I was out on a trip yesterday – beautiful blue skies, little wind, great visibility. It’s the kind of day which gets pilots of all abilities out of their arm-chairs and into the air. The controller on the Farnborough East sector was getting quite terse with pilots whose RT was sub-standard. It matters a lot when the frequency is busy – unanswered or incorrectly answered calls need more repetition, which just clogs up the frequency even more. In the worst case, it can create a safety issue.
Every radio conversation follows the same structure – a short contact call, a main message and a read-back or acknowledgement. And the main message has a consistent format: Who you are, What you’re doing, Where you are, What you want. Or more precisely for those fond of acronyms – CARPACeR: Call sign, Aircraft type, Route, Position, Altitude, Condition (VFR / IFR), Request. 2025 edit – the CAA now advocate CARPAII: Call sign, Aircraft type, Route, (Departure, Destination), Position, Altitude, Information, Intentions (this is where you’d give significant turning points and request the Service you want)
Some ways to get it right
Know where you are, report where you are. There is a world of difference between being north of Farnborough and west of Farnborough! Sure, ATC may have radar and spot you, but you create doubt in the controller’s mind – do you know where you are, can you be relied on to proceed as instructed?
- Think before you speak
- Be accurate with your position
- But don’t be excessively precise – ’west of…’ or ‘just west of…’ is often sufficient. ‘1.6 miles west of…’ is probably unnecessary.
Always read back a clearance or instruction – ATC need you to read back certain things, to check you have understood.
- Don’t rely on memory alone; have a pencil ready to write down instructions
- Develop your own shorthand to do this concisely
Don’t butt in to an ongoing conversation / read-back
- Listen out for a few seconds before transmitting
- If you hear a pilot making a request that needs an answer, or ATC giving an instruction which needs reading back, wait till the exchange has finished
Listen out. I lost count of the number of times I heard G-NW… are you on frequency? G-NW.. radio check etc.
- Listen out for your call sign
- Make sure you have the volume loud enough
- Don’t allow cockpit conversations to interfere with monitoring the RT
- Advise before leaving the frequency, so the controller knows you have gone
Listen out when receiving a traffic service. Even worse than not listening out, is asking for a Traffic Service and then not listening to traffic advisories. What’s the point?
- It is a requirement to read-back traffic advice with either ‘Looking for traffic / Traffic not sighted’ or ‘Traffic sighted’
- Ask yourself whether a Traffic service is really necessary and appropriate for the conditions (visibility, traffic density, pilot work-load)
And other tips to help prepare
- If not confident, rehearse your calls on the ground, and try to imagine or anticipate the ATC responses – it’s easy to do this in the car on the way to the airfield. We’ve all had to go
through the RT learning curve - Brush up what kind of information you need to read-back, and when a simple ‘Roger’ or ‘Wilco’ is enough
- Still not sure? Then get some advice from an instructor, or read some of the materials on this website
- If flying with another pilot, why not share the work-load – assign one of you to monitor and respond on the radio.
