Talking About The Radio, Or On The Radio ---------------------------------------- For some pilots (especially those who fly from small, uncontrolled airports) the communications radio can be intimidating. They actively avoid towered (class C and D) airports and Class B airspace, which is unfortunate. Other pilots, who fly out of towered airports all the time, feel exactly the opposite - they're uncomfortable at uncontrolled airports, where there isn't a tower to help them! It's really what you're used to, and what you were taught. Some people feel that it's best to train for your private pilot's license at a larger, busier airport that has a tower so that you'll never be intimidated by the radio. My opinion is that if you have the choice, train at a small, quiet uncontrolled airport. It will probably be cheaper (but you may have to drive further!). The aircraft will likely rent for less per hour, and you will waste less expensive time taxiing and waiting on the ground, and flying to and from the practice area. Also, there's a fundamental axiom of flight instruction: From the simple, to the complex. A solo student usually has plenty enough to do just flying the airplane! At a small, quiet uncontrolled airport, the student can concentrate on flying the airplane without the additional distraction of a busy tower frequency. But after you've learned to fly the airplane, it's important to continue learning! Now is the time to get used to flying through that busy airspace, rather than around it! I use a really simple way of organizing a radio transmission, called the _five W's_: W ho you're talking to (You) Airport NAME, or facility NAME W ho you are (Me) Skylane two four sierra W hat I have (What I have... information) W hat I want to do (What I want... or doing or planning) W here I am (Airport NAME or Geographic location if talking to UNICOM or TRAFFIC. Leave out if talking to an FAA Facility). FAA AC 90-42F Paragraphs 10&11 For example, let's say you want to go to Hogtown on the other side of Somespot, which has class C or D airspace around it's airport. Rather than flying around Somespot's airspace, let's fly through it! Our radio call using the "W's" might sound something like this: Who (you): Somespot Tower Who (me): Skylane Five One Four Two Charlie Where (have): Ten east, two thousand five hundred What (want/do): Westbound to Hogtown Make an effort to reduce the use of "to" and "for" in your radio transmissions. They can be easily confused with "two" and "four". Also, delete words that convey no information, like "this is". We KNOW who you are! You've told us! Anyways, back to Somespot. If Somespot has an ATIS (Automatic Terminal Information Service) or AWOS (Airport Weather Observation Service) frequency, it's considered good manners to tune in the ATIS/AWOS first and get the current information about Somespot so the poor controller doesn't have to keep repeating it over and over again! Let's say that Somespot has ATIS (which is currently information Papa), and we suspect that Somespot has radar, We might say: Who (you): Somespot Tower Who (me): Skylane Five One Four Two Charlie Where (have): Ten east, two thousand five hundred, squawking 1200 with Papa, landing What (want/do): Westbound to Hogtown Note that I put the "squawking 1200" transponder information with the _Where (have)_, since the controller has a radar screen, and he can look for our 1200 "blip". "squawking 1200" is pronounced "squawking one two zero zero". The neat thing is that you can structure just about any radio call around the "W's". Let's say we're inbound to an uncontrolled airport called Someplace. It has a CTAF (Common Traffic Advisory Frequency) so we dial it in, and we hear other traffic using runway 26 at Someplace. We might say: Who (you): Someplace Traffic, (Airport Name) Who (me): Skylane Five One Four Two Charlie, Where (have): Eight north, two thousand What (want/do): planning left traffic two six, Who (you): Someplace (Airport or geographic location). That's all we need to say. Don't clutter up the frequency with a lot of excess words. "Someplace Area Traffic" carries no more meaning than "Someplace Traffic"... again leave off the excess "Area" word. There is no "Area traffic, please advise"... useless transmission. Really! Lookup AIM 4.1.9(g): "not to be used". Carefully choose your words, and don't say them too quickly. Say them once, clearly, for the benefit of the poor guy without a headset or poor radio audio. Here's another one: let's say that you land at Ottawa International on runway 32, and you turn off at taxiway kilo. When off the runway, you switch to ground 121.9 and say: Who (you): Ottawa Ground Who (me): Skylane Five One Four Two Charlie Where (have): off two two, at Kilo What (want/do): Taxi East Ramp parking You congratulate yourself, thinking you're getting the hang of this. Unfortunately, ATC (Air Traffic Controllers) whom I suspect are required to attend tobacco auctioneer's school, might just rattle back at you: FiveOneFourTwoCharlieTaxiViaAlphaQuebecTangoHoldShortTwoTwo Decode as: "Five One Four Two Charlie, Taxi Via Alpha, Quebec, Tango, Hold Short Two Two". You MUST repeat it back!!! Use the same words and same sequence! It can happen! It can be somewhat overwhelming if you are not familiar with a particular airport and it's procedures. The lesson here is that when talking to ATC _always_ have a pen and pad in front of you: They tell you something, you write it down. And if you didn't get it all, or don't understand it, just say so: Ottawa Ground, say again. Don't allow yourself to be intimidated by an authoritative-sounding controller on a busy frequency, and just squeak out your registration in response. If you acknowledge the transmission, ATC is going to think that you're going to comply with it. You aren't doing anyone any favors by _not_ asking for clarification. In the above circumstance, a really good idea might be to say: Ottawa Ground, unfamiliar, student pilot, request progressive taxi. This is a wonderful ATC service that few pilots are familiar with. It's great at a large airport, especially at night when it's so easy to get lost in that sea of blue lights. No one wants an accidental runway incursion! I should mention that there a few more magic radio words that all pilots should be familiar with. Know these words and use them: 1) "Say Again" 2) "Unable" 3) "Stand By" 4) "Emergency" (1): "Say Again" we've already talked about above. If you don't understand, you can't comply with it, so you can't acknowledge it. Better to sound a little stupid now, than do something really stupid (and possibly fatal) in the future. (2): "Unable" can come in handy. ATC is pretty darned good at their job. They're well trained, and they do it full time. But they're human, and from time to time, they're going to make a mistake. And don't ever forget who is pilot in command of your aircraft - you, not ATC. Let's say ATC vectors you (VFR) towards a cloud. You might respond: Unable to maintain VFR on that heading. How about 30 degrees right, or 60 degrees left? Just saying "unable" is a bit rude. Try to help ATC, and suggest an alternate course of action. Don't jabber and waste bandwidth, but don't make ATC play 20 questions, either. (3): "Stand By" is what ATC says to you when they're too busy to talk to you at that moment. If you get busy flying your airplane, just tell ATC to "stand by". They might get a little annoyed at you, but that's life in the swivel chair :-) The United States Navy, who does a lot of serious aviating, have a saying they drill into their aviation cadets: Aviate, Navigate, Communicate, don't Fixate! ... in _THAT_ order. First priority is always to fly the aircraft. (4): "Emergency" should not be invoked lightly. There's an old saying: "A superior pilot uses his superior judgment to avoid having to use his superior skill". You should try really really hard to avoid getting in a situation where you have to declare an emergency. Problem is, experience is a nasty teacher: first comes the test, then the lesson. But poop happens, and I'd rather declare an emergency and deal with a possible paperwork hassle than end up in a smoking hole. A very experienced pilot once told me on this subject, "Sonny, they can take away my certificate _after_ I'm safely on the ground". I hope you never have to declare an emergency, but if you do, remember that when you do, don't worry about the regulations. Do whatever you have to do to get you and your passengers safely down on the ground again. We can argue about it later, over a cup of coffee! If you are a VFR pilot, you may stop reading here. IFR pilots, please continue reading. That Darned IFR Clearance ------------------------- I don't know about other pilots, but I find that one of the hardest parts of an IFR flight can be copying the darned clearance! Some days the gods of aviation will smile on you: tailwinds all the way, and ATC tells you "Cleared As Filed". Other days, though, you get a thirty knot headwind, and a clearance which in no way resembles what you filed (you _did_ look at the preferred IFR routes in the back of the book, didn't you? :) I can't help much about the wind, but I can help you with a structure for copying an IFR clearance. It's called CRAFT: C learance limit R oute A ltitude F requency (after departure) T ransponder code Let's say you file an IFR flight plan from Ottawa (CYOW) to Toronto/ Buttonville (CYKZ). You start the engine, get the ATIS on 121.15 and before you dial up 119.40 for your clearance, you'd have written out the following, double spaced: C Buttonville Airport R OW SID 6 V300 YSO DIR KZ (OW=Ottawa) A 6000 F OW DEP 128.17 T Writing it out double-spaced gives you room to make corrections. C: your clearance limit may not be your destination: it may be some intermediate fix if things are busy. R: your route may be a little or a lot different from what you asked for when you filed your IFR flight plan with ATC. You've already written your requested route out, and you can correct it as required. Besides, if ATC _does_ clear you "as filed", it's nice to have a copy of what you asked for. A nightmare of mine is leaving the flight plan form at the FSS, and after being cleared as filed, having to ask ATC "uuhh, what did I ask for again?!" One minor point about the route: in addition to checking the preferred IFR routes in the back of the CFS, be sure to check and see if the airport you are departing has a SID (Standard Instrument Departure). It's amazing how many smaller airports have SIDs now. No one seems to bother mentioning SIDs in the route section of the IFR flight plan, but _expect_ to get the SID in your clearance from ATC, which is why I put the "Ottawa SID Six" at the start of the route after the "R". Read the SID before you start the engine - most SIDs are really pretty simple. A: Don't expect to be immediately cleared to your flight-planned altitude. Especially if there isn't a SID, you could hear: Maintain 2000 expect 6000 10 minutes after departure which I would jot down (under the "A") as: A 6000 2K E 6K 10 min F: Look up the appropriate departure frequency. It gives you a chance to catch up with the rapid-fire clearance delivery controller when he tells you to "contactottawadepartureononetwentyeightonesevenwhenairborne" T: finally, when ATC tells you to Squawk 3421 after the T you have a nice blank, where you just write "3421" Like anything else, PERFECT practice makes perfect, or at least boring :-) The way to get good at working the radio is by doing lots of it. -- #include #----------------------------------------------------------------------- # @(#) $Revision: 1.8 $ $Date: 2019/10/20 20:54:15 $ # @(#) $Source: /srv/www/www.jerslash.net/tmp/RCS/radio_communications.txt,v $ # @(#) $SystemLocator: havoc.proulx.com $ # @(#) Author: Jer/ Eberhard, 970 231-6325, jer@jerslash.net # @(#) $Author: jer $ #-----------------------------------------------------------------------