New equipment, old tricks
Today's audio panels do not have bleedthrough--when you hear audio from a navigation or communication radio even though the audio panel's selector switch for that radio is turned off. You would seldom notice bleedthrough prior to the days of headsets because of ambient noise in the cockpit.
Here's a time-saving technique. When using VOR navigation, leave both VOR audio selector switches on and turn both VOR receiver volume controls to their minimum position. When you need to listen to a VOR identifier, turn that receiver's volume up, but keep your hand on the volume control. If air traffic control (ATC) calls you, as they invariably do when you're busy, you can quickly turn the volume down and respond to ATC. There is no need to be working the controls on both the VOR receiver and the audio panel.
This same technique can be used with a communication radio when obtaining the weather on an automatic terminal information service (ATIS) broadcast before landing. The worst thing you can do is try to listen to ATC and an ATIS simultaneously. However, if the audio selector switch for that radio is turned on and the radio's volume is turned down, you can easily listen to the ATIS when ATC is not talking to you and quickly turn the volume down if you're called.
The best time to get ATIS is between ATC frequency changes. When you receive a hand-off, don't be in a rush. Leave the old frequency, listen to ATIS, and then select the new frequency. Simple and efficient.
When it's your turn to initiate a call to ATC, remember the cardinal rule of flying: aviate, navigate, communicate. However, when ATC calls you, an immediate acknowledgment is required unless you're too busy, as was a student pilot in the following situation.
When told to go around during a landing approach, the student initiated the go-around, but the controller, who was probably new, came back twice and said, "November-One-Two-Three-Four, did you copy, go around." Pause. "November-One-Two-Three-Four, did you copy, go around." The student was busy with his go-around, doing what he should be doing, so I keyed the microphone and said, "Tower, November-One-Two-Three-Four, do your windows need cleaning?" It was obvious to anyone at the airport that we were going around. Radio communications are definitely your last priority when you're busy managing the airplane or a navigation requirement. Verbal communication--yelling at your flight instructor or talking to yourself--is OK.
With respect to radio and audio panel controls, I always relate what I do to worst-case scenarios. When I consider radio management, I think of turbulence and use the procedure I described. Surely you've been in situations where you reach up for a radio control and because of turbulence your hand is waving around like a flag. Just remember, it's easy to hang onto a volume control, but difficult to place a finger on the audio panel's small switches or buttons.
A radio magnetic indicator (RMI), my favorite navigation instrument, is considered obsolete by many, but that's not true. Nothing complicated, it's just a slaved compass card, like a heading indicator, that automatically maintains magnetic heading and has one or two bearing pointers for VOR and NDB navigation. They were seldom found on light airplanes because of their power requirements, but that is no longer the case.
If you fly one of the new glass-cockpit light airplanes, pay attention to a small feature that pays huge dividends: the bearing pointers. They can be superimposed on most primary flight display heading indicators, and they will point to whatever you select. That gives you an instant bearing to or from the selected point and enhances your orientation capabilities even though you also have the multifunction display's moving map. Yes, the equivalent of an RMI is now in general aviation cockpits, and that's fantastic.
RMIs had controls for switching the pointers between VOR or NDB stations. They were called suicide or do-or-die switches, and many accidents occurred because of an incorrectly positioned control. That situation remains the same in the glass cockpit, even though the old controls have been replaced with push buttons and digital readouts for tuning options. Be careful, and always triple-check what you have selected.
Ralph Butcher, a retired United Airlines captain, is the chief flight instructor at a California flight school. He has been flying since 1959 and has 25,000 hours in fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft. Visit his Web site.
