Radio Communications

Letters are spoken with the phonetic alphabet — Alfa, Bravo, Charlie — so they're unmistakable over a noisy frequency, and numbers are spoken one digit at a time, with 'three' as 'tree,' 'five' as 'fife,' and 'nine' as 'niner.' On your first call to a controller you can add 'student pilot,' which cues ATC to slow down and give you extra help. Say your full call sign the first time; after that you can shorten it to the last three characters if the controller does.

• What are the four parts of a radio call?
• How do you say the numbers 3, 5, and 9 on the radio?

At a field without a tower, everyone shares the CTAF (common traffic advisory frequency). A UNICOM is a non-ATC advisory station on the published CTAF that can give you fuel or parking; if there's no tower, FSS, or UNICOM at all, you self-announce on MULTICOM 122.9. Before you talk to anyone, listen to the recorded weather — ATIS at towered fields, AWOS or ASOS elsewhere. At a towered field you'll use clearance delivery, ground, tower, and approach or departure.

• What's the difference between CTAF, UNICOM, and MULTICOM?
• Which frequency do you use if a field has no tower, FSS, or UNICOM?

Lead with the airport 'traffic,' then your aircraft type and call sign, then where you are and what you're doing, then the airport name again so anyone tuning in mid-call knows which field you mean. Make the calls inbound (about 10 miles out), entering downwind, on base, on final, and when you're clear of the runway — plus before you taxi and before you depart. Say your full call sign the first time, then you can shorten it to the last three.

• Give the self-announce call for entering the downwind at a non-towered field.
• Why do you say the airport name at both the start and end of the call?

Get the ATIS first and note its phonetic code, then contact clearance delivery (where published, and for IFR), then ground for taxi. Ground owns everything except the runways; tower owns the active runways for takeoff and landing. Busier airports add approach and departure for radar service. On your first call, give who you're calling, who you are, where you are, what you want, and that you have the current ATIS ('with Information Bravo').

• In what order do you use the towered-field frequencies?
• What does ground control own versus tower?

Always read back a hold-short instruction — including the runway number — plus runway assignments, 'line up and wait,' and any altitude or heading assignment. Beyond that: listen before you transmit so you don't block another call, plan what you'll say, use standard phraseology, and keep it brief. Skip 'any traffic in the area, please advise' — it just clutters the frequency; make your normal position calls and listen instead.

• Which ATC instructions must you read back?
• How should you acknowledge a hold-short instruction?

Plan the call before you key the mic: who, who, where, what. Monitor the frequency and transmit in a gap so you don't block anyone. Use standard phraseology instead of jargon, and keep it short — the frequency is shared by everyone in the area. And if the radio ever quits, you're not stuck: light-gun signals and lost-communications procedures are the next lesson.

• What makes a good radio call?
• What do you do if your radio fails? (preview of the next lesson)