Page 24 - August21T

we don’t think before we speak. We are all guilty: me, you, GA, regional, mainline, military and controllers. Most of the time we and our brethren use good radio discipline. But others can sound like truckers on a CB radio. In response to an ATC instruction from O’Hare ground control, I once heard a regional pilot say to the controller: “Whatever.” Another pilot employed a common colloquialism of our times: “My bad.” I was equally stunned to hear a captain on the PA as I commuted to work announce that due to weather, things in Chicago were “screwed up.” Must be he didn’t know the word for which many interpret “screwed up” to be a euphemism. Apparently, I must try harder to keep up with these new words in the AIM and Air Traffic Controller’s handbook.
How do we filter out colloquial contamination, and what is the course of treatment for our vernacular disease?
Do:
• Use only standard aviation terminology and phraseology
• Learn to use and recognize radio discipline
• Slow down a bit; speak at a normal rate
• Reply to all radio calls directed at your call sign
• Build situational awareness (SA) by listening to calls
directed at other aircraft
• Call the ATC facility by its correct name
• Let others finish before you key the mic to speak
(sometimes they hesitate mid-sentence so wait one or
two seconds after their last word)
• Use your full call on the first transmission, and if an
airliner, use it every time
• Abbreviate your GA call sign when appropriate
• If you have a request, say “[your call sign], request.”
And wait for a reply before you continue
• Question instructions that are unclear or unexpected • Limit “pleasantries” when there is more than just you
and the controller on the frequency
Don’t:
• Use non-standard, slang or colloquial language or phrases
• Clip your transmission by late keying or early release of the mic
• Miss radio calls directed at your call sign
• Block other radio transmissions
• Say “Checking-in, “With you,” or “This is”
• Blurt out a request without first transmitting “request”
and then hearing “go ahead with your request”
• Reply with your Mach when asked your speed, or
speed when asked your Mach
• Switch immediately to the next sector frequency –
pause for a second or two just in case ATC gives you a corrected frequency or they tell you no, that was not for you (similar sounding call signs)
22 • TWIN & TURBINE / August 2021
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