Line Up and Wait
January 13th, 2010 | 
Author: As reported in this morning’s AvFlash news, the FAA is soon going to implement a change from “Position and Hold” to “Line Up and Wait” in order to conform with international phraseology standards. This change is expected to occur in mid-year 2010. In fact, if you fly in and out of Canadian airspace you know that this particular phraseology has already been in use for sometime (since about March of 2008).
For those who are new to this phrase, here is a basic primer on this new phraseology:
Current Phraseology:
“Taxi into Position” or “Taxi to Position and Wait”
New Phraseology:
“Line Up” or “Line Up and Wait”
Definition: Used by ATC to inform a pilot to taxi onto the departure runway in takeoff position and wait (hold). It is not authorization for takeoff. It is used when takeoff clearance cannot immediately be issued because of traffic or other reasons.
I think short term this might be a change some may grumble about I think overall this is a good change. I believe that standards only work when applied universally across the board. The more exceptions that are made to a standard the better chance you have at injecting confusion and error into the system. This not only helps U.S. pilots flying internationally but also helps reduce confusion from foreign pilots who are flying domestically within the U.S.
What are your thoughts about line up and wait?
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I think that this change is horrible. It’s not nearly as descriptive as Taxi in to position and hold. That tells the pilots exactly what to do. Line up and wait???? It sounds too wishy washy. And line up on WHAT? And wait?? What if I get tired of waiting? Can I depart. Hold means HOLD. Don’t go anywhere.
I think that there will be far more American pilots confused by this than foreign pilots that are used to hearing this new phraseology.
FAA, be prepared for a HUGE increase in runway incursions!
While I do agree with you Doug that “taxi into position and hold” is much more descriptive, the problem I have is that we are the only ICAO country to use this phraseology. It’s hard to call something “standard” if it isn’t….well, standard across the board. Look at this table:
That in my view, is the problem. You have all these other countries standardizing one phrase, with the US being the lone exception. I would have been fine if ICAO adopted “position and hold” but unfortunately, they didn’t.
I’m all for standards so I like it, but I do agree that if I heard it for the first time without any knowledge I’d probably have no idea what the tower wanted me to actually do.
I’ll get used to it. I’m at an advantage of already knowing the terminology, but it’ll play hell with students and renters. Especially since KPAE tower has just started issuing position and hold instructions again after several years without doing so.
I’ve wondered why, lately, the US is switching to international standards instead of setting them. We did pretty much get the whole commercial aviation ball rolling, after all!
If you trained people from the getgo to understand what this meant, then I think there wouldn’t be much of a problem. Right now “position and hold” can sound too similar to “position in hold” which is what I thought they were saying for a long time. “Line up and wait” doesn’t make any sense though, because if you’re being told to taxi out onto the runway and wait, you’re not lining up *behind* anybody.
OOO Great. My students think phraseology is confusing enough as it is. Wait until I tell them it’s changing!
I’m a private pilot in Canada. As the article mentioned, we just went through a similar phraseology change a couple of years ago. It really was no big deal to learn.
Overall I think it’s a good tradeoff for US (and Canadian) pilots to pay a short-term cost of learning something new, for the long-term benefit of having aviation phraseology world-wide be more consistent. Think how much safer it will be if the US controllers say what visit pilots from abroad expect. Not to mention how much easier it will be on your next round-the-world or exotic-vacation flight, once you are accustomed to the phraseology that the controllers there use.
I thank all of you for your comments. Whether you agree with the decision or not, this is obviously going to require some conscious effort until it becomes routine and a normal part of your aviation vocabulary. I am concerned about the impact it will have on runway incursion incidents. I know the FAA has been proud of the fact that incursions have been decreasing and I would hate to see this decision impact that. Maybe this is the last piece of the safety puzzle and will cut down incursions at airports with international ops. Only time will tell.
Paul
Paul,
as a European pilot, I’ve never heard anything else than “Line-up and wait”. When it comes to phraseology, the question is always the same: what can be confusing or misunderstood over a bad radio transmission.
To my non-US ears, “Taxi into position” sounds very close to “taxi to holding position”. Line- up is always associated to a clearance to enter a runway. Usually, the runway is given as part of the clearance: “Line-up runway 23″. No doubt it is very clear this way… no ?
Vincent,
Thanks for your comment. I think your comment shows how the correctness of a particular phrase is highly relative. What I mean by that is why do words have the meanings that they do? After a while the words you use everyday gain a meaning within the context of the activity. I think eventually US pilots will think that “line up and wait” is the correct phrase and wonder why we ever used a phrase like “position and hold”. It all comes down to what you use is correct. Think of how many other words in the English language we justify that way. Why do we drive on a parkway but park in the driveway? Shouldn’t that be changed? Obviously it won’t but that just shows how certain words gain a meaning within the language even when from an outside perspective it doesn’t make any sense. I’m not a linguist but I think this change rubs some people because it touches something pretty central to how individuals accept communication and how difficult that can be to change (especially in the English language).
Paul.
I think it makes sense but then as a pilot in Europe, I would.
Still, “taxi” (to my mind) could mean to a number of places – the instruction on its own is not clear. Whereas “line up” can *only* mean the active runway, specifically at take-off position. So it’s not a question of why the meaning is there but specifically avoiding any ambiguity.
I taxi the entire time I am moving on the ground but I only line up in one very specific circumstance.
If you think that’s confusing, don’t fly overseas. Wait until you get: “Behind the Airbus 320 on short final, Line up Runway XX and Wait, Behind.”
“Line Up” and “Wait” are, I think a pretty clear commands by themselves, while “Hold”, as in “Taxi into Position and Hold” assumes the words “in position” as in “Taxi into position and hold IN POSITION”.
So let me be the first to recommend the “WAIT SHORT LINE”…..