AboutDottie Norkus Expertise I can address questions concerning: airline pilot employment & entry level airline careers in the Unites States, women pilots, flight training, pilot certification, flight scholarships (mostly for women), aviation & airline safety topics, aviation accident investigation, air carrier accidents and airline operations.
***Please note, I cannot address flight training or career queries from outside the United States. If you are not in the USA, please direct your question to the message boards at www.PPRUNE.org as you can surely find an answer there. For those in India try http://www.indianpilots.com
Also, I cannot address questions about aero engineering degree programs/careers or aviation management careers.
Experience U.S. Regional Airline Pilot. I have also had 15 years previous experience in airline ground operations, as well as a part 91 commercial skydive pilot and ferry pilot.
Organizations I belong to I am a charter member of Women In Aviation International as well as the International Organization of Women Pilots: the Ninety Nines. I keep a database of flight scholarships for women (mostly SW USA) and mentor student pilots.
Education/Credentials Embry Riddle Aeronautical University certificate in Aviation Safety/Accident investigation.
Question Dottie,
I have been monitoring some of those websites that give you the direct feeds into ATC towers. It's good to be able to hear how the pilots communicate with ATC but it gets a little dry after a while of listening to the same tower. I noticed that when ATC passes a plane onto another controller they instruct them to tune into a different frequency. Unfortunately, when listening online you can't switch to that frequency to track a particular aircraft.
Anyway, I was wondering if you had a transcript of an entire flight of any aircraft which I could read in order to get an idea of what communication goes on between that aircraft and ATC. It's kind of a gray area for me, and I would love to learn more about it so I can be prepared and not make an idiot of my self when I start taking flight lessons. Thanks for your help.
Dan
Answer Dan
Sorry, I have not seen any transcript of a flights communications from beginning to end. Not to worry though, you won't need any such thing to get you through training. While you may have a small case of "mike fright", you will get over it soon enough. Talking on the radio really won't be that big of a deal, especially if you remember what they want to hear and use the correct terminology to tell them.
While listening in to a freq on ATC online, you are probably hearing airliners and phraseology pertaining to instrument approach proceedures that you won't need to bother with as a PPL student. It would probably be a better idea to tune into a smaller tower and listen to the General Aviation traffic calls. Get the smallest, cheapest VHF receiver (not a transceiver) you can find, go sit at the airport during a busy day and listen up. You will learn a lot about what is said and when. (You will also learn when other pilots are using incomplete call ups, usually ATC must query them for additional information.)
The Airmans Information Manual is available online and that contains pilot/ATC communication guidelines. If you want to learn more, this is the place. You should become very familiar with Chapter 4, sections 4-2-1 through 4-2-12. Once you have mastered that, you will have NO problem talking on the radio:
I also suggest getting a subscription to AOPAs Flight Training Magazine if you want to get ahead of the game. It is like getting a CFI in your mailbox every month. Student pilots get 6 months free-
