Welcome to Radar Contact. show that teaches pilots how to speak professionally and with confidence to air traffic control. If you have avoided contact with air traffic control because you just didn't know what to or didn't know how to say it, rate our contact. It's going to change the way you fly and And now, here's your host, airline pilot, author, and host of AT&T. Jeff Canerish.
Chicago Center. 1468 out of 13 for 23. Was that a legitimate radio call? Not sure? Let's listen to it again. Chicago Center. 14.68 out of 13 for 23. So, what do you think? Did the airline pilot make a radio call that meets the standards for radio communication as outlined in the Aeronautical Information Manual? If you've been following me here at atccommunication.com or read any of my books, you know the airline pilot did not use standard radio phraseology when contacting ATC.
What should he have said? Chicago Center, airliner 1468, leaving 13000, climbing to flight level 230. Do you think the airline pilot knows the standard? I'd say probably, or at least he knew the standards at one time or another. Why didn't he use standard radiophrasiology when transmitting to ATC? We can only guess. What we can say for sure is that it takes a certain amount of self-discipline to stick to the standard.
Especially when the majority of pilots use slang and jargon on the radio all the time. I mean, you've heard that, right? I bring this up because a couple of weeks ago, the FAA published a draft of a proposal to change how it evaluates candidates seeking a private pilot's license. The FAA also put out a draft proposal for new standards to evaluate pilots seeking their instrument rating.
I put a link to those draft proposals in the show notes for this broadcast, and I encourage you to look over the new proposals, especially if you are in training for your private pilot certificate, or if you're a flight instructor, or if you're in training to get your instrument rating. Not only can you read the drafts, you can also give the FAA your feedback on the proposals between now and July 8th.
Again, look for the link to the FAA's website in the show notes for the show. And if you happen to be listening to this show on iTunes, Work your way over to my website, atccommunication.com, and click on the tab Radar Contact to see the show notes and the link to the FAA that I've been talking about.
One important change to the way the FAA will evaluate new pilots and pilots seeking their instrument rating is to check whether the pilots use standard radio phraseology when transmitting to ATC. Yeah, I said that out loud. I can't even believe it. Because prior to these new proposals, all the FAA said about radio communication was A pilot will know how to use the radio to communicate with ATC. That's it. That's all that was in part 61.
But with these new proposals, the FAA is finally acknowledging the importance of using standard phraseology on the radio. And I thought, all right, let's hear it for the home team. But then I thought about flying with my peer group, which happens to be very experienced airline pilots. These guys know the standards. They just happen to lack the motivation to use them. As I said, I'm not sure why.
And then it dawned on me, it doesn't matter how many rules you put into the books, if those rules aren't enforced, they're almost worthless. Let me give you an example. On a street where I live, the posted speed limit is 25 miles an hour. The speed limit signs are very prominent, but in the past they were largely ignored by drivers. On this street, drivers used to regularly drive 35 to 45 miles an hour, behavior that's clearly in violation of the law.
And the behavior continued like that for years because guess what? There were never any cops around to enforce the law and hand out speeding tickets. Well, the way we solved it was the Neighborhood Association put in speed humps So now drivers have to slow down or they're just going to wreck the bottom of their car. But you would think in a perfect world,
drivers would have the self-discipline to keep their speed under control. You can quit laughing right now because, as you know, it isn't a perfect world. And if you'll indulge me for just a second more on this topic, because I don't want it to get dry and boring, let's look at what gives some people the self-discipline to drive or fly within the limits of the law.
I think if it's not real consequences that keep people from speeding, such as the sight of a cop standing by the side of the road with a radar gun, then it's the intelligence to imagine the consequences of exceeding the limit in the wrong circumstances. Some people just know car speed affects stopping distance. Those people know that if a kid suddenly runs out into the street, they'll be able to make a panic stop and avoid hitting the kid if they're not driving too fast.
They can imagine the consequences of driving too fast in a densely populated neighborhood where the chances of kids or dogs or bicycle riders darting into the street are very high. Now, on the other hand, people without self-discipline don't think about the potential for disaster and instead base their decisions not on the law, but what they can get away with. Which brings us back to radio communication.
When you make a non-standard radio transmission, most of the time, most of the time, ATC is going to roll with it. and make the best interpretation of what you said. I mean, those guys, they just don't have the time to correct every nonstandard radio call. They're not out to be educators, and they're not disciplinarians. They just go with what they got and keep on moving because they're really busy.
So as long as nothing bad happens, for example, as long as you don't get too close to another airplane, the air traffic controller is going to let you get away with your non-standard transmission. So those of us with self-discipline, and I hope that includes you, stick with the standards, whether the standards are enforced or not. We have the intelligence and the imagination to think about how saying, for example, 23 on the radio.
can be misinterpreted as 230 knots of airspeed or a heading of 230 or even 2,300 feet, not flight level 230 as it was in the example I gave earlier. So I think it's great that the FAA has written new proposals that will require flight instructors to teach radio standards to their students. And I think it's great that those students will have to demonstrate they can use standard phraseology on a checkride.
The question is, will those same pilots have the self-discipline to use the standards 5, 10, or even 20 years after they pass their checkride? I don't know the answer to that question, but I have a pretty good guess based upon what I see happening today. What do you think? Let's spend a few minutes talking about radio procedures when flying into or out of a terminal radar service area, or as they're commonly called, TERSAs.
First, what is a TIRSA? A TIRSA is a chunk of airspace. A chunk is a technical term, though you may not see it in the Aeronautical Information Manual. Anyways, it's a chunk of airspace. that surrounds a busy class delta or tower-controlled airport. The next thing I'm going to tell you about TERSIS surprises a lot of people. Believe it or not, the FAA has no regulations that are specific to TERSIS. You heard that right.
Curses are not regulated by Part 91, Part 61, Part 135, Part 121, or any part of the federal regulations. Unbelievable, right? Finally, something the government felt it was unnecessary to regulate. Actually, the FAA did try to redesignate TERSAs as Airport Radar Service Areas, or ARSAs, and tried to slap a ton of regulation on it. But they gave up when it began to sound like they were turning an ARSA into Class Bravo airspace.
What you and I are left with is a radar service area that operates like a hybrid between Class Charlie and Class Bravo airspace, but actually has no specific regulations other than the general operating rules for flight contained in Part 91. Well, all that's well and good, but what do you say on the radio when you want to land at an airport inside of a Tursa?
The first thing to know is, how do you know if an airport is surrounded by a TIRSA? Well, that's simple. Look at your sectional chart. A TIRSA is represented on a sectional chart by black concentric rings surrounding the airport within the TIRSA.
There are no standards for the dimensions of a TIRSA. The overall diameter of a TIRSA and its floor and its ceiling are determined by the arrival and departure procedures into and out of the primary airport plus the structure of the airspace surrounding the TIRSA. I've looked for some sort of rhyme or reason for the diameter and height of various terses, but I could find no logical pattern, and so I just gave up.
But, you know, it doesn't really matter why an airport has a Tursa or why the Tursa has a particular set of dimensions. What matters is how you operate your aircraft and your radio when flying in a Tursa. First, the good news, for some pilots anyways. When flying VFR, you can fly into a TIRSA and not even talk to ATC.
Remember, this is an unregulated chunk of airspace. Unregulated means you are not required to participate when VFR. You may also contact ATC before you enter the TIRSA, but tell the controller you don't want to use his radar service. Let's talk more about that scenario for a minute because it's fairly easy to address from a radio communication standpoint. If you're about to enter a TARSA and you do not want to participate in radar service,
it's a good idea to at least say hello to ATC and let them know you're there. So about five miles before entering the boundary of a TIRSA as it's depicted on your sectional map, you would dial in the TIRSA's approach control frequency. which will also be depicted on your sectional chart. You make initial contact with the approach controller by saying this. Macon Approach, Cessna 9130 Delta, 25 miles southwest of Macon, inbound for landing, negative radar service.
The Approach Controller will acknowledge a radio call and tell you when and where to contact Tower. For example, Now, in some circumstances, the approach controller may ask you to verify your altitude and perhaps even give you a discrete transponder code so he can keep track of you as you cross his busy arrival and departure corridors. He won't bother you with clearances, but he will be able to accurately point your aircraft out to other pilots who may cross your path.
If you do decide to participate in ATC's radar service inside a TIRSA, your initial radio call to the approach controller will sound like this. Macon Approach Cessna 9130 Delta 25 miles southwest of Macon VFR inbound for landing. The approach controller will assign a transponder code to you and ask you to verify your altitude. You will then receive radar vectors from the approach controller that give you sequencing and separation
from other VFR and IFR aircraft using radar service inside of the Tursa. Now this is a little bit different from Class Charlie Airspace because inside of Class Charlie you'll get sequencing but you won't get separation. not in a formal sense anyways, but inside of Tursa, you'll actually get rules of standard separation from other aircraft who are also participating.
You will also get traffic advisories and safety alerts as you proceed inbound. At the appropriate time, Approach will make a positive transfer of control of your aircraft to tower and tell you to switch to tower's frequency. When departing from an airport inside a Tursa, you'll apply all the standard rules for Class Delta while inside the airport traffic area.
If you decide to participate in radar service, Tower will positively transfer you to departure control at the appropriate time. You can check in with departure by stating your current altitude and your intended cruising altitude. making departure Cessna 9130 Delta, leaving 2400, climbing a 6500 VFR. Departure control will advise you that your radar contact and then ATC will provide you with sequencing, separation, advisories, and alerts until you reach the boundary of the TIRSA.
If you depart an airport inside of a Tursa and you do not want to use radar service, simply advise the departure controller on initial contact, negative radar service. and ATC will leave you alone as you proceed outbound. Simple as that. If you want to explore Tersus further, you can read about it in my book, Radio Mastery for VFR Pilots, Chapter 17. The Aeronautical Information Manual also has the straight poop on terses in Chapter 3, Section 5-6, and of course,
If you have any question about TERSAs or about aircraft radio procedures in general, I'm ready to answer. Drop me a line at jeff at atccommunication.com. I'd love to hear from you. Los Angeles Center, Mooney 382 Mike Uniform, 5,500. PFR to Sacramento. You ever, um, hear, uh, a radio call like that?
I did, just the other day on a very busy frequency. Drives me crazy, because it's not only unprofessional sounding, it makes a radio transmission longer and eats up valuable time on a radio frequency shared by 20 or 30 other pilots. I know approach controllers hate it for the same reason. When you hear ah on the radio, that's a sign that a pilot has engaged his voice before engaging his brain. It's basically the mouth motor idling while waiting for the brain to catch up.
In the very first section in the Aeronautical Information Manual's discussion on radio technique, there is a part that advises you to think about what you're going to say on the radio before you key the microphone to start speaking. I think that's a very legitimate point don't you? Here's the problem, especially for new pilots.
Thinking about what you're going to say is all well and good, but sometimes the plane moves faster than your brain can keep up with. For example, if you're a pilot in training, perhaps you operate out of an airport with standard reporting points for announcing your position relative to the airport. Let's say you're inbound to your airport and you're supposed to announce your position as you pass over a fuel tank farm seven miles west of the airport.
The air is very turbulent and because you're not an experienced pilot you're struggling just to keep the airplane flying on altitude and heading in the right direction. While you're struggling, the fuel tank farm passes underneath your wing.
You know you're supposed to make a radio call here, but you're so busy with aircraft control you haven't given any thought at all to the radio call. So you key the microphone to speak, and instead of saying what you're supposed to say, all that comes out is... So how do you fix that problem? Practice. Practice your required radio calls, including the position report of the tank farm, over and over and over until you know those calls cold.
When the time comes to make the position report, your brain is ready and caught up to the moment, even if you're still struggling to keep the shiny side of your airplane upright. But, you say, there are so many radio calls to make and there's so much else to practice when learning how to fly, who has time to figure it all out? The answer is, I do. I just published a new workbook that helps you learn and practice radio transmissions for any situation you might encounter when flying VFR.
The workbook is called Radio Mastery for VFR Pilots Workbook. Yeah, I know. It doesn't sound like a very original or imaginative title, especially since I already have a book out there called Radio Mastery for VFR Pilots. Guess what? The two books have similar titles because they complement each other. The workbook enhances the original book by giving you hundreds of exercises to help you improve your command of the radios. In fact, the workbook is actually a standalone course in radio work.
You can work through it all by itself and still get great training, even if you haven't read the original book, Radio Mastery for VFR Pilot. Now, here's the secret sauce inside the workbook. It's brain training, and by that I mean it isn't just a collection of questions and answers. The workbook directs you to visualize very specific situations and then formulate the correct radio call for that situation. There are also speaking exercises that have you practice the radio call out loud.
It's so much more than simple rote learning. In Radio Mastery for VFR Pilot's workbook, you read it, you visualize it, you write it, you speak it, and then you'll get it. This multi-modal learning path trains your brain using visual and auditory stimuli along with a mild emotional component. So if you follow the directions provided in the workbook, learning and long-term retention of radio calls will happen. They'll just happen.
You can learn more about the workbook and the learning process it uses by visiting the link in the left-hand column at my website, atccommunication.com. Amazon.com. And now let's get to your question of the week. You are flying VFR in a terminal radar service area. You are inbound to the primary airport inside the Tursa and you are taking radar vectors from air traffic control.
The approach controller advises you that you are seven miles in trail of another aircraft who is also inbound to the airport. ATC calls that airplane you are following and says... Here's your question. Given the radio transmission you just heard from ATC, is the airplane you are following operating VFR, operating IFR, or is it impossible to tell which? you know the answer to that question.
link atccommunication.com forward slash answers. There you will find a complete answer to this week's question, along with a complete explanation of how that answer was derived. Music for this show is provided by Kevin McLeod at incompetech.com on a Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 license.
Well, if you're flying this week, I hope you have a great time and beautiful weather. And if you have a chance to talk to ATC, I hope you'll have the self-discipline to use standard radio phraseology despite what you hear other pilots saying on the radio. I'm Jeff Canerish for ATCCommunication.com and my newest book, Radio Mastery for VFR Pilots Workbook, saying be well. And fly safe.