Unusual Attitude
What’s wrong with Roger?
Editor at Large Dave Hirschman learned to fly at a sleepy, nontowered airport, and talking on the radio was the most intimidating aspect of flight training. He avoided towered airports and busy airspace for fear of saying the wrong thing on the radio.
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The one-word reply means a radio transmission—even a complicated one—has been received and understood. Roger isn’t the answer to a question the way “affirmative” and “negative” are. And pilots who say roger aren’t tying themselves to any particular course of action.
If a controller says there’s turbulence ahead, or to expect a climb or descent, or that surface winds have shifted and takeoffs and landings will be made on different runways, a thoughtful and considerate pilot will acknowledge such timely new information with a succinct roger.
But the word is much more than that.
An enthusiastic “Roger that!” exclamation means, “Yes! I fully agree with you!”
A half-hearted “Rodge” signals disappointment or reluctance. “I got your message, and it’s not exactly what I was hoping to hear.”
When delivered in a low growl, roger is synonymous with “shut up.” Or, “I heard you the first time, and you really ought to stop talking now.”
But lately, on the airways, roger seems to have fallen from favor. Perhaps the word is too formal, too stodgy, or too colorless for today’s highly individualistic and expressive flight crews. I jotted down a few of the roger substitutes that came through my headset recently, and they’re appalling.
“Awesome.” “Bueno.” “Goody.” “Got it." “Gotcha.” “Perfecto." “Right on.”
Right on? Are you kidding? Have we time-traveled back to the 1960s?
If so, should we expect “Sock it to me”—the punchline from Rowan & Martin’s Laugh In—to show up in the Pilot/Controller Glossary?
Awesome? The word is so overused as to have become devoid of all practical meaning. Goody? Too foolish to contemplate. Got it and gotcha? These are precisely the kinds of imprecise terms that roger was meant to banish.
Do any of these roger replacements offer real improvements?
Of course not. They’re too cute, too trendy, and too inflexible to be useful over the long term. Those who dabble in them now will surely be embarrassed next month or next year when such fashionable words of the moment fall out of favor. It’s the verbal equivalent of wearing disco clothes in the 1970s. It might have seemed like the right thing to do at the time, but now the photos are cringeworthy blackmail fodder.
The aviation origins of roger are murky, but it’s generally believed to have been born from an acronym: “received order given, expect results.” Fair enough.
Pilots aren’t the only group to have adopted and implemented a term of mysterious origin. U.S. Army soldiers have their own a catch-all acknowledgment that can mean just about anything: “Hooah.” It’s a battle cry, an affirmation, and even a question: You understand me? Hooah? And it’s often said over the radio. (It’s also different than the U.S. Marines’ ubiquitous “Oorah,” although both defy easy definition.)
Standard phraseology doesn’t inhibit pilots and controllers from lightening up and sharing some laughs on the frequency. I recently heard a Washington Center controller embarrass his teenage daughter by asking the crew of an airliner she was traveling on to wish Isabella a happy birthday via the airplane’s public address system. Another controller near Charlotte, North Carolina, with a distinctive voice and lilting Southern accent, was recognized on frequency by a pilot he went to high school with more than a decade prior. The banter was genuinely warm, friendly, surprising, and funny.
Punctuality is said to be the “courtesy of kings.” To me, standard phraseology provides that kind of tonic for aviation. Clear and timely communication helps avoid mistakes and makes the entire system operate more smoothly. If that crimps your style or inhibits your self-expression, you’re not trying hard enough.
I fervently hope roger makes a comeback.
