Don’t believe everything you saw on Top Gun! Pilots don’t say “affirmative” for ‘yes’ – the correct term is “AY-firm”.

A plane coming into land.

This is one you never want to use. It’s the distress call for emergencies, such as a complete engine failure. It comes from the French ’m’ aidez’, meaning ‘help me.’ When in trouble, a pilot will say it three times.

Minimum Equipment List. This means a part of the aircraft has malfunctioned but is not of vital importance to the flight.

This is the next level of distress down from ‘Mayday’. Apply it situations which are severe but not life-threatening. Pan-pan originates from the French word ‘panne’, meaning a breakdown. Like ‘Mayday’ it is said three times at the start of a call.

Contrary to popular belief, not all men who work in aviation are called Roger. This code-word confirms the pilot has received a message but not yet complied.

To squawk is to set your transponder (the device for receiving a radio signal) so that your location can be identified on radar. Pilots may be asked to ‘squawk Mode – – Charlie’ or ‘squawk ident’, which are individual settings to allow air traffic control to locate a plane.

Meaning “please wait”, this is said when the air traffic controller or pilot is too busy to receive a message.