Anyway to practice ATC communication?

bc2209

bc2209

Well-Known Member
Been searching on the web to find a type of simulator to practice communications with air traffic control but haven't come up with much.

Granted this is only my second flight i'm trying to stay ahead of things.

Any help would be greatly appreciate. Maybe any tips or tricks you have when you were learning?

It was my first time talking to ground and tower today and I fumbled my words basically.

Thank you!
 
One of the few Sporty's products that I liked when I was learning to fly was their VFR Communications and IFR Communications DVD/CD's. It was fairly inexpensive, and has both a CD and a DVD. They go through all of the calls needed for the private pilot in towered and non-towered airports, enroute, weather services, PIREPS, requesting flight following, etc....

With the IFR (once you get there), you can practice picking up clearances.
 
Screaming_Emu said:
Either get a scanner/ icom or www.liveatc.net and just listen. That's what worked for me.
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I second this. The more you listen to pilots and controllers talk, the easier and quicker your responses will be. Just try to understand what they are saying. If they give a clearance try writing it down and listing to the pilot read it back and match yours up.
 
I agree with the above, but make sure that you are learning correctly. Listen to "professional" pilots on the radio, and understand what is correct and what is slang.
 
I agree with the liveatc. I try to get all my students to do the same. Grabbing a handheld and walking out to the flight line really helps as well. Listen to the comms and relate it to what the aircraft in the pattern are doing.
 
jgheggie said:
I second this. The more you listen to pilots and controllers talk, the easier and quicker your responses will be. Just try to understand what they are saying. If they give a clearance try writing it down and listing to the pilot read it back and match yours up.
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This is a good idea... after a while try transitioning to mentally writing the information down and replying as if you were flying.
 
Screaming_Emu said:
Either get a scanner/ icom or www.liveatc.net and just listen. That's what worked for me.
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This.

Also, it's a little bit of work to get into it and figure stuff out, but get a cheap copy of FS2004 and check out http://vatsim.net/. Not only is it great for staying sharp with ATC, but if you wish to fly IFR, it's a great way to practice instrument flying. I spent a lot of time on VATSIM while I spent a little over a year not flying.
 
Vatsim, but thats more for IFR stuff.

I found going up to the tower and meeting some ATC guys will help me see that they aren't robots and unlike @canadian_atc do occasionally sound imperfect.

The advise I got from one ATC guy was that they have been doing it for years and sound refined. I had only been doing it a short time and would be more refined with more experience. You certainly aren't the first to sound silly and fumble around while talking to ATC (look through this thread http://forums.jetcareers.com/threads/on-the-freq-today.101014/) and you certainly won't be the last.

Another trick is to listen to a hand held radio or live atc and try to respond to whatever ATC was saying before the pilot on the other end will.

Lastly, if you have access to the newer lightspeed headset and an iphone, they have an app that will record your radio. Good way to review after a flight where you could polish your comms.
 
ChasenSFO said:
This.

Also, it's a little bit of work to get into it and figure stuff out, but get a cheap copy of FS2004 and check out http://vatsim.net/. Not only is it great for staying sharp with ATC, but if you wish to fly IFR, it's a great way to practice instrument flying. I spent a lot of time on VATSIM while I spent a little over a year not flying.
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Also, you can make cool videos for youtube and make me think they were going to be real. But they weren't.
 
scooter2525 said:
Also, you can make cool videos for youtube and make me think they were going to be real. But they weren't.
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Yeah, that's annoying.

You can do VFR on VATSIM too though. It was fun to polish off a Steel Reserve 40 and then do aimless VFR flights in jets in VATSIM when a bunch of controllers were active in an area. It irrates most of them, but hey, they're the one's who decided to be internet ATC.
 
ChasenSFO said:
Yeah, that's annoying.

You can do VFR on VATSIM too though. It was fun to polish off a Steel Reserve 40 and then do aimless VFR flights in jets in VATSIM when a bunch of controllers were active in an area. It irrates most of them, but hey, they're the one's who decided to be internet ATC.
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I would think vfr would be more interesting instead of cleared direct yomama.
 
Practice, practice, practice. I had a handheld before I ever got my PPL, but I don't think it really helped me once I got into the plane. I didn't know what I was listening to really, or at least, how to apply to practically.
 
The biggest thing you can do is relax. Every one screws up from time to time. I used to say I wish I could take a new student into the flight levels and have them listen to how often people don't get it quite right. With LiveATC, now they can hear it. I trip over my lips all the time and if a pilot tells you they never do, they're lying. So just take a breath, it will come to you. Right now you're trying to not only figure out what they're saying but what they want you to do as well. So listen to some liveATC and you'll start to understand what they're saying. The rest will come with time.
 
^My problem now is that I talk on the radio so much that I repeat instructions without really listening to them. I'll read back and then look at the captain "What heading did he say?" Also, I can never remember my flight number anymore without looking at the TOLD card.
 
Screaming_Emu said:
www.liveatc.net and just listen. That's what worked for me.
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This is what I made all of my Indian students do... I'd have em pull up the KRVS tower feed and then fake reply to the controllers with the correct response. After they got the tower down we'd move up to the tracon. Worked really good.

Also, you need to realize that the things the controllers say , for the most part, follow a very scripted format. There are certain things they are legally required to say. Once you start to recognize the cadence you will already know what is gonna come next, for example when a controller starts to say:
"FlagshipXXXX turn left heading 090 intercept the 9L localizer... maintain at or above 3,000 until SMOKR...." I know that the next words out of his mouth are going to be "cleared ILS 9L approach."

Listening to liveatc.net will help you recognize the phrases and strings of words that they put together literally hundreds of times per day, then you can anticipate.
 
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Like other said and I did it too.

Get a handheld, park at the airport where you can see the pattern. Listen and watch, pretty soon you'll be saying; "That guy sounds like a rookie." "He missed his downwind call." Your radio work will improve dramatically

I swear I soloed early not because I flew better than most. It was because at 8 hours my radio calls sounded like a 10,000 hour pilot. Unfortunately, I learned in San Diego (1972, 16 years old) and picked up a lot of Navy slang some of it still slips out when I'm busy. Yep, I'm the guy you hear in LA Class B calling Tally Ho and No Joy.

Try not to pick up bad habits. Things to remember:
  • Think about what you're going to say before to press the push to talk button. You'll hear airline pilots on the radio saying Ah, Ahhh, SoCal Southwest ahhh 144 I mean 218 descending to ahhh ahhh 14,000 with ahhh ahhh ahhh Bravo. Do we ahhh really need to make the crossing altitude at ahhh ahhh bingo? When I was a ATC'er nothing pissed me off more than a long winded pilot taking my air time when another aircraft was about to go through the localizer.
  • The AIM has an area where it lists correct phraseology. Stick to correct phraseology and your communications with ATC will go a lot smoother. Radio calls should be quick with a minimal of words. "Houston Center Cessna 12345, 6000". You don't need, level at, with ya, smooth ride. Friday I heard an enroute aircraft say in sequence. WTF?
  • Don't be tempted to use dumb little things you hear on the radio. Nothing says 100 hour over confident pilot more than; With you, with a flash, got him on the fish finder, 4064 on the magic box, Cessna 4 sugar sugar.
  • Speak slowly, rookies think they get extra points for talking really, really fast.
  • If a Southwest pilot says it assume the phraseology was wrong. What's up with those guys?
 
I used VATSIM, and liveatc back when I was a nerdy flight simming teenager. Never had a problem on the radios from day one of my flight training. I had a student this last spring who flew and controlled for a local VATSIM like organization, his radios were almost flawless.

@ChasenSFO what did ramp control tell you?

It was always fun to give the controllers a run for their money doing VFR flights or doing IFR flights with an empty airliner climbing like a space shuttle launch.

Now I give controllers a run for their money in real life working the pattern in a 7GCAA. :-P
 
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