One of the easiest things for me during my initial training was to talk on the radio. I couldnt get enough of myself and cheerfully pointed out birds, balloons and other airborne objects to anyone willing to listen. After my instructor listened in on a few conversations, he quickly curtailed my verbosity and stated that most people would turn green at the thought of broadcasting their voice throughout the ether. I guess my police background and amateur radio experiences made this a natural environment for me.
In spite of my instructors comments, I was stilled shocked to find out that most new pilots look forward to talking on the radio about as much as they look forward to a visit with the local proctologist (why do we always seem to pick on this medical specialization whenever we want to call up images of unpleasantness?). Up to the point of running out of fuel (and perhaps sometimes even then), pilots who will go to any length to avoid any sort of controlled airspace. I feel sorry for them.
For the longest time there was absolutely no way of participating in the aircraft radio environment short of actually flying an airplane, or illegally using a handheld. So, the experience was hard to obtain and pilots never really overcame their fear.
I'm happy to announce that there is a great new way of overcoming this fear and gaining the skills and confidence necessary to navigate any type of airspace no matter how busy or intimidating.
This new program is called the COMM1 VFR Radio Simulator and is from the e-publishing group. What this program is designed to do is reproduce the types of environments that you will run into as a VFR pilot in North America. Although the program has a US bent, most of the techniques and principles also apply to Canada. Through your computer microphone and headset, you will learn to interact with ATC, Flight Service, Area Controllers, other airplanes, etc.
COMM1 (either VFR or IFR) is easy to install from the CD-ROM and the only glitch I ran into was that Quicktime would not install automatically after the main installation. I was able to install Quicktime, which is required for the transmissions, photos and diagrams, by manually launching the setup from the CD. The COMM1 web page, www.e-publishing.com/comm1, recommends that COMM1 not be installed into a directory that has a space in the directory name. Im not sure why this is but it means you shouldnt accept the default directory of C:\PROGRAM FILES\.
After the installation, which took about two minutes, I loaded the software and was presented with a nicely laid out screen containing a training area on the right, a table of contents on the upper left and the written copy of all verbal narration on the lower left. With a couple of other miscellaneous buttons for things like publications and help, the screens are both uncluttered and unintimidating for the radio and computer initiate.
COMM1 is comprised of briefings, practices and debriefings. You generally follow along with the table of contents in a sequential fashion. The program starts you off with the basics such as the phonetic alphabet, common phraseology and speech quality lessons. The fledgling pilot will learn that 120.20 is pronounced "one two zero point two" and that 59 is pronounced "five niner".
This training is accomplished through a really neat and fun interface. The trainee is presented with a page full of terms with a microphone icon beside each one. You will click on the microphone, hold the button down, pronounce the term and let go of the button. Half a second later youll hear your voice immediately followed by a professional pilot (sometimes male and sometimes female) pronouncing the same phrase. This is a great and quick way to compare your efforts with than of an expert. Next, youll move on to the different aids available to locate the correct frequencies. The program will walk you through interpreting a sectional chart, A/FD (similar to our Flight Supplement) and several other resources. Then youll learn the differences between MF, Unicoms, AWOS, Tower, Ground, etc and how to use each one of them.
I used the sectional chart most of the time for locating frequencies and let me tell you that you can teach an old 600-hour dog new tricks. I had forgotten how to interpret the different symbols in the communication boxes. This program was a great refresher for me and I even learned some new things (and had fun while doing it).
After these lessons, the program will teach you how to use a radio and an audio panel. The radios are listed as KX-165s but I believe they are really KX-155s as there is no radial readout. The audio panel is the KMA-24.
When you are ready to put all your newfound techniques to good use you will move on to the scenarios. Within the scenarios, you will:
The scenarios are handled by presenting you with situations and a series of potential responses. You read out the responses that you feel are correct and your voice is recorded and sequenced in with the other communications. Sometimes the program will throw you a curve. For example, you are reporting inbound for landing and another airplane will suddenly call you to report in the pattern. Of course you paid attention to his position report and are ready to record the correct response, right?
All scenarios are presented with diagrams, airplanes overlaid on sectional charts, flight resource tools, narrated instruction and radio communications. Its fun to be able to call up the sectional for your flight area and locate the correct frequencies. Novices will enjoy being able to learn the different airspace depictions and corresponding communications requirements. When practicing communicating, COMM1 teaches you the value of listening carefully to all transmissions and will admonish you for interrupting someone elses transmission. You will always have the opportunity to hear a professional go through the same scenario so you can learn by example.
There are more than seventy lessons and scenarios and geared to take you from the fear filled bumbling radio hacker to a professional sounding pilot who will earn the respect of ATC.
During program use I only ran into one fatal error. I received a script error about not belonging to text cast member group and I had to reboot the computer. Other than that, the program ran well even if was occasionally slow on my Pentium 233.
I cant recall ever having so much fun while learning. I highly, highly recommend this program for anyone who wants to learn how to communicate over the radio and for those "old aviators" whod like a refresher in the privacy of their own home.