On The Airbands

I recently received a letter from Andrew North, of Timaru, New Zealand, who has been monitoring Aussie aircraft stooging around his local area and has heard a couple of strange callsigns put forth by. the Aussies. One of them is ‘argus’ and this has Andrew thinking hard, trying to unravel the meaning and aircraft type!

Facts are, Andrew, that the aircraft were C-130s and ‘argus’ is very much an unofficial radio call, but one commonly used by RAAF drivers with a sense . of humour. It’s usually employed with another word  to it . . . ‘tuft’, so that the proper callsign comes ‘argus tuft’! Do you understand? Try saying it quickly and it will make sense! I recently heard a formation of F-111 s who had been exercising for the best part of a week, abandon their ‘buckshot colt’ callsign for ‘argus tuft’; with the following results:

SYDNEY CONTROL: “Argus Tuft, you are cleared for descent when ready. ”

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