I must admit though, when switching onto a very busy frequency, I do sometimes wat to be called rather than force a check in. Is this good practice? To me it does seem to work well. Many times we have been given our next instruction (climb etc..) without the formal check in first. I have no problem with that.
I can't speak for others but when I am going balls out and fighting to get in on the RT on TC NW for example, I think it works much better if I call the pilots when I'm ready to talk to them. Some pilots are on the ball and wait for me to call them and it does seem to work quite well - every second of RT time saved makes a big difference.
Also as you say, I do find myself starting to talk before hitting the footswitch when it gets busy. I've never really thought about it before but it probably sounds a bit stupid!
I love it when the RT is constant and flowing well when everyone is listening out and in the heat of the moment often find myself cursing those who aren't quite on the ball (letting the occasional colourful 'term' slip out on the RT
). However, that's only ranting in the heat of it all, no grudges are held! I realise that flying the steed comes before talking to us
As
autothrottle suggests, familiarisation flights contribute a lot to our understanding of how you work. Having been on a few I was quite shocked to see how busy the pilots are at certain stages of the flight. It would be nice to get them more often but I can't see it happening anytime soon.