Pilots with stammers/stutters?

[wazz]

I'm a CPL/IR with a stammer. It's reasonably OK most of the time but sometimes the R/T takes a while.
I occasionally hear someone else struggling with a speech problem but are there many other professional pilots out there with similar difficulties? Do you have any tactics to help things flow?
How do you ATC'ers feel about it?
I was told that it's not possible to get a license in some European countries if you stutter - is that true?

[A Very Civil Pilot]

I do to a certain extent (stutter, rather than stammer)but haven't found it a problem, expecially as most of the R/T is set piece phrases. My way of getting past any word that might be causing a problem, is to say something else instead, and once the flow is going the problem word comes out with no problems. Frequently it only needs and 'Um' or 'Err' to prefix the sentence to get it moving.

Haven't heard about some countries not allowing stammering pilots (shouldn't this Human Rights Act cover that?)

[oldbeefer]

Sorry to be faceitious (never could spell) but a few years ago a military helicopter squadron commander was given the callsign 'PPA 33' to go on a trip to Germany with. He handed the lead of the formation to his number two before he got to Manston!

[driftdown]

Wazz - I am not atc. R/T work causes me a lot of anxiety. It takes me a while to get back into the European mode.

Good luck

Driftdown

[Sobelena]

Years ago I knew a Captain who stuttered in daily social conversation yet his r/t and p/as were impecable.

[Skycop]

Old Beefer,

If it's the one I know, he could make a trigraph callsign last 2 minutes and often other people used to finish his r/t transmissions for him. He had a great sense of humour about it though. On the trip you mentioned he must have sounded like an old fashioned motor boat by the time he reached abeam Gatwick!

[international bog trotter]

I knew a guy in a smallish charter operator who had a very noticeable stutter. Never seemed to be a problem for him job wise.

I jumble my words up a bit. Turning the intercom up so I can hear my own voice quite loudly works for me.

[Buzzoff]

A very good friend of mine is a Very Senior Captain in a major airline . He has a pronounced stutter which has never affected a long and distinguished career with about six airlines, most of them Majors. He has been a Trainer and Manager for years. He is an exceptionally funny man and his wit is actually enhanced by the stutter.

I have never heard of this being a precluding factor for Licence issue.

[karrank]

There was a stuttering charter pilot in NW Australia who had a bit of trouble with some place names, and the evil c/s somebody stuck him with. Carnarvon FSU used to assume a lot, one famous conversation went:

"Carnarvon, P-P-P-Papa Romeo P-P-P-Papa."
"Papa Romeo Papa, Carnarvon, confirm taxying Pannawonicka for Paraburdoo?"
"Affirm, THANKS."

------------------
"Station calling Centre, grow a head..."

[hugh flung_dung]

I've got a similar problem but mine manifests itself as pauses when some sounds just won't come out for a while, rather than B-B-B's. I find it bl**dy annoying but I don't know what ATC think.
It's a strange affliction. I give tolerable business presentations to large international audiences. I've been instructing for years (aeros, tailwheel, multi, imc, gliding, etc) and it's not a problem. Many times I'm fine on the radio but for some unknown reason sometimes the voice just doesn't want to play.
On my recent IR renewal I was fine on the ground, but when I called Approach the voice decided it wasn't going to work and the stress levels from not being able to speak fluently nearly made me blow the test.
The Cherbourg tower controller told me that French pilots can't get a PPL if they have a stammer, but that sounds a bit unlikely.

This seeems like a good opportunity to say hello to the good boys and girls at Solent and Bournemouth and to thank them for giving so freely of their air time :)

[cossack]

In the 13 years I've been an ATCO I've never noticed a pilot stutter.
If you just leave pauses nobody will notice, we'll just think that you're thinking with the mic live.
There is one guy who flies for Sabre who is totally unintelligable. It sound as though he is deaf and has learned to speak without being able to hear. He only seems to do the RT at night though - have never heard him in the daytime. Wonder if he does the PAs as well...

[Numpo-Nigit]

As some wise person has already said, a brief pause will pass unremarked and, indeed, even an actual stammer or stutter is not a problem to ATC. As with every walk of life, ATC has its share of those thus afflicted and they manage to get recruited, qualify and work successfully for years - so why not pilots?

As to that comment about our French friends not obtaining a PPL if they have such a problem - I find it hard to believe. They let them have PPLs when they can't read maps or learn the rules of the air, after all!!!!

Seriously, just relax and stop worrying, it doesn't bother us in ATC.

[Triple B]

I stutter and stammer and other times I will be able to talk as clear as a bell. It really annoys me when I have a block and it goes in fazes where it won't occur for months then all of a sudden for know reason at all I can't make a call without a lot of hard work.
Lots of pilots I fly with will be surprised because it can go for months before they hear me stuff up and are taken by surprise as I am.
I don't think we should worry about it,its rarely heard/noticed by others, its just we're sensative to it.

Good luck and SMOOTH SPEECH

[SEAGULL09]

Well..seeing all these replys has given me so much hope!!! I am currently undertaking my ATPL at the ripe old age of 31 as I have always had a bad stammer and thought I could never become a Pilot because of it. I was cabin crew with Sabre then Britannia for 3 years and thought this would be my closest step towards the front 2 seats..then I did my PPL through Britannias' flying club just as an achievement really but the more I flew the more I could see that my 'dream' was possible. Having just completed the theory I go to Oxford next month to start the flying..well after 3 resits..I would be most interested in keeping in touch with fellow stammerers. Please mail me. Kind Regards to you all..

[AV8 consultants]

Quite a few years ago I saw a program about people who stammer or stutter. They used a earplug device that allows hearing but lets the user hear their own voice ( a bit like putting your fingers in yours ears and talking you can hear you own voice..)
These plugs are small and unnoticeable and most of all they work straight away. I would say the guy mentioned earlier who stuttered on the ground but had a perfect radio manner had a similar effect happen to him in the air as he would have had his headphones on.
Try it, it may just work or at least ask your GP to find out about it. GOOD LUCK