Readback tips?
 

hi.i am a private pilot from Australia and i just wanna know does anyone would have some tips in reading back the ATC clearance?
Due to my first language isn't English sometime i am stuggling in slow reading back.
(* i have seen someone recommend write with abbreviate letters. e.g X= squwak code, AS=as filed , M=climb and maintain ...etc*)


Any help would be great!!
Cheers

Well, in most cases the transmission is initiated by the pilot. So if you're asking for a clearance, level change or whatever, that's probably what you're going to get and need to read back. Fairly easy to anticipate.

I only tend to write the things down which I can't input immediately. QNH, squawks etc are put into their rightful place (altimeter, transponder) immediately, sometimes even while transmitting the readback. Level changes, if it is what I've got in my plan and asked for, I don't write down. Anything out of the ordinary, I do write down. And I do write down the ATIS.

Get a (second-hand) scanner. Listen to aeronautical frequencies. Listen to pilots asking for clearance or whatever, listen to ATC give them something, and then try to read the clearance back for yourself (out loud) before the pilot does. Bonus points for spotting the errors of the pilots!

Hi Kelvin, you have waded into probably the most contentious issue for ATCs (for me anyway) and that is the readback issue. The best I can say is to read the clearance back precisely as given. This goes for provisional clearances as well "passing FL150 route direct to XXX", "behind the landing .... line up and wait..." etc. The same for clearances with a restriction built in like rates of climb, speed restrictions at a certain DME or cross a certain point at or above/below.

Most ATCs (and we are wrong in doing this) use the time that you readback to start thinking of the next clearance to the next guy (or finishing the joke). So if your readback is short and precise, with your callsign included, it would minimise our "hearback" time and we would actually listen to what you readback. We SHOULD do this whenever you readback, but we're only human and we have an attention span of 2,3 seconds per aeroplane.

As for myself I try and do two things. I try to give the information and then the clearance like "surface wind... clear take off" and to never make one transmission with a heading and a FL instruction in it. As I say, TRY.

Extracts courtesy CAA CAP413
 

1.13.5 The ATS messages listed below are to be read back in full by the pilot/driver. If a readback is not received the pilot/driver will be asked to do so. Similarly, the pilot/driver is expected to request that instructions are repeated or clarified if any are not fully understood.
Taxi/Towing Instructions
Level Instructions (abbreviate with up/down arrows or M for maintain)
Heading Instructions (L or R for turns left/right)
Speed Instructions (abbreviate K for knots)
Airways or Route Clearances
Approach Clearances
Runway-in-Use
Clearance to Enter, Land On, Take-Off On, Backtrack, Cross, or Hold Short of
any Active Runway
(Clearances can be a bit long winded written down unless you employ some ATC symbology which I can't duplicate here, sorry!)
SSR Operating Instructions (prefix C to abbreviate)
Altimeter Settings (prefix Q to abbreviate)
VDF Information
Frequency Changes
Type of Radar Service
Transition Levels (use TL)

But of course, Kelvin2150, CAP413 is of little use to you in Australia. I would check the Aust. AIP for the definitive list, or the VFG if that is still published.