By Vincent on Dec 24, 2008
PlasticPilot’s Advent Calendar – 24 : Learn french with 24 IFR intersections
Finding 5-letters names for IFR intersections is not always easy. They must be different from others in vicinity, and easy to communicate over radio. Despite these difficulties, procedure designers are funny guys. Here are 24 interections extracted from the french low-level IFR en-route chart, which all mean something in French.
| Intersection | French word | English translation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TORTU | Tortue | Turtle |
| 2 | RECIF | Récif | Reef |
| 3 | MERLU | Merlu | Hake |
| 4 | OMARD | Homard | Crayfish |
| 5 | PILUL | Pilule | Pill |
| 6 | KUSEK | Cul sec | Well… unpolite form of “cheers”, used before drinking a glass of alcool in one sip. Literraly, “dry ass”. |
| 7 | VAREK | Varech | Kelp (algae) |
| 8 | OKTAV | Octave | Octave (music) |
| 9 | POULP | Poulpe | Octopus |
| 10 | BRUSC | Brusque | Brusque |
| 11 | AFRIC | Afrique | Africa |
| 12 | ALBER | Albert | Albert |
| 13 | TEREZ | Thérèse | Thérèse |
| 14 | JULEE | Julie | Julie |
| 15 | SECHE | Sèche | Dry (feminine version) |
| 16 | SABLE | Sable | Sand |
| 17 | LABUL | La bulle | The bubble |
| 18 | TRAKA | Tracas | Hassle, concern |
| 19 | RAPOR | Rapport | Report |
| 20 | GORET | Goret | Slang for pig |
| 21 | PENDU | Pendu | Hangman |
| 22 | KURIR | Courir | To run |
| 23 | OGALO | Au galop | Galloping |
| 24 | GITAN | Gitan | Gypsy |
Update: GolfHotelWhiskey posted this great list of funny waypoints, in English.
Read other Advent Calendar Posts – but no cheating !
5 Comments, Comment or Ping
Julien
Merry Christmas Vincent! There’s also waypoint MERLU (it’s a fish, the English word for it is hake) somewhere between Nice and Corsica.
Dec 25th, 2008
PlasticPilot
Merry Christmas to you Julien,
Do you mean MERLU, like the number 3 in the list ?
Dec 26th, 2008
Julien
Australia also has some remarkable IFR waypoints too. You will recognize the local fauna: CAMEL, CHOOK, DINGO, GATOR, GEKKO, GOANA,HORSE, KANGA, KOALA, KOOKA, MAGPI, POSUM, PRAWN, SHARK and WHALE.
There’s one funny one I know: GAMBL is right above the town of Casino.
Julien.
Jan 3rd, 2009
PlasticPilot
Thank you Julien for this new list… I’d really like to be “cleared DINGO, GATOR, KOALA and hold”.
Jan 3rd, 2009
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