Kev
My job for nearly 40 years has been communications including ground to air comms as well as many years with the old morse code and as a pilot like many of the others on this forum. I have instructed people in various aspects of communications and I have witnessed over and over again the difficulty people have talking over the radio. The reason is that people seem to want to put more emphasis on the rule book that actually the clear and concise exchange of information.
The very first, and most important thing that you must do is make sure that you have a good headset that keeps as much background noise away from your ears as possible. See if someone can lend you a good ANR headset and see how you get one with that.
Then, and I'm sure someone will try to shoot me down on what I'm going to say is, don't worry about rigid procedure but consentrate on speaking clear and sensible English, even conversationally if necessary. Make a note on your pad of the basic content of radio calls at important parts of a sortie before you take off and refer to these when the time comes.
Never try to rush a radio call and never be afraid of using "SAY AGAIN" or "SAY AGAIN SLOWER"
Some people think that they make themselves look really cool and proffessional when they speak quickly on the radio with lots of abreviations and this is total nonsense if no one can understand them!
Airline radio banter is short and sharp because they are used to saying the same things over and over again and they are half expecting what they are going to receive.
Don't get tangled up with radio, simply pass your message slowly and clearly and when you receive information simply read back important stuff like runways, pressure settings and anything else that you feel may be important.
Remember, you are simply exchanging information and it is far better to spend a bit more time over the airwaves saying a little bit more in order to get it accurate and correct than it is to be a prisoner to the rule book and get it wrong, miss out important information or even distract your attention from flying the aeroplane!
Like everyone else on this forum, I am really enjoying your story and I have even bookmarked this part of the forum so I can go strait there to get an update. I am very pleased that you decided to go for the PPL instead of the NPPL and I can't wait for the day that I read you have succeeded, because you most certainly will. Twentysix years Kev, don't accept anything less than you wanted when you started and don't look back with any regrets
