Original Message

Regarding ATC communications:

1) Would a tower or radar controller ever call a helicopter an "airplane"?  No

2) Would a tower or radar controller ever call a helicopter or airplane a "ship"?  No

3) Would a tower or radar controller ever call a helicopter or airplane a "bird"? No

Not that hard.

Aircraft, chopper, copter, choppa, helo, heli (for my British mates out there), or haw-ter-ter (what my kids called it when they were 2-3 year old) are all completely acceptable terms for a helicopter in normal conversation when talking about a helicopter.

Colloquially, in conversation about it's characteristics, to call it a bird, a ship, or a girl/she ("she's a good bird, we have two ships at our base, she handles well, she's being feisty today, this girl's the best in the fleet") are all fine when shared in the context of describing the aircraft, but can be wrong/confusing or make you sound dumb depending on the context.

But for real: Army guys - stop calling helicopters "airplanes".  Wrong on so many levels.  Something happens in the brainwashing of senior leader courses as it's mostly senior warrants, many commissioned officers, and even XP's (which is most shocking).