Radio Procedures

When you have learned the basic flight maneuvers of Air Warrior, you are ready to get your feet wet in the online arenas. One of the many things that can confuse the New pilot is the radio trafic and how to communitcate over the radios. This part of the training will help in understanding the many uses and mysteries of the radio chatter.

Radio Commands
Radio Lingo

Radio Commands

Learning how to work the darn radio could be the most frustrating thing for newcomers and the most irritating for veterans :-). First of all one should understand the types of channels on the radio. They can be divided into three groups.

    Channel 1 -
      Is the "Open" channel. People from both teams can talk to each other via this channel. Do not broadcast your coordinates or the path of a bomber from your country unless you are looking for trouble or want to lose friends real quick.

    Channel 2 -

      Is your teams channel. Broadcasting on this channel will be received by ONLY the pilots that fly for your team. Regardless of what channel you are tuned to you will receive messages from channel 2.

    Channel 3 to 999 -

      These are private channels used mainly by squadrons conducting planned missions. You will receive messages from the channel you are tuned to.

To confuse new players even more, the channel you broacast on depends on the button you press. Here is a quick sumary of the buttons and what they do.

    ' (apostrophe) -
      This will automaticaly send messages to Channel 2. Senders on this channel will look like this;
      *DSTCK: Do you understand??
      A star indicates he is using ' to send his message.

    / (slash) -

      This will send messages to ONLY the channel you are tuned to. If the sender tuned to channel 4 and used / to send his message, he would appear like this;
      DSTCK: Using the radio can be confusing for newbies!
      If the player was tuned to channel 2 and used / he would appear the same as above and not with a * infront of his name.

    ` (reverse apostrophe) -

      This button will transmit your message to ONLY members of a crewed bomber or vehicle. This message WILL NOT reach the outside world. The button is hard to locate, it is beside #1 and above the TAB key on the keyboard. If you are on a bomber and a crew member transmits using `, he will look like this to you;
      (DSTCK): Fighters at 4 o'clock!!!!

    Now to throw some more confusion into the whole mess, there are the radio rooms. When you transmit from these rooms you need not enter ',/ or ` before you type your message but you will appear on the textbuffer the same as you would if you used slash. This can make it very difficult as no one will know what channel you are transmitting from. It is helpful to add the info on what channel you are on. This can be done be typing (on #) at the beginning of your broadcast. You will appear as this to everyone on the channel you are tune to:

      DSTCK: (on 2) Hey guys!

    Radio Lingo

    New users can be overwhelmed by the comversation over the air waves of Air Warrior. It seems Air Warriors have developped a lingo all their own. The following terms are used most commonly by the pilots:

    AAA

      Anti-aircraft artillery.
    Ack
      same as AAA.
    AFK
      away from the keyboard.
    Alt
      Altitude.
    Angels
      Another term for altitude, in thousands of feet (i.e.: Angels 10 means 10,000 feet).
    Auger
      Crash landing.
    B4
      Before.
    BRB
      Be right back. This means you’ll be away from your computer for a moment. It’s followed by back when you return.
    Bandit
      Enemy plane.
    Bingo
      Used if you’re out of or short on something, followed by the item you lack (i.e.: Bingo ammo)
    Bogey
      Unidentified aircraft.
    Buff
      Bomber.
    Bug
      To run away.
    B&Z
      Boom and zoom; a style of fighter attack.
    CC
      I understand.
    Con
      Short for icon, meaning you are close enough to pick up a local tracking icon (i.e.: Con C Spit!).
    CR
      Climb Rate. When flying formation it’s useful to let people know what your climb rate is or to conform to theirs (i.e.: "CR=4" means your climb rate is 4,000 feet per minute).
    Deadstick
      Flying without the aid of engine power.
    DeathStar
      Heavily gunned bomber on the full realism page.
    Dien
      Dying.
    Ditch
      To land safely somewhere other than a runway.
    Drone
      A computer controlled aircraft/player.
    Dump
      You were disconnected from Air Warrior against your will.
    Dweeb
      An unskilled player.
    E
      Energy.
    Efighter
      A type of fighter aircraft suited to high speed attack, but not dogfighting (i.e.: Grab an efighter), or a pilot who practices boom and zoom energy tactics (i.e.: He’s a pure efighter)
    Egg
      Bomb. Sometimes this is used as a verb meaning to bomb (i.e.: I egged him on the runway).
    Fiter
      Fighter.
    Frog Auger
      When you crash, sometimes it takes the host a few moments to process your virtual demise. From your cockpit it appears, for a second or two, that you’ve hopped off the ground, hence the term.
    Furball
      A thickly populated dogfight.
      Grinning, ducking, and running.
    Glider
      Same as deadstick.
    hehe
      Laughter.
    Hdg
      Heading, usually followed by what heading it is (i.e.: Hdg 090).
    Icon
      Same as Con above.
    IMHO
      In my humble opinion, yet rarely is there much humility involved with this acronym’s use.
    In
      Means you are engaging the enemy. This is often said with a bit more enthusiasm, such as "In In In!"
    Jabo
      German term for fighter bomber (Jagdbomber). Although it is seldom used in the game, the game producer likes the sound of it when used as a verb (i.e.: "I jaboed the sucker!").
    K
      One thousand (i.e.: Bogey at 5k)
    Kts
      Airspeed in knots.
    L8r
      Later, meaning see you later.
    No Joy
      You don’t see the plane that someone has pointed out to you.
    Off
      You are disengaging.
    One hit [system]
      Means that a single hit from gunfire has taken out a critical system (i.e.: One hit engine!)
    OTW
      On the way.
    Out
      Same as "Off" except sometimes "Out" is followed by your exit heading (i.e.: Out 245). Out can also refer to how far away you are from something you’re trying to reach (i.e.: Hang on! 5k out)
    OTOH
      On the other hand.
    Ping
      Feedback, on your end, of a hit you’ve suffered. For example, a ping-less death means that you’ve been shot down without hearing bullets hit your plane.
    Poof
      Tells people that you are logging off immediately; a last good-bye before exiting the game.
    Prep
      To prepare an airfield for capture.
    Refer
      Refinery.
    Rgr
      Roger, same as CC.
    ROFL
      Rolling on floor laughing. It means you think something is very funny. This has many variations, from LOL (laughing out loud) to ROFLASTC (Rolling on floor laughing and scaring the cat).
    RTB
      Return to base. Sometimes this is followed by the number of the field where you plan to land (i.e.: Rtb bigrod).
    SBL
      Surrounded by Lostness. A confused player.
    Smoke
      Generally used as a verb in Air Warrior, it means to leak oil or fuel due to hits from gunfire or to cause the same to happen to someone else (i.e.: I smoked him!).
    Stallfight
      A dogfight occurring near stall speed.
    Vis
      I see (i.e.: Vis C Stang). This is similar to "Con" except it includes more distant planes that you may have identified with your radar. Generally, "Vis" is less urgent than "Con".
    Vulch
      From the noun, vulture, in Air Warrior it becomes a verb, meaning to prey upon a nearly or completely defenseless victim. "Nice vulch!" it is not entirely a compliment.
    Warp
      Network delays causing planes to appear as if they’re jumping around, rather than flying around.
    :)
      A sideways happy face.

    You will see many, many variations on this. Here are a few:
    :-) this one has a nose
    8-) this one is wearing glasses
    ;-) this one is winking
    :^) tongue in cheek
    :( A sideways, unhappy face. Usually, with this one, you are spared the variations.

    There are communications customs that don’t contain words. Many pilots count out their kills over the radio. Some pilots, when they urgently need assistance, will issue three blank radio messages to signify a distress call.