I was looking for a way to get better on the radio faster and came across this: Comm1: Radio Simulators | VFR Does this seem like a good investment or a waste of money?
I'd use the $ for another hour of actual flying. You'll continue to learn by actually doing and before long will become 2nd nature. ATC communication is as much about situational awareness as it is knowing proper phraseology. Get a handheld radio and spend an extra hour at the airport listening to pilots and ATC. Have your map handy and learn all the reporting points for your local airport. Visualize where the pilot (plane) is when they receive certain instructions or make calls/replys. This will then seem familiar when you are the one in the plane.
+1 When learning how to fly, I would avoid very busy fields. My instructor chided me and said "Never be afraid to fly into a busy field - you will never improve unless you do." So, jump in and do it. Remember - they are more afraid of you than you are of them and will help you.
^^ Agree. Plus, realize you are taking lessons at a fully-controlled airport (Allentown) with tower, ground control, departure, and arrival frequencies. At my airport, Leesburg (JYO), it only has a CTAF, so radio calls are much simpler. Basically, each radio call has the same 5 parts: - Who you are talking to (e.g. "Leesburg Traffic") - Who you are (e.g. "Skylane Five-One-Niner-One-Tango") (note that this is a made-up tail number) - Where you are (e.g. "Ten miles west of the airport") - What your intentions are (e.g. "Inbound for Runway One-Seven") - Repeat who you are talking to (e.g. "Leesburg" or "Leesburg Traffic"). This format works well 90% of the time for radio calls. So, my typical pattern radio call would be something like: "Leesburg Traffic, Skylane Five-One-Niner-One-Tango, turning left base for runway one-seven, full stop, Leesburg". .
Biggest problem I see at most airports and when talking to center is that most don't seem to know exactly what they intend to say before keying the mike. Get that down and you'll be more than ok. Art
I agree with Art.... People just start talking on the radios and don't know what the hell they want to get across and then they ramble. Figure out what you want to say. Figure out how you want to say it, preferably in a concise manner. Then talk.... Listen to how other people screw up radio calls and learn from them. If necessary write down a script for yourself, it's something I occasionally have students do to be clear and concise. All of my flying experience is in crew aircraft and briefing guides are an important tool that can be carried over. Longest radio call I make on a regular basis is an inbound call and I do it the same way every time.... Chrome XX is 15 minutes out, XX% mission complete, maintenance status X with the following X write ups, requesting parking location with transportation for X crew and download of X. Same thing every time.
Radio work was one of the things i was most nervous about. As mentioned by the other guys, I purchased a hand held radio and went to different airports ( I used LAX and KVNY) and listened, to ground, Tower and departure channels, you can really tell the pro's from the beginners. I was so nervous at first that i would literally write everything down i wanted to say before i keyed the Mic. ie " Van Nuys tower, skyhawk 123AB, at hanger 567, with ATIS BRAVO, ready for taxi" then write down the reply and read it back to them. I found i could half my battle/problem by anticipating the response, ie knowing the reply would be "123AB, taxi to 16R via Alpha" made my reply much quicker and more effective. With time it will become 2nd nature especially if you are flying in busy airspace which i think you are. The one thing that cleared me of all nerves was, before a lesson i was sitting watching and listening at Van Nuys when a pilot came in who litterally sounded like he did not know what the heck he was doing or where he was, the tower had to cancel his landing clearance 2 or 3 times because of things he was saying and doing wrong, Tower was clearly fustrated but remained profesional and polite, although when he finaly did land and taxi off the controler did read him a phone number he would need to be calling. I told my instructor the story, and he had happened to be in the pattern and heard the whole episode, he told me " and that guy has a pilots licence, so what are you worried about" So my advise would be get the hand held go out and listen, and remember, its, who you want to talk to, who you are, where you are and what you want to do.
Listen to Live ATC (Air Traffic Control) Communications | LiveATC.net was a great help for me. I never thought that I would get it, but it came eventually and now I laugh that I even had trouble with it to begin with!
Great idea, i even have the app on my I-phone and listen to it often when driving to work...although they have lost the LAX feed recently which is a bummer..
Listening to the radio is good practice. When you do that, one of the more difficult items is copying down an IFR clearance as they're information packed and delivered quickly. Try listening for those, usually on clearance delivery or ground frequencies, and see how much you can get. You will probably need to develop some abbreviations and symbols (such as an up-arrow for climb to, SQ for squawk, etc) to keep up. This will also be good practice for your IFR training. Writing down what you want to say is good practice also, doesn't have to be a script, just write down bullet items you need to convey to make sure you cover what's needed, then practice speaking in sequence as cued by those bullet items. For example, let's say you want flight following from PAO to LVK. You might write down: - Flight Following - PAO LVK - 5500 And the practice transmission might be: "Bay Approach Cessna 34K, requesting Flight Following, Departing Palo Alto, enroute to Livermore, climbing to 5500"
This thread reminded me of a little embarrasment: Years ago, I had to fly my Citabria thru the Dallas TCA from North so South from OKC to get to the Naval Air Station on the south side of town. It had an old Genave trans-com which meant that you could not use the omni at the same time as you were transmitting. It also had only 360 frequencies and the current system had half frequencies for 720. Sure enough, when I called the TCA they tried to assign me a half frequency. I just confessed my lack of equipment, and the guy was VERY, VERY nice. He said, just stay with me here on this frequency, and I will give you vectors. He gave me IFR style vectors (it was VFR, of course) right up to the destination. I confess that when I went back, I just got real low like a traffic helicopter and followed the highways back up north. Lesson being - these ATC guys are there to help you, not to intimidate you.
I agree with all of the above. Having said that, I actually found that DVD very helpful. It describes a nice systematic way to talk on the radio. If you want mine (and I can still find it) let me know and you can have it for $50 postage included. The most important thing (which has already been stated) is know what you want to say before you key your mic.
Start every tranmission to a new controller with, "good day". Good day XXXX ground, good day XXXX tower. Or end it that way.... Cessna 123AB, switching to tower, have a good day. You'll sound like a pro in no time......
I have always chuckled when I think of helping a young kid who was flying a Bellanca biplane. He was much like some of the WW2 fighter pilots; young, confident, handsome, and maybe a little brash. After loading , he got into the cockpit, didn't yell " Clear" but looked out and yelled, " All you guys better move back! I'm gonna' start pushin' buttons."
