Too long radio transmissions

[PilotDAR]

I took a nice flight to my local airport today. I monitored 122.8 the whole way there and back. It was a beautiful day for flying, and the skies were happily busy. 122.8 is always busy, but a few transmissions really tied things up. A pilot announced his intention to depart a "grass strip between two lakes" (which he named). He went on to announce that it would be a VFR flight, heading and destination. There was some hmming, and thinking during this transmission, which extended its duration. Perhaps this was more information than was needed to assure a safe departure, and detracted from other users of the frequency who were flying in certainly busy airport areas. And then there were the "conflicting traffic please advise" pilots. You don't have to tell me!!! If I have the least concern that I could conflict with your flight, I'm going to tell you - if I can get air time to do it! And, we're both going to watch where we're going right? There are still NORDO planes around.

When I was taught to fly, I was instructed that transmissions were to be as brief and succinct as possible. No more information than that phase of flight required. And, as I heard Flight Service tell a pilot once: "VFR stands for visual flight rules, not vocal flight rules", when someone was tying up 126.7 with a protracted enroute position report, at a higher altitude, in the middle of nowhere.

So more and more, I let people chatter away, shaking my head in wonder, as I watch where I'm going, and watch for traffic on my VFR flights. Today, I could not announce approaching the airport, it was too busy on the radio. I was able to call the straight right downwind to the water, turning final to the water, and then turning onto left downwind for the runway, and final to the runway. It seemed sufficient for the other traffic to know who, and where I was. Please treat your push to talk button as if it's really hot! - Press it for the shortest time you can manage.....

[enbt]

The opposite of this are the folks who try to say as much as possible, as fast as possible, making their transmission completely incoherent.

There’s a happy medium between these two ends of the spectrum.

[iflyforpie]

You don’t need to say much.

A position report is ident, type, position (preferably distance and bearing from an airport or a large population centre.. nobody knows where Blackfly Bay or the ELPEV initial fix is), altitude, intentions, destination.

Use altitude to resolve conflicts. If you’re at 4500 and the other traffic is at 5500, you aren’t going to hit each other. Even an 80 year old WWII surplus sensitive altimeter has near GPS accuracy in the vertical when compared to another altimeter with the same setting. This will get rid of lots of calls with complex lateral resolution advisories (which is best left to ATC who has a scope—even with TCAS, azimuth is the least accurate aspect of the display as I’m sure many of you have seen targets dance around realize and why all RAs are vertical) and even more calls saying they can’t see each other.

I was going into YVR yesterday and some poor American was trying to find his way through terminal airspace on his way to Ketchikan via Port Hardy and Bella Bella. No flight plan in the system, poor readability on the radio, and terminal was busy trying to sort out that mess. I was two miles final not handed over so I switched myself.

[BeaverDreamer]

Blackfly Bay is sure easier to find than “62.7 nautical miles northeast of pikangikum” if you don’t have a GPS, maybe even if you do... So long as it is published on a VNC or referenced to something that is ie. blackfly bay on mosquito lake.

[tractor driver]

1.Who you are
2.Where you are
3.What you’d like to do
Pretty much covers it.
G

[Loon-A-Tic]

To continue, do we need to know your a float plane landing on water, what are your "options". I've never heard a wheel plane announce that it's landing on a hard surface runway; lake location or airport is sufficient, we can usually figure out the rest thank you.

[valleyboy]

How many times has this been discussed. SOP's are part of the problem for the commercial anal retentive group who won't modify because SOP and the other half are the ones with verbal who like to hear themselves talk. Sometimes side tone is a pain.

To me a traffic advisory is not a position report as it is defined but simply trying to find out if you have company in the same area. As stated before there are so many on the radio that just have bad form such as talking to fast or flipping between frequencies before listening for a reply. You can tell they are just filling the SOP and not really paying attention. It simply turns into a shit show. I doubt if it will ever be fixed, couple that with pilots that find looking out the window and scanning for traffic not necessary because of the radio and traffic advisory and you have the formula for disaster.

[rookiepilot]

I love flying up in northern (Ontario)......far away from the craziness... = quiet radio....

On my BC trip I heard a guy in a 337 I think -- was it you Pie? -- do it like this on a VFR flight:

"Cessna Xxxx, 6500 westbound , over Revelstoke, someplace next, Xxxx"

Clear, easy...

[Zaibatsu]

What SOPs include radio calls? I’d like to see them. Most of the stuff that is in the regs or AIM isn’t spelled out in SOPs.

It’s a culture thing. Comes from FTUs and gets carried over until someone else in the industry smartens them up.. unless you’ve got two pilots straight out of the FTUs which is more common than not now.

Like all you need is a call 5 min before entering the zone. Downwind call. Final call. Clear call. That’s it. You don’t need to give detailed taxi intentions or my favourite ‘down on the runway’ (maybe he used to fly floats?)?

[co-joe]

Now if we could just lynch that F-tard meowing on guard near YYZ!