AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2011 - 93

Do the right thing
Don’t be a mush-mouth
< BY DAVE HIRSCHMAN

ne of my flight instructors was also an air traffic controller, and he brought home this point that’s stuck ever since: If a pilot really wants to be helpful and courteous and make the entire ATC system work better, the best thing he or she can do is use proper radio phraseology. And yes, that means phonetic numbers, too. Sure, you’ll sound like a lisping Spaniard and feel self-conscious the first few thousand times you transmit the numbers “tree,” “fife,” and “niner” on the aircraft radio. No one will mistake your dweebish utterances for the laconic Chuck Yeager. Listeners might even feel sympathy for your perceived speech impediment. But controllers will appreciate your clar-

lingo) reveals himself as an unreliable airwave clutterer who hasn’t bothered to learn the fundamentals and doesn’t mind wasting other people’s time. Roger that? Some may argue that today’s digital aviation radios and noise-cancelling headsets make transmissions so clear that trees, fifes, and niners are silly colloquialisms. Perhaps the vocabulary in the Pilot/Controller Glossary tramples our freedoms of speech or expression and is too restrictive for our permissive times. Negative. My esteemed colleague Tom Horne rightly points out that air traffic controllers themselves have largely abandoned tree and fife (yet still use niner), so per-

We all benefit from clear communication, and there’s a potentially very heavy price to pay for errors.
ity, effort to do things right, and perhaps even reward you with preferential routing. If you think that’s a stretch, it’s not. That same flight instructor/controller used to tell how ATC sizes up pilots and their abilities as soon as they check in on frequency. Pilots who are clear, concise, and use proper phraseology give controllers confidence that they will understand and reliably execute their instructions. On the other hand, pilots who fumble, sound distracted, or say things like “sugar” (instead of “sierra”) or “nickel” (instead of “fife”) can go directly to the aerial penalty box. Granted, it’s unfair to equate a pilot’s radio transmissions with flying skill. But when ATC is busy and controllers must make snap judgments, pilots who communicate well aren’t just appreciated. They’re cleared for approaches and granted navigational shortcuts because controllers believe they can count on them to perform such tasks with minimal oversight. That simplifies controllers’ lives and avoids airborne traffic snarls. By contrast, a drawling mush-mouth who spews aviation slang (or worse, CB haps we GA pilots should follow suit. Airline pilots are serial offenders, too—a bit ironic, since the AIM advises proper phraseology “is the mark of a professional pilot.” The phonetic alphabet and standard phraseology were developed to promote understanding between pilots and controllers (and between pilots and pilots), and that goal is as vital now as ever. We all benefit from clear communication, and there’s a potentially very heavy price to pay for errors. So take my old instructor’s advice. Use brevity and proper phraseology—and feel free to go beyond it when extraordinary situations arise. Otherwise, keep your thumb off the push-to-talk switch and leave the frequency open to your fellow pilots. You never know when someone— maybe you—will have an urgent need for it. Email the author at dave.hirschman@ aopa.org.
AOPA PILOT • 93 • JULY 2011

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2011