I haven’t spoken to my wife in years. I didn’t want to interrupt her.
Rodney Dangerfield
Last month while flying my trusty Guppy-MAX at 38,000, I heard a guy flying a turbine single in the 20s report to center that he went through some tops and experienced severe turbulence and plus-or-minus 2,000 feet altitude excursions. While shocking that he went there, the more astonishing part of the event? Yet another turbine-single guy checked in shortly after the report and center advised him of the previous guy’s angst. The second guy responded that it didn’t look too bad, and he would proceed straight ahead – through the same spot and at the same altitude as the first guy. After center made a stronger recommendation that he should deviate around the weather, the second guy acquiesced.
Please trust this airline guy when I say don’t fly within 15 to 20 miles of any cumulus with tops above 18,000, with nimbus after the cum-u-low or not – even the popcorn-like stuff from 10-25,000 can rattle teeth and spill your coffee. And don’t wait too long to ask for a deviation around the upwind side of said beasties lest you encounter something similar to the following.
Rookie
It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.
Abraham Lincoln
You’ve been picking your way around the cumulus at FL260, and you’ve waited a bit too long to ask for a 20-degree deviation around the upwind side of a wide, towering cumulonimbus 50 miles on the nose. When you try to call center, a squeal comes over your headset from someone on the radio stepping on someone else. You release the PTT and hear:
“Sorry, I think I blocked somebody…good afternoon New York how ya doin’? This is Rookie Nine Oh Six checkin’ in. We’re with ya outa’ sixteen for two three oh, on a three ten heading and 260 knots assigned by the last guy, and we’re goin’ around some weather – request three six oh…and ah, we’re runnin’ a little late due to our inability to stop talking, so after we’re done deviating, any chance we could maybe to direct Chardon? Really appreciate it.”
After a short delay, you hear: “Rookie nine zero something calling New York, I was on the landline coordinating. Say again your request.”
Your finger is still resting on the PTT switch as your chin drops to your chest. Now you know for sure that you waited too long to request that 20-degree turn. Even if that other “rookie” guy uses proper radio discipline during his second call, you will now need 40 degrees to sufficiently avoid the bubbling beast in front of you. You pray that you have time to get in a word edgewise before making the turn on your own without clearance and making a mayday/emergency call to cover the deviation.
At the risk of sounding like Joan Rivers, can we talk – like pilots? Sometimes, apparently not. Along with talking-like-we-text, I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that our normal, everyday language (colloquial) has permeated most aspects of society: business, politics, literature, music and the workplace; even our piloting workplace. Some abbreviations born of texting are already being used with the “free text” function of our ACARS (Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System). It just doesn’t fit comfortably in my own aircraft-radio-workplace at the pointy end of an airliner. The beloved radio discipline I was taught in GA and the Air Force has become contaminated. It’s happening more and more and it’s not simply my hyperbole hypochondria. Many aviators seem to have contracted a vernacular disease.
Permit Me
There was a time when a restricted radio-telephone operator’s permit was mandatory for new U.S. pilots – like the one I have with a barely legible 1972 stamped on it. Even though no formal training was required to obtain the permit, there was an implicit understanding that pilots were “different” from folks using other communication devices. As a result, we should act and speak accordingly. CFI’s, ATC and other pilots were adamant about something called “radio discipline,” and utmost respect would be used in both directions. Pilot-controller phraseology was mandatory and brevity would be the statute, with no banter, joking, lying or even exaggerating.
As a new student pilot, you may have listened to recordings of pilot/controller jargon in order to assimilate the new dialect as well as its protocols and cadence. The entire alphabet and number system had an aviation pronunciation. We even possess several of our own words and phrases: copy and copy that, roger and roger that, say again and squawk ident, for example. And since we use them more often than the general population, a case could be made for our squatter’s rights to the words affirmative, negative, standby, upwind, downwind, crosswind, final and a myriad of airplane components, maneuvers, procedures and instruments.
Read-Back/Hear-Back
What is radio discipline? It’s the professional manner in which we abide by strict brevity in our communication and the use of standardized aviation terminology and phraseology that is our patois. It is clear and unambiguous two-way communication. Emphasis added because it seems ATC sometimes is in a transmit-only mode; this despite years of highlighting read-back/hear-back errors during mishap investigations. We have long assumed that the absence of an acknowledgment or a correction after reading back a clearance was implicit confirmation that our read-back was correct and approved. This may not be true. We should confirm a clearance to complete the transfer of information. Radio discipline is not only an understanding of terminology and phraseology but the structure and cadence which facilitates the efficient transfer of information.
Radio cadence is the rhythm of the conversation, the tempo of the transmit-receive-respond-acknowledge sequence – it’s the controller-pilot radio pulse. Not so much when it’s just you and the controller, but when there are five other airplanes and the controller, a cadence will develop. It’s recognizing how to wait after another aircraft or the controller stops talking, anticipating the point in time at which you should key the mic and take your turn – similar to picking a spot to enter a busy lane of traffic. The cadence is different for center, approach control, tower and from one approach control to another depending on the level of traffic.
Talk low, talk slow and don’t say too much.
John Wayne
When you combine discipline and smooth radio cadence with an experienced, calm, gravelly voice, you get a cross between John Wayne, Chuck Yeager and Walter Cronkite with the resultant efficient transfer of information. It used to be that less experienced GA and regional airline folks tried to imitate the way airline and fighter pilots sounded on the radio. Not just the words and intonation, but the cadence and composure as well – the “coolness.” As seen in the opening of this story about mister “Rookie” pilot, I must shamefully admit that many Part 121 pilots have forfeited the mantle, honor and responsibility of that professional-sounding poise. The higher flight levels are often contaminated with verbose, entitled pilots that don’t know how to share the radio. They also don’t understand the reason for pointing out to someone that they have transmitted on guard. And it’s not because guard is only for emergency use, it’s because someone has typically made an unrecognized switch error.
My Bad
Some think that the pilot that talks the fastest wins. My dad taught me that often the faster we go, the “behinder” we get. Partial callsigns, use of colloquial language and poor manners can come to the surface and overtake discipline if 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)
Just the Vaccination Please
Status quo, you know, is Latin for ‘the mess we’re in.’
Ronald Reagan
I have witnessed an obvious decline in radio discipline over the last 50 years. In order to rejoin the professional sounding pilots of yesteryear, perhaps some of us need a vernacular vaccination. While using and listening to the radio (or to your spouse, like Mr. Dangerfield said), don’t interrupt, think before you speak, be brief and use proper terminology – lest you clog the radio and block someone that needs to make a coffee-saving request.
