Radio Work

[FelixTheGreat]

I am kind of curious about how the radio calls to ATC differ between what they teach you in Primary from what you learn and hear in the civilian world. The only real difference I have heard is that military pilots announce "Gear down, 3 green for landing" when they get their landing clearance from the tower. Or, from what I understand, when you get an IFR clearance or depart from a class C airport, their is a unique way of contacting clearance delivery and ground control.

I guess I am wondering how much of a culture shock there will be as far as radio work goes if and when I get to primary, knock on wood. As far as flying goes I am always pretty compliant when transitioning aircraft or learning new techniques and SOP's, but I am a little worried that I am so comfortable with the radios and used to asking ATC for things in a certain way to get what I want that it will be a hard for me to transition over.

 

[Herc_Dude]

I am kind of curious about how the radio calls to ATC differ between what they teach you in Primary from what you learn and hear in the civilian world. The only real difference I have heard is that military pilots announce "Gear down, 3 green for landing" when they get their landing clearance from the tower. Or, from what I understand, when you get an IFR clearance or depart from a class C airport, their is a unique way of contacting clearance delivery and ground control.

I guess I am wondering how much of a culture shock there will be as far as radio work goes if and when I get to primary, knock on wood. As far as flying goes I am always pretty compliant when transitioning aircraft or learning new techniques and SOP's, but I am a little worried that I am so comfortable with the radios and used to asking ATC for things in a certain way to get what I want that it will be a hard for me to transition over.

Don't worry too much about the culture shock. There is a nice book called the FWOP (Fixed-Wing Op Procedures) that has all the radio calls written in the back exactly how they expect you to say them. You might have to break some habits, speaking and flying as well. Good luck!

 

[HeyJoe]

The "Hit Board" and fear of being singled out on it for comm mistakes does wonders for transitioning and curing other bad habits or missteps

 

[Brett327]

I am kind of curious about how the radio calls to ATC differ between what they teach you in Primary from what you learn and hear in the civilian world. The only real difference I have heard is that military pilots announce "Gear down, 3 green for landing" when they get their landing clearance from the tower. Or, from what I understand, when you get an IFR clearance or depart from a class C airport, their is a unique way of contacting clearance delivery and ground control.

I guess I am wondering how much of a culture shock there will be as far as radio work goes if and when I get to primary, knock on wood. As far as flying goes I am always pretty compliant when transitioning aircraft or learning new techniques and SOP's, but I am a little worried that I am so comfortable with the radios and used to asking ATC for things in a certain way to get what I want that it will be a hard for me to transition over.

Probably the most important difference, especially once in the fleet, is comm brevity. In no time, you'll be saying "C/S, nine point five," instead of "C/S, leaving one thousand five hundred for nine thousand five hundred."

Brett

 

[Gatordev]

Just about every single comm in flight school is right out of the AIM and is technically the correct way to do it. What you're probably used to is what everyone actually does in the real world. The "real world" comms are based on the correct comms, so it won't be too foreign, but like devil_dog says, learn what's in the FWOP and stick to that. Once you go on the road for your CCX, you'll be in a more "relaxed" comm environment and it's what you're used to now (ie, the real world).

EDIT: Brett beat me to it. Again, "C/S, nine point five" is a "better" way to say it, but not technically correct, so the Primary way is the full spiel.

 

[FelixTheGreat]

Will they jump on you in primary if you do abbreviate things like climb clearances. I fly out of Centennial which is a fairly busy GA airport and I am used to saying things like "8,000,120" instead of "climb and maintain 8,000, turn right heading 120" when talking to an overworked controller in good IMC. I always try to shorten radio calls to the bare minimum that needed for clarification in an effort to not tie up the comms. Will IP's get on you for shortening things or are they more likely to give you some leeway if you seem like you know what is going on?

 

[Gatordev]

Will they jump on you in primary if you do abbreviate things like climb clearances. I fly out of Centennial which is a fairly busy GA airport and I am used to saying things like "8,000,120" instead of "climb and maintain 8,000, turn right heading 120" when talking to an overworked controller in good IMC. I always try to shorten radio calls to the bare minimum that needed for clarification in an effort to not tie up the comms. Will IP's get on you for shortening things or are they more likely to give you some leeway if you seem like you know what is going on?

For the first half of Primary, you won't really need to worry about such things. Learn the script, and pretty much that's all you have to say except for the occasional random instruction from ATC due to some solo that's screwing everything up. In RIs, you'll want to do the correct comms, especially w/ the sim guys.

That all said, I teach my onwings, if they have the SA for it, to shorten some things w/ "Wilco," like when checking in w/ tower. But for the most part, it's all part of the game to stick to the script.

 

[FelixTheGreat]

That is kind of what I figured. I have made peace with the fact that I will have to learn the rules and play-ball.

 

[insanebikerboy]

I got a lot of 5's for radio procedures in primary for making the comms as short as possible. The funny thing was that my first four fams I wanted to give a dissertation on the radios, but it just kind of clicked after Fam 4. Doing stuff like what Dmitri said "8,000/120/10 min", and other things like that seemed to make all the instructors that I flew with really happy.

That said, and this from the super salty primary finisher......say exactly what is expected/written at least until after your solo, then you might start seeing some difference/relaxation. At least that was my experience.

 

[usmcecho4]

... In RIs, you'll want to do the correct comms, especially w/ the sim guys...

Concur. Nothing more fun than sitting in your little capsule for 1.5 trying to follow needles while giving compulsory position reports in the non-radar environment (PTAPTP) with the instructor insisting that you verbalize the 6 Ts even though most of them are N/A. Good times.

That said they have appendices in the back of the books that give you a script as to what you should say and when. During contacts you just say the same stuff over and over again so it doesn't take too long to get it down. If you instructor wants to do something non-standard he will usually take the comms and set it up with ATC (this is nice as when he takes the comms you know something bad is going to happen). It is fun listening to your friends tell ATC their life story or hearing random SNA's transmitting their ICS calls (checklists, curses, etc) over the radio.

Semper Fi,
usmcecho4

 

[phrogpilot73]

The only real difference I have heard is that military pilots announce "Gear down, 3 green for landing" when they get their landing clearance from the tower.

Agree with every thing that has been said by others so far. The "3 down and locked" is not a military requirement, although it is an Air Force requirement. They will actually ask you if you don't report it. I replied to this query at Maxwell AFB with "3 down and welded" since we can't retract the gear on a Phrog. They were not amused.

 

[kmac]

There is a Navy (and Marine Corps?) requirement for the tower to ask for the gear (ie, "report gear down and locked") as well. At least in SoCal though it's getting to the point where it's standard verbiage for them rather than actually asking for a 3 down call. For example, you can report gear down and locked to a PAR controller and he'll still say "six and a half miles to final, approaching glidepath, report three down and locked" even though I just reported that.

Gotta love the landing pattern calls of "Side#, gear, touch and go (or stop)."

 

[phrogpilot73]

There is a Navy (and Marine Corps?) requirement for the tower to ask for the gear (ie, "report gear down and locked") as well.

I've been out of it for a while, but I wasn't aware that it was a requirement for the Navy/Marine Corps. Perhaps it's because Navy/Marine Corps bases know that the Phrog's gear is down all the time that they don't bother to ask. I've only ever been asked at an Air Force base. I do remember hearing shitters in the pattern reporting 3 down and locked at MCAS New River, but they never asked me!

 

[Cavt]

I'll chime in on this one...you can probably, as said, get away with shortening the calls in the plane, but as soon as you step into the sim's those old angry men over there will jump all over you if it isn't word for word out of the FTI. Just food for thought.

 

[kmac]

I'll chime in on this one...you can probably, as said, get away with shortening the calls in the plane, but as soon as you step into the sim's those old angry men over there will jump all over you if it isn't word for word out of the FTI. Just food for thought.

Thanks, I'll be sure to remember that.