In my experience the light GA scene in the UK was always a bit "Tally ho, roger, over & out" Not sure why, maybe watching too much "Dambusters/ 633 squadron" etc. etc....

Authoritarian A/G units are one of my favourite hates.

This is all very well at simple airfields.
I did my training at Lanseria in South Africa in the 1970s.
Until last year they had 2 runways, 06L24R (10,000ft) and 06R24L(3500ft).
All light aircraft used the South circuit, takeoff from 06L then call "Right downwind for 06R" if doing touch&go practice or "Right downwind for 06L" when landing for a full stop. The tower needed to be paying serious attention on days when the military were using the LH circuit and passenger jets were also arriving calling final for 06L from 5 miles out.
Proper radio procedure was essential, especially paying attention to the tower and NEVER turning onto base leg without permission.

On a recent trip after departure tower cleared me to climb and contact terminal. This is how it went ( note it was a not very busy mid week afternoon)

Me: XX terminal Grumman AA1 ABCD

Terminal: Hi (my first name), Yah going to XX

Me: Yup, five point five please

Terminal: BCD cleared to XX at Five thousand Five hundred

:ok:

The chaps who are radio shy tend to avoid CAS altogether. In my experience, microlighters who do talk on the radio seem to be generally more concise than some other GA types. The number of times I've been waiting to make a call while some eejit uhms and aahs his way through his life story...:rolleyes: Good thing I fly at 50kts!

BPF... sounds like a lot of professionalism.....

Like it.:):ok:. My pet hate is continuous use by atco's of the word, Hectopascal, it is unnecessary and ridiculous. I refuse to say it, Niner Niner six is all anyone will get from me ;)

Remind me never, ever to get in an aeroplane with you.

I agree ! Got the job done with minimum words, had a nice human touch and finished with a complete and by the book correct clearance to me.

The best part ? It winds up all the stuffed shirts on pprune who revel in discussing the most arcane of radio trivia in a manner that gives pedantry a bad name :E

Final vs Finals, people actually care about that enough to have a whole thread devoted to it ? Really ? :rolleyes:

You're hardly likely to :ok:

Couldn't care less whether it's final or finals.
Just don't use "turning final" at a civvie airfield. It confuses the hell out of the military visitors.

My .0001 pounds sterling on how to use the radio

1) Don't drop the airplane to fly the radio. Fly the airplane first even if that involves a delay to make a radio call or respond to one

2) The purpose of aviation radio calls is to convey information. Better is the enemy of good enough. Getting all worried about saying exactly the right thing ( whatever that is given the range of opinions on what constitutes the "right" thing to say :rolleyes:) is self defeating. If you don't know the exact format say what you want or what you are doing in plane errrrrr plain English.

3) The main type of use of radio failures I see is pushing the mike button then trying to think about what to say. This results in a transmission that starts with a long UMMMMMMMM or ERRRRRRRR and then a mad jumble of words. Engage the brain before the PTT !

4) If you get stuck mid way through the transmission get off the mike rather than using up airtime trying to remember what to say

5) All radio calls have the same format.

-Who: You are transmitting to
-Who: You are ( ie your call sign)
-Where: You are
-What: You want or what you are going to do.

Hectopascals: Nobody likes saying it echo romeo, but while the CAA insist on it I'm afraid pilots, controllers, FISOs and A/G operators have to, however I understand an abbreviation is being considered.
Final: for a military pilot is the point where they commence their final turn before lining up with the runway; this can be at the end of the downwind leg for fast jets.(called a Standard NATO pattern circuit).

Like millibars?

I'm using hectobars. I've yet to have the readback corrected.:hmm:


Just wondering why I'm still being allowed to use Bar for my tyres, dive cylinders, etc. Why pick on pilots?

Effective RT: Maximum information in minimum words. Done well, it's an art form. Not everyone is an artist.

I don't want to turn this into Jurassic Park: Rise of the Pendantosaurus, but that's not always correct either. People just need to read The Adventures of G-ABCD and BigJet 123, and wonder no longer.

Echo Romeo wrote: Back in 1976 I was at RAF Honington and was surprised, one dark, wet night, by the noise of a low-flying KC-135 on its way into Mildenhall.

It turned out he'd been passed 'niner eight seven' as the QNH, which he took to mean 29.87 inHg, the US standard. In fact the QNH was 987 mb, so he was about 700 ft lower than he thought he was......:(

Simple, concise RT is fine. But 'wannabe DJs' are not. "Yo bud, I'm at five point five and inbound ya field...". Is that 5500 ft or 5.5 DME?

BEagle Well said, sir. I have heard the inches/millibars (in my day) confusion with American crews many times.

Lakenheath are pretty good at transmitting hPa or inches Hg when transmitting to GA or mil: they give both readouts in full always now:

Tx to mil comes over VHF as well but we don't hear replies.

Must've had an incident at Honington in the past that scared them.:rolleyes:

Cusco