Hi Adam,
Following on from
dontpressthat, I’d recommend a transceiver rather than a scanner. It will be a bit more expensive, but worth it in the long run. As well as listening to local traffic, you can pick up other things like ATIS and Volmet. During your training and beyond, the transceiver will serve as a back up for the installed radio in the aircraft. If you eventually go down the LAA Permit or Microlight aircraft route, you can use it as your main radio. The only caution I’d offer is that you don’t leave it lying around at home where younger members of the family might play with it and start talking to the aeroplanes
During your training, try and get to meet the people on the other end of the microphone; Air / Ground Operator, AFIS or ATC if you operate from a ‘Tower’ airfield. That will help to convince you that you are dealing with a nice bunch of people. Bear in mind that the radio is there to help prevent aeroplanes banging in to each other, it’s not essential to present word-perfect comms to someone sitting in a chair on the ground.
When you are using the radio, try and relax. I know it’s easy to say and we have all suffered from ‘mike fright’ at one time or another. After a while you don’t worry about messing up on the radio, as long as the message gets through in the end. Even the experts get it wrong from time to time, see the
ATC Humour (Merged) thread on the
ATC Forum – it runs to 52 pages and counting!
A couple of things I’ve picked up over the years:
Relax and smile before you speak. When you are nervous the vocal chords tense up and your voice comes out higher than usual. People do this when they answer the phone. Notice how the voice changes when they know who is calling and relax a bit.
Suck a Polo or your favourite sweet to overcome the dry mouth syndrome. Chewing or bubble gum are probably not as good for this function…
Good luck with the training.
Safe Flying,
Richard W.