Pilot Callsigns

The Three Rules of Callsigns

1. If you don't already have one, you will be assigned one by your "buddies".
2. You probably won't like it.
3. If you complain and moan too much about 1. and 2., you'll get a new nickname you'll like even less!

So, how do you get a callsign?

Do something stupid or have it fit with your last name. Obvious examples, 'Crash' or LT 'Cheese' Kraft. Sometimes it's based on a physical appearance thing like 'Carrot'. After you've earned the respect of your buddies, you'll get a more 'heroic' callsign.

Add your callsign to the list

Most recent additions

Kaboose

 (added: 3 May 2010)

Allways the last guy in the line up

Penguin

 (added: 18 Mar 2010)

I started flying in 1982 and never got my license. Accumulated 120 hrs. in the air. Will start to fly my CHALLENGER ultralight soon. My call sign will be Ken"PENGUIN" Hrabb I was the bird that never flew!!

Stink Finger

 (added: 14 Mar 2010)

New pilot fresh from the Air Force Academy was always pulling on his flight suit from the back. So he got the name stink finger.

Warbird

 (added: 14 Mar 2010)

Last name is Warmoth. Naming party came down to War Moth or Warbird. Two fifths of Jack got me Warbird, much better than War Moth.

Cider

 (added: 12 Mar 2010)

Last name Cummens

TCAP

 (added: 12 Mar 2010)

Named after the TV show Dateline NBC - To catch a predator. While in flight school, this stud dated a 17 year old townie... knowingly... because "she was going to be 18 soon". Found out her dad was a retired Hornet driver, which means he probably knew all the instructors, or at least enough to make flight school less enjoyable, so he "creeped her out into dumping him, you know so she wouldn't be so attached"

Neutron

 (added: 12 Mar 2010)

i was trying to look nice for the girls, and i came out with hair looking like "Jimmy Newtron" the sad part is, a girl was the one that called it first.

TRIX

 (added: 12 Mar 2010)

Came from "Tri-X" - someone else already got XXX

Sniper

 (added: 12 Mar 2010)

F18 driver on det in Tyndal Australia smacked a kangaroo at eight thousand with a five hundred pound blue bomb.

Torch

 (added: 10 Mar 2010)

Navy pilot in training, came in too fast - when he applied the breaks the main wheels and brakes burst in to flames

Doughboy

 (added: 10 Mar 2010)

While wearing a "poopy" suit and eating a cheeseburger a fellow pilot commented that I looked like a green Pillsbury Doughboy. I did not know that several others heard his comments. The rest, as they say, is history.

Zen

 (added: 10 Mar 2010)

Eagle driver, got it when he squeezed off a shot with his gun during training and hit the target - without using the computer - said it reminded his squadmates of luke using the force to kill the death star

DRADIS

 (added: 10 Mar 2010)

E-2 Hawkeye pilot and avid fan of the TV series Battlestar Galactica. DRADIS is the BSG word for "radar".

Lunchbox

 (added: 10 Mar 2010)

While running missions in the Anbar Province of Iraq, I was constantly stuck in an unarmed ECW humvee as Truck Commander. After one long and boring mission (in excess of 14 hours straight driving in 140 degree heat), during a rant against my current plight, I said that if you connected the two short antennas on the roof with a 2x4 it would look like the handle of a lunchbox. The name stuck.

Stoney

 (added: 10 Mar 2010)

Last name Jackson, hence "Stonewall" Jackson and shortened for brevity.

Coyote

 (added: 10 Mar 2010)

Last name Wiley

Lenny

 (added: 10 Mar 2010)

As far as we know the only vegetarian fighter pilot on planet earth. He was named after the legendary vegetarian shark in "Shark Tale"

Burner

 (added: 10 Mar 2010)

Leave the engine in BUC and try to take-off and this callsign will stick to you as well

Timezone

 (added: 10 Mar 2010)

First day of primary, instructor asks the class what time would it be in San Diego if it's 6am in Pensacola, and a few more like that. I was always an hour off. I didn't know there was a Mountain Standard Timezone, and a callsign was born.

Sideshow

 (added: 7 Feb 2010)

First name Robert - named after Sideshow Bob, the character from The Simpsons that tries to kill Bart.

SIX

 (added: 7 Feb 2010)

In the days of Steve Austin and the Six Million Dollar Man, I visited a friend's house, flight engineer, on his 5 acres of wooded land. He was in the process of cutting down a tree and had been hacking at it for hours and the darn thing just wouldn't fall. I walked up, touched the thing with one finger saying "is this the one you want to get to fall?", and at that moment it began cracking and popping and had us scrambling to escape the crash. Moments later he called me SIX and the name has stuck for over 35 years.

Dirt

 (added: 6 Feb 2010)

Last name Knapp.

Ziffel

 (added: 6 Feb 2010)

Always HOGGING the targets. Named after the pig from the TV show "Green Acres".

SALSA

 (added: 6 Feb 2010)

Student Aviator Lacking Situational Awareness. One of my instructor's callsigns here in flight school. He got it when he was a student, and it has stuck with him.

Chooch

 (added: 6 Feb 2010)

Chuck Erkelens flew Corsairs against the North Koreans and demonstrated a proclivity for killing supply trains with HVARs. Sadly, Chooch has "gone west".