Every Pilot Needs to Know What These Fours Words Mean
If you have taken a checkride with me then most likely I have asked you a question or two about proper radio phraseology. Some pilots will downplay the idea that it’s not all that important, or that if you are unable to come up with just the right phraseology you can simply just say it in plain English and the controller will know what you are talking about. Well that might work, but it can also lead to a number of back and forth transmissions. Not only does this clog up what might be a busy frequency but it also creates an avenue for miscommunication.
In the early 1980’s when NASA Aviation Safety Reporting Systems was still relatively new a study was performed on 28,000 incidents reported by pilots and air traffic controllers. In those 28,000 incidents it was found that 70% of them involved some type of miscommunication. One of the problems noted in the these miscommunications was improper phraseology.
As a 23 year CFI who makes his living giving flight instruction I have gotten a number of reactions from persons who I tried to help improve their phraseology. Those reactions have gone from genuine desire to improve to I don’t need that I am not a professional pilot. My reply to that last comment would have been no you certainly are not a professional pilot and I can tell my your radio communications. Recently while reading some articles online I came across an article written by an author for Plane and Pilot magazine. I am quite sure this publication (or its digital equivalent) are in the hands of thousands of aspiring or newly minted pilots. The author (Isabel Goyer) of the article basically wants to call out the FAA for the rigidity of the standard phraseology. In the same article she says that some phraseology can be changed if its still clear. Well that is simply trying to rewrite standard phraseology to establish what would either be more standard phraseology or in this case non-standard phraseology. Rather than complaining about the standard phraseology and wanting to use plain language perhaps an effort can be placed on getting CFI’s to teach correct phraseology to their students out of the gate. When all you have been taught is PROPER PHRASEOLOGY its hard to use anything else. If CFI’s were more precise in teaching communications then students would be more precise in proper communications.
Here is a link to the article. Its exactly 180 degrees the opposite of what nearly every designated examiner, CFI, and controller would tell you is the correct way to go about proper radio phraseology. The article would make you believe that standard phraseology use is really not that important. Maybe its just a boomer thing right! Well truth be told the incident and accident statistics show otherwise.
Let’s face it people judge us by the words that come out of our mouth in normal everyday communication. Controllers are no different, and rightly so. If a controller hears a pilot using good phraseology he will treat him differently than a pilot with poor phraseology. One of them is making his/her job much harder, and the potential for problems is much higher with the pilot not using proper phraseology. The pilot utilizing improper phraseology may be a very skilled aviator, but the controller has nothing other than their radio phraseology acumen and therefore they will receive different treatment.
Dominique Estival, a Western Sydney University linguist, pilot and flight instructor from Australia surmises that around 2,000 people have lost their lives in aircraft accidents attributed to poor communication. There really is no need for this to happen because while different the “language” of aviation is not that difficult to master. A majority of applicants that I have tested have never been introduced to the Bible of aviation communication which is the PILOT CONTROLLER GLOSSARY. Every new pilot needs to get a copy of this and read it carefully several times. If you don’t already have a copy here is the link.
https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/media/aim_basic_chg_1_1-30-20.pdf
For the purpose of this post I will focus on the four most important and possibly used words that pilots need to have in their aviation vocabulary.
- ROGER-Probably the most misused word in the pilot controller glossary (Thanks to the movie Airplane no doubt). The actual definition of ROGER from the pilot controller glossary is- I have received all of your last transmission. It should not be used to answer a question requiring a YES OR A NO ANSWER!
- AFFIRMATIVE-This is simply the only way to answer a question requiring a yes answer. Yes is a difficult word to distinguish via radio communications. Affirmative will save you from repeating an answer of yes or congesting the frequency while you try to explain your answer.
- Negative-NO or PERMISSION NOT GRANTED or THAT IS NOT CORRECT
- Wilco-I have received your message, understand it, and will comply with it
Practically here are some examples of situations to use each word. There are millions more but hopefully you get the idea.
ATC: N1234 there are some birds circling on the approach end of runway 23 between 500 AGL and 700 AGL
N1234: ROGER
ATC:N1234 Do you have information Bravo?
N1234: AFFIRMATIVE (You don’t need to say anything else just Affirmative)
ATC:N1234 Do you have the runway in sight?
N1234: NEGATIVE (If you do not have the runway in sight of course)
ATC: N1234 If able turn off at taxiway yankee, and contact ground on 121.7.
(Your are in the midst of your landing roll so you don’t want to read it all back and you clearly understood)
N1234: WILCO
Wilco must only be used when you have understood and will comply with the directions from ATC. It may not be used for hold short, altitude assignments, or other transmission requiring a direct read back of the clearance.
Knowing these four words and using them as intended will be a huge step in saving you repeating communications over and over and jamming up the frequency.
You want to make your life easier then get your AIM out an focus on two sections in the AIM. Read and fully understand section 4-2 and also the Pilot/Controller glossary which is located at the end of AIM.
I am sure that nearly every flight I get lazy and don’t use 100% perfect phraseology. That doesn’t mean I should strive to do better!