by Jim Hart
We all hate to feel dumb. It's a fact of human nature. We'll willingly go a very long way out of our way to avoid being made to feel like we don't know what we're doing.
I think that's why a lot of FS pilots never get around to flying on VATSIM. The reasons why they should are well enough known, or at least they ought to be: reasonably realistic air traffic control by actual human beings over simulated flight operations under real-world weather conditions, using real-life procedures as much as possible within the limits of FS. I've got loads of time flying both on VATSIM and in the real-life ATC system, and I can tell you, on a busy Saturday night with a little weather thrown in, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between the radio traffic you'd hear on a real-life frequency and what happens over VATSIM.
What keeps so many folks away from online flying is that it's a steeper learning curve than most of us are used to. Say you have a guy who's fairly comfortable cruising around in what (according to Microsoft) passes for an ATC system in the sim. Take that same guy and tell him now he'll have real controllers looking over his shoulder, and he has to do real-life-quality flight planning, and use realistic procedures, and real-life radio technique, and....... And he shuts down his computer and starts watching The High And The Mighty on cable. According to the FAA it takes 40 hours of training for an Instrument student to get the rating, but that figure counts only the airplane and sim time. The several hundred hours of classroom and book study time is not included in that total. Oh, and by the way, they also have a CFI to instruct, direct and advise them on the way to the Instrument ticket.
Yet we're all expected to demonstrate the level of expertise of at least a freshly minted Instrument pilot when we start flying on VATSIM. It's a wonder anyone new to online flying ever works up the nerve to take that first flight. Of course, many just say, "Heck, how hard can it be?" and dive in without a clue. Invariably the result of such poor decision-making is either A. Infuriating, or B. Hysterical, or C. Both.
The truth is, there are a few basic things you can do to not come off as a clueless dweeb. They are neither mysterious nor complicated, but some will require a little effort (gasp!) in the form of self-education, and developing a sense of self-awareness when you're flying online. This small investment of your time will pay off many times over. You will enjoy the respect of the controllers you work with and your fellow online pilots, and you and they can all laugh together at the clueless airplane drivers you hear on the freq who just sound so...well, clueless.
Some of these tips are as simple as a word you should say (or *not* say). Some are procedural, some philosophical. When applied together, they'll have you flying online like a polished pro. It's worth noting that some of this radio stuff applies just as much to real-life flying as it does to what we do on VATSIM. And yes, if you listen to a busy real-world comm channel for any length of time you will hear most if not all of these very common goofs. But there's no reason why we sim pilots can't try to be more professional than the worst real-life pilots. It's a reachable goal.
Real or virtual, radio time is free, right? Wrong. In the modern ATC environment there's only so many channels and so much time available on each. When the freq gets busy, there's an awful lot of communicating that needs to take place in a very narrow space. Looked at that way, radio time is just about the scarcest commodity a pilot has. Don't ever use more than you need to. Every word, every syllable that comes out of your mouth should be for a reason. If any word you're thinking of saying doesn't add something to what you're trying to communicate, just leave it out. Next, think about what the controller needs from you at every radio call. There are times when a controller needs to know specific things. Learn what they are, and only deliver the correct nuggets of information he needs at the appropriate times. Work hard at keeping your radio time short, concise, and free of excess verbiage.
Words have meanings, and unfortunately sometimes the meaning over the radio isn't the same as the one in real life. For example, if you missed a call and you want the guy to repeat what he just said, "repeat" is the wrong thing to say. The word "repeat" in comm usage means, "I consider what I just said important enough that I am about to say it again, to make sure you get it." But if you wanted the guy on the other end to say what *he* just said again, the correct phraseology would be "say again."
If you take one thing away from this article and nothing else, let it be this: when the controller calls you to tell you something, you only need to acknowledge his call. The shortest, best way of doing that is to just say your callsign, and that's all. If he gives you an instruction, say it back, but keep it short, too.
Again, be brief, be concise. Leave out superfluous words. The idea is to say what you need to say in the fewest syllables possible. It's not difficult, but it can be challenging. Try it and see.
"Roger" is an acknowledgement. An acknowledgement means the message has been received and understood. But "roger" is also inappropriate in the ATC radio environment. I cannot conceive of a time when a pilot would ever need to say "roger", because the proper acknowledgement for any communications is always the airplane's callsign, and nothing else.
To respond to an advisory call (one that does not tell you to do something; for example, an updated altimeter setting or weather at your destination), all I would say is "Fifteen eighty-one." The controller knows I have received and understood the call. Adding "roger" to that is two syllables you don’t need. If you are responding to an instruction, you should also read that back, followed by the callsign: "Slow to 210 knots, fifteen eighty-one." "Leaving six thousand for four thousand, fifteen eighty-one."
Note that "roger" does NOT mean "yes". The proper radio comm word for that is "affirmative".
And no, I don't have to say "Mountain Air" before the number. He knows I'm Mountain Air 1581 because that's who he called in the first place. The number is enough. UNLESS there's another airplane with a similar callsign out there, like Eastern 1581. Then I would always say the complete callsign to eliminate confusion.
Perhaps you’re saying, "But I've heard the astronauts say "roger," so it must be okay." Yes, you have. But in that case there's one person talking to one other person, or at most three or four (if they're outside working on the Hubble). Everyone involved knows who everyone else is. An ATC environment with one controller and an ever-changing list of dozens of airplanes he might be speaking to is a very different thing. Saying your callsign is the quickest, clearest way to acknowledge a message. So unless you're in orbit, saying "roger" is a no-no. Period.
Note that by the same reasoning, "roger" is perfectly fine for a controller to say. Everyone on the freq knows who he is. "Roger" is often the quickest and clearest way for him to acknowledge a transmission.
It was decided in the early days of two-way radio communication that questions were bad. Questions in normal spoken conversation rely on inflection for the interrogatory nature of the message to be unambiguously communicated. In other words, due to the way language works it can be very hard to tell questions from statements on the radio. Such subtleties of human speech are often lost in the limited acoustic fidelity of most comm radios, especially if the freq is busy and everybody's already bumping their workload limits. When we're flying on VATSIM we're not talking life-or-death situations, but obviously we still want clear, efficient communication. And fortunately there is a way to ensure it.
Instead of asking questions, make requests. "Center, Mountain Air fifteen eighty-one requesting turn on course." "Center, Mountain Air fifteen eighty-one requesting lower when available." Simple, clear, and direct. And brief. Just remember, it's the opposite of Jeopardy. When you want to ask for something it should *never* be in the form of a question.
These are the two most useless syllables ever uttered with any regularity on the radio and believe me, that's saying something. The controller knows you want to go "as filed". He will do all he can to give you your routing "as filed". A pilot who uses those two words when requesting his clearance immediately brands himself as completely clueless.
There is actually one, and only one place where a pilot should say the words "as filed." That's when reading back the clearance after the controller issues it, and he's approved at least some of your routing. For that portion he's clearing you "as filed." If you catch yourself starting to say it at any other time, you have my permission to slug yourself. Just the once.
When asking for my clearance, I could say, "Mountain Air fifteen eighty-one requesting clearance to Denver." That works, and is perfectly acceptable. But I'm old school, and back in the old days if you had submitted a flight plan in the usual way, you would say "Mountain Air fifteen eighty-one, on file Denver." Saying "requesting" was for when you expected the controller to assign you a clearance of his own devising, for example when departing a TCA (now we call 'em Class B) operating under VFR. "On file" meant, "I'm IFR, I filed a flight plan, and I'm in the system".
And it still does, so that's how I do it. But either way is fine.
So what's a clearance, anyway? A clearance is a contract between you, the vagabond airplane driver, and the controller, who owns the airspace you want to use. Your flight plan becomes a clearance when the controller looks it over and issues it back to you. Basically, you're saying to the controller, "Here's what I want to do. Is it OK with you?" He will do his absolute best to let you do what you want within the rules and procedures he's required to observe because, frankly, it's less work for him if he does. Sometimes changes are necessary. But if you've done a halfway decent job of creating your routing the changes should be minimal. Again, a little study in advance will pay off. Try to locate real-world routings. Refer to the web sites of the centers you'll be flying through to see if they have preferred routes posted. There are numerous web sites and FS add-ons that are dedicated to helping you create a realistic routing. This information is just not hard to find.
Anyone who's flown online for any length of time will notice that when controllers issue flight plans all the pieces seem to be in the same order. They *always* are. Unless it's an abbreviated flight plan for some reason (in which case all bets are off) a controller will always issue a full-route clearance in what's called the CRAFT sequence:
C learance limit -- Usually the destination, but it can be short of there if necessary. In that case, ATC will give you further clearance while you're enroute. With radar and computers, this doesn't happen too much anymore in real life. And I've never seen it happen on VATSIM.
R outing -- Usually this section will highlight changes they had to make to your flight plan to get you started, but down the road you'll meet up again with the routing you planned for. If you completely hose up the routing, they'll just give you a new one (and you better be ready to copy it all down), but that's extremely rare. Almost always they will give you the changes they had to make and then get to the magical "then as filed".
A ltitude -- This will be a low initial altitude, usually for traffic, followed by your final altitude, which will nearly always be what you filed for. Then there's a time in minutes. If you lose communication right after departure, at the end of that time interval you will automatically be cleared to the final altitude and you can climb on up without needing to talk to anybody. NOTE that this is only for lost comm. As long as you're still talking to a controller, climb when he says, not by this time limit.
F requency -- This is the freq for whoever you will need to talk to for your departure. It could be a departure position for the airport you're leaving, or a regional TRACON like SoCal here in LA, or it might be a center freq. The point is, this freq will connect you with the person responsible for getting you away from the airport and out into the enroute phase.
T ransponder -- The four-digit code to put in the transponder. If your airplane doesn't have one (it happens) don't fly it online. Pick another one or mod the panel to include a transponder.
Don't call the controller for your clearance unless you're ready to write it down. That's just rude. And you don't need to tell him you're "ready to copy" when you call for your clearance. He expects you are, or you wouldn't have called. As soon as the controller gives you your clearance you should immediately read back the whole thing unless you are specifically directed otherwise.
And this is where most pilots drop the ball, and then quickly proceed to trip over it. When he issues your clearance the controller is required by his procedure book to say all the connecting words that define the CRAFT sequence. But when you do your readback, *you* are supposed to leave them out. What the controller needs to hear back from you is just the stuff that he gave you to fill out the CRAFT sequence. He doesn't need to know which elements go where. He does dozens of these every day and he knows.
This is what it might sound like if I had to read back a clearance to Denver (note how it conforms to the CRAFT sequence):
"Mountain Air 1581 is cleared to the Denver airport,
LAXX five, DAGGET transition, as filed,
Five thousand, Flight Level three five zero plus five,
One two five point eight,
Three zero zero seven."
Nothing more. No explanatory words, nothing to say what's what. The controller already knows which number goes in which slot. He's just confirming that I heard him right, so the names and digits are all he needs. Without the connecting words, I can read back this clearance in half the time it would take with them. That's the goal, remember -- keep it brief. Here's a quick test: if you can't read back your clearance in one breath -- provided it didn't require major changes from what you filed, of course -- then you're using too many words.
I mentioned elsewhere that words mean things, and sometimes the meaning is different from what we expect from prior experience. It used to be in the old days, pilots would say "with you" when checking in with a controller in a new sector. At that time "with you" meant, "I'm on a flight plan and you should have a flight strip for me. If you don't, we need to find out why not." With computerized flight strips and automated handoffs, it almost never happens in the real world that a controller won't know who a checking-in pilot is. And it never has been an issue on VATSIM. "With you" is archaic, obsolete, and when you have to hear it several hundred times a day from pilots who should have learned by now that it has no meaning and just ties up freq time for no reason whatsoever, it has to be annoying.
The check-in call is supposed to accomplish certain things. You want the controller to know who you are, obviously, and also that he should note you're making an initial callup -- in other words, that he hasn't spoken to you previously. The best way to do that is the same way we do it in real life: say "Hello." Or "Good morning." Or whatever you prefer to say to someone when you meet them. The controller will also need to know your altitude, because he wants to know that what he was told by the previous controller or the computer is correct. For example, "Center, good morning, Mountain Air fifteen eighty-one, Flight Level two nine zero." That's all you have to say, but it tells the controller everything he needs to know.
Of course it's in the box. Where else would a squawk code be? Stating the glaringly obvious will do nothing to enhance your reputation with the guy on the virtual ground or your fellow virtual pilots. Your reply should instead be the minimum needed to let him know that you heard your code as he read it. When a controller issues a new code, I say, for example, "Three zero zero seven, fifteen eighty-one." That's all I need to say.
I am still appalled whenever I hear on the radio that a pilot has requested an invalid altitude for his direction of flight. With the current RVSM structure in place, this is a complete no-brainer. All you have to know is, "Odd people fly East." If your flight is going mostly eastbound, then you should use an altitude or Flight Level that's an odd number. Westbound, it should be an even one.
So, flying from Newark to Midway, in a CRJ, maybe something in the low 30s would be good. Say, FL320. For the trip back, how about FL310? Does this seem in any way difficult to you? Apparently it is to a lot of folks.
Oh, and that whole Flight Levels thing? 18,000 feet. Above that, set your altimeter to 29.92 and call it a Flight Level. Below, set it to the local sea level pressure (available from METARs, ATIS or even the controller), and it's just altitude, MSL (above Mean Sea Level.) And of course the absolute worst part is that this information, too, is available everywhere. On VATSIM-USA's site, on various ARTCC websites, and on countless Internet sites with real-world aviation information. With altitudes, as with so much about flying, if you don't know something, look it up. (Here's a good exercise: if you don't know what "RVSM" means, go look up it right now.)
In real life pilots of even the simplest airplanes have to learn how to operate them safely and efficiently. The airplanes we fly in FS are easier to master, for the most part. But every airplane, including a simulated one, has its quirks. Learn the basic operation of your aircraft and a little about aviation operations before you connect. Practice offline at first. Only when you have a handle on how your airplane works should you consider trying to connect and fly online.
If you're brand-new to this whole aviation business, do some research. All the information you need is out there. Most VATSIM ARTCC's have detailed web sites with info that applies to their own airspace, but they will also include tons of content that's good no matter where you are on VATSIM. For basic real-world procedures, you can't go wrong with AOPA's Air Safety Foundation (http://www.aopa.org/asf/). The ASF has an open access online reference library with dozens of articles covering every aspect of aviation that isn't air carrier or military. Many are formatted as very slick .pdf files which you can download or even print out yourself. (For some content they make you sign up, but it's free.) And it's all good stuff. We actual CFIs use it when we're teaching.
Yogi Berra is reputed to have said, "You can observe a lot just by watching", and as usual the man was right on the money. Sign on to VATSIM in a quiet corner of a busy airport. Tune to the freq issuing clearances, and listen to other pilots for a while. Do it with a critical ear, applying what I've said. Try to think of how *you* would have said it better. Then, follow an airplane as it starts its flight, moving from the clearance freq, to ground, tower, departure and center. Get the flow of how it all works. More often than not, some of those control freqs won't be staffed. Learn how it works then. Watch how airplanes are routed away from the airport and each other on departure. Note how arrivals are funnelled down to the runways. And always, *always* listen critically, actively.
Don't be like the text-only guy at LA who the controller told, "N12345, taxi to RW25R". He taxied out to Runway 25R and took off, because he thought the "to" in his instruction meant "take-off". Or the guy who requested his clearance from Sioux City to Newark from center, then asked if he was going to have to talk to center any more along the way. Or the guy who had to have what a routing was explained to him. NOT what a "good" routing was. He honestly had no idea how airplanes get from one place to another. By the way, I heard all three of these examples on the same flight.
ATC is an incredibly complex, highly dynamic system. Learn a little about how it all works before you try to use it.
Now, I know someone will ask, So, sport, do you really do all that stuff yourself? Sadly, no, I don't, not always. Now and then I catch myself falling into bad habits. It's easy enough to do. But I try my best to avoid them. And so should you.