Lining Up

I was just reading Luca F. Bencini-Tibos letter to the editor (Unicom, December 2010) and wanted to correct what I perceive to be some misunderstanding. First, changing to ICAO weather abbreviations was and is for the purpose of international standardization, and not to benefit any one group. Second, airspace can have more than one designation, even under ICAO: The TRSA around Oklahomas Altus AFB, exhibits Class D, Class E, and TRSA simultaneously. Third, it was not luck, but study and much debate that caused ICAO in 1952 to streamline the then-internationally accepted French, Spanish and English into the current single language. The overall effort involved linguists and psychologists, not luck.

Key Takeaways:

• ICAO's standardization of aviation practices, including weather abbreviations and the adoption of a single international language, is driven by the need for global consistency and safety, achieved through extensive study and debate rather than luck or specific group benefit.
• Aviation phraseology is carefully designed based on psychological principles like "referent codability" to ensure unambiguous communication, which is critical for safety in the inherently hazardous flying environment; the author suggests official changes like "line up and wait" may lack the clarity of older terms like "position and hold."

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