What is the right Callsign?

[Uwe Kaffka]

As a german Pilot I`m littlebit confused, where I`ll find the right Callsign for an Airport or CTAF Freq.

For example: I wanted to fly some patterns at KTRM. I loaded the sheet from the AFD and looked into Airnav.com. There I found the CTAF Freq. and the name of the Airport "Jacqueline Cochran Regional" but "Jacqueline Cochran Regional traffic" sounds strange, so i thought. On the Sectional Charts Cochran Regional is written only and "Cochran Regional traffic" maybe will work, so I thought. But how to pronounce "Cochran"? I took a quick look on Youtube what should solve the problem .( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIweBx76tm0) But they don`t call it "Cochran Regional" in any instance. After listen to it several times i was more and more confused, only by looking for the VOR-name gave me an idea what they called into the CTAF. Thermal!. By looking onto a streetmap I also found the Name Thermal Airport. But why I can`t find it anywhere within the AFD, Airnav.com or the sectional charts? Can you folks give me some tricks how I`ll find the right callsign?!

Thanks.
Greetings Uwe

[Calvin Waterbury]

Hi Uwe,

This is a mess, but I'll try to straighten it out via some facts...

• On airnav.com, KTRM (Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport) is showing to be located at Palm Springs. In fact, KTRM is located in Thermal, CA 32 miles to the south of Palm Springs. Airnav.com shows "Palm Springs" as the town location in order to give quick reference to the airport's location to visiting pilots. The fact is a small town like, "Thermal" is generally not as well known as Palm Springs. I'm sure there are examples in Germany too. Many areas around a large city like Frankfurt are probably named something else, but in a general context *every* town or community around Frankfurt is still referenced as "Frankfurt" for convenience. There are numerous little areas that have their own specific name like, "City of Industry," "Hawthorne," "Marina Del Rey" and maybe even "Santa Monica." If one were discussing any of these towns with someone unfamiliar with the "Los Angeles Basin" one would most like just say "Los Angeles" or even, "L.A."
• "Thermal" is also the name of the VORTAC at KTRM.
• To make matters more confusing, KTRM is listed as being under the ownership of the county Riverside, CA and the address is in the city of Riverside.

Others more astute than myself may be able to give you some specific guidance, the way you researched and came up with "Thermal" is what I do myself. The fact is there are other things in aviation which you will not know until you know. I believe the FAA decided it was best to be concise and specific to the pilots in an area rather than try and label the various elements for the uninitiated. My nemesis is the the SID/STAR chart. Names like the "River Two" arrival (STAR) doesn't tell any visiting pilots what is going on, especially since it is actually the "RIIVR TWO" which is based on the "RIIVR" fix east of Los Angeles. Any unfamiliar airport I build a flight plan on I am unfamiliar with requires a lot of extra time trying to guess and the verify if a particular SID/STAR is correct. If I couldn't go look on http://www.flightaware.com to see what routes real world pilots actually fly and copy them, it would be a guessing game. So, you're in good company!

I hope this helps.

[Keith Smith]

If you call it "Cochran Regional" on the radio, everyone will know what you're talking about, but you might be the only one calling it that because locals might call it something else, such as "Thermal." Once you've established what name is being used by the majority of pilots in the area (real world), then use that.

That's the technique I use when flying into a non-towered airport. I'll hear them referring to a name that's different to the one I'm using, yet their calls are crystal clear and the runway matches, so I look deeper at the destination field (this happened recently on a fuel diversion where I had barely briefed the arrival information beyond the runway numbers, length, elevation and field name) to get the town name or a nearby VOR.

It sounds like you're looking for something official and foolproof. No such thing exists. It's a case where there are multiple candidates and you go with the flow of communication.

[Uwe Kaffka]

Ok, I thought there might be a rules of thumb to find the right name.

On German, Danish or Polish charts are the Callsign depicted for uncontrolled fields also like for controlled sites.

But if you experienced pilots have sometimes the same problems I don`t have to be afraid that I overlooked something.

Thanks you for your answers