Wonderful, thank you everyone for all your help, knowledge, links and re-quotes. I have attached what I believe to be a finished paragraph and your advice has also enabled me to change phrases prior to this too. Thanks again and all the best, Becky. xxx PS: I've left in the talk amid the sterile cockpit rule as there's a couple of things that the crew does on this flight that is not 100% exactly by the book, adding flames for the inquest that follows the emergency landing that ends the chapter.

‘Positive rate,’ Michael said.
‘Gear up,’ Robert responded.
Michael raised the landing gear handle, repeating, ‘gear up.’
‘Flaps up.’
‘Flaps set to five,’ Michael nodded, moving the flap lever.
‘Never get tired of that sound,’ Robert smiled in a lighter tone, referring to the power behind the DC-10 at takeoff.
‘Cali Two Zero Seven,’ Tower acknowledged, ‘Airbourne time: seventeen hundred zero nine. Contact London Control on one one nine decimal seven seven. Have a great flight, goodbye.’
‘Switching to London Control, one one nine decimal seven seven. Thank you. Bye bye, now.’
Michael switched frequency, enabling Robert to speak to their third ground-based communication team.
‘Control, good evening,’ Robert said warmly, ‘Cali Two Zero Seven, climbing through eight hundred to six thousand, on the WOBUN Three Foxtrot departure.’
Another voice greeted the cockpit via the radio: ‘Cali Two Zero Seven, Departure, good evening. Cross one four DME from London at six thousand.’
‘Roger, Cali Two Zero Seven, cross the London one four DME fix at six thousand.’

 

If they take off with the flaps set at 5 degrees, when the flying pilot calls "flaps up" the other pilot would move the flap handle to the "up" position. If they had been at a light weight they may have taken off with the flaps set at 15 or 22. More flaps allows the plane to fly at a slower speed but you wouldn't retrack them all at once. If they had taken off with the flaps set at 22 they would have climbed up to 3000 feet above the airport and then lowered the nose some to allow the speed to increase. As the speed picked up to a number based on the takeoff weight, the flying pilot would have called for "flaps 15" and the other pilot would have moved the flaps the 15 degrees. As the speed increased further, the flying pilot would have called for "flaps 5" and finally "flaps up." Since the runways at LHR are long and they're going half way around the world, I'd guess they'd only use flaps 5 for takeoff and the call would be "flaps up" and the non-flying pilot would repeat the call and move the flap handle to the up position.

 

Well, I finally got back around to this thread and I see that the dead horse has been beaten, so no further beatings are required. Good luck with the book!

 

That's rather un-internet forum like isn't it? Isn't this the point at which we engage in pedantic debate about whether the correct phraseology is "decimal" or "point," or some other ridiculous thing? I mean, this could discredit the whole process!

 

Nice to hear from you! (6/12/12) It's going very well thank you; it's nearly finished and currently being considered by Californian publishing house Coliloquy. Once it's finished, I shall be submitting it to UK agents with hopes that it will find representation in the UK without too much trouble. Got about 8-weeks left of work and then it's all systems go! Hope you and yours are well and I'll keep you updated. Warmest Regards, Becky

 

Military based comm brevity? I never said anything. The ident is the response.

I never said anything when assigned a new transponder code either. The spoken
word is only one form of communication.

.

 

And how do you know that the request was complied with or the pilot just missed the call?

'Silence is consent' can lead to confusion in many cases, especially in one of my last jobs when dealing with less experienced pilots.

USMCFLYR

 

When I push the "IDENT" button, I've complied with the request. If my flight number
on the scope doesn't light up, ATC knows I missed the call.

Communication is happening without the verbal chatter.

.

 

Or the xponder is o/s

 

Having had transponder issues in the past - this is certainly one possibility I've come across.

USMCFLYR