Frederick Municipal Airport, AOPA’s home base in central Maryland, can be a busy place. On the first nice day after bad weather, it’s not unusual to find six airplanes in the pattern for one runway, with three helicopters flying their own pattern in the opposite direction on the opposite side. Meanwhile, the soaring club is launching tows and landing gliders on the crosswind runway—and maybe a blimp’s taking off from the infield for good measure.
Add calls from inbound, departing, and passing traffic to the activity on the field, and the CTAF gets pretty clogged. Most old-timers recognize this and use the frequency judiciously, but novices sometimes key the mic before tuning the brain.
A little thought should convince students of the virtue of listening—listening!—to the CTAF from at least 15 miles out. That might keep them from interrupting a string of position calls to request an airport advisory or say “Any traffic, please advise.” And your own calls should be useful and concise, imparting just the information other pilots need in terms you know they’ll recognize. That means standard phrasing, nothing more or less. It may be a pain to learn and teach, you may feel it stifles individuality, but this isn’t supposed to be poetry. It’s not even language: It’s code to convey vital information as clearly and efficiently as possible.
The same applies to exchanges with air traffic control. If they care why the pilot made a request or can’t accept a clearance, they’ll ask. Especially when they’re busy, what they really need is to understand what the pilot is asking, and be sure the pilot has heard and understood what they’ve said. That means—you guessed it—standard phraseology.
Many low-time pilots find radio work intimidating. It shouldn’t be. Just remember that it’s simple shorthand for well-defined ideas. It takes memorization and practice, nothing more. And don’t get carried away. A perennial favorite is the student who calls “left crosswind…left downwind…left base” and, eventually, “left final” for the runway in use. Left final?
Remember, left traffic can be assumed unless a right pattern is specified by the sectional and airport/facility directory. Calling “right traffic” might benefit transient pilots who haven’t done their homework, but once per circuit is probably enough. And however you got there, once you call “final,” other pilots should know where to look.
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