing please.” “Cabin crew, please take your seats for landing.” It may be followed by an announcement by a flight attendant.
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Why do pilots say mayday in trouble?

The "mayday" procedure word was conceived as a distress call in the early 1920s by Frederick Stanley Mockford, officer-in-charge of radio at Croydon Airport, England. He had been asked to think of a word that would indicate distress and would easily be understood by all pilots and ground staff in an emergency.
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Do pilots actually say mayday?

Mayday, Mayday, Mayday is used by pilots when an incident is taking place on an aircraft & they need to make other pilots & air traffic control aware of their situation. Aircraft identification, position & aircraft problem are communicated to help get as much assistance to the pilot/s as possible.
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Is it better to crash in water or land?

Its surviving rate is probably greater than on land. I have seen many pilots preferring to land on water. Its surviving rate is probably greater than on land. Surviving impact perhaps, when landing on water, but if not close to land unlikely to survive for too much longer.
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What does Lima mean in aviation?

Delta becomes Data, Dixie or David at airports with high Delta Air Lines traffic, to avoid confusion with the airline's callsign. Lima becomes London in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, where “lima” means five. Whiskey becomes White or Washington in Muslim countries where alcohol consumption is banned.
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What does easy victor mean?

One of the phrases they learn is "easy victor" which means prepare to evacuate. According to a former flight attendant, the pilot won't just blurt it out. There will be some warning and you'll know there is a problem long before. So you shouldn't worry about listening out for it when you're on board, he said.
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What does Wilco mean in aviation?

But obviously as far as US aviation goes, both are completely acceptable. And as for the etymology, that's already been covered in another answer: "Wilco" is short for the phrase "will comply," meaning that the speaker will follow the instructions to which they are replying.
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