Airline radio procedures

[newtothis]

Good day all,

I recently accepted a job with an airline. All my flying to this point has been in the bush with some ifr experience. I'm concerned about how the radio procedures work in the airline world. Mostly concerned with the sequence on the ground. Starting at the gate. I've been told there's a gate freq. From there is it apron, ground and then tower? Pretty embarrassed that I don't the order but don't want to feel lost around the others at ground school.

[TurkeyFarmYQX]

Depends on where you're flying. You might be on a company freq, clearance delivery to get your clearance, then contact ground/ramp for your pushback, then ground to taxi then tower holding short.

I assume you're going to a regional?

[kilocharliemike]

https://www.liveatc.net

[goleafsgo]

You’ll learn it all. That’s what line indoc is for. Whoever you’re with will help you out that’s what they’re there for.

[Rooster69]

Don’t sweat it. You pick it up during line indoc.

[averageatbest]

Good day all,

I recently accepted a job with an airline. All my flying to this point has been in the bush with some ifr experience. I'm concerned about how the radio procedures work in the airline world. Mostly concerned with the sequence on the ground. Starting at the gate. I've been told there's a gate freq. From there is it apron, ground and then tower? Pretty embarrassed that I don't the order but don't want to feel lost around the others at ground school.

Some items will be in the AOM. Most of it is learned on the job.

Each airport also has different ways of doing things and you are not expected to know everything when you're being hired without 705 experience. Training and line indoc will get you up to speed. Anything you don't pick up there will come quickly afterward.

[flyinhigh]

Good day all,

I recently accepted a job with an airline. All my flying to this point has been in the bush with some ifr experience. I'm concerned about how the radio procedures work in the airline world. Mostly concerned with the sequence on the ground. Starting at the gate. I've been told there's a gate freq. From there is it apron, ground and then tower? Pretty embarrassed that I don't the order but don't want to feel lost around the others at ground school.

You're sweating the small stuff. There is significantly more aspects to worry about over how to use the radios. Stuff like how the radios work (yes I've had to show how they actually work on day one line indoc before).

Once you finish up sim and are released to the line, just follow all the policies and procedures you learned and you will be fine. Unless you got to LGA, than your screwed.

[cdnavater]

Good day all,

I recently accepted a job with an airline. All my flying to this point has been in the bush with some ifr experience. I'm concerned about how the radio procedures work in the airline world. Mostly concerned with the sequence on the ground. Starting at the gate. I've been told there's a gate freq. From there is it apron, ground and then tower? Pretty embarrassed that I don't the order but don't want to feel lost around the others at ground school.

Hey, as a trainer, I appreciate you wanting to figure some stuff out before hand.
As mentioned each airport has its own procedures, like YYZ has metering that you monitor, then they tell you when and what frequency to call for push, etc
That being said, for your training, you know what airport your event is for, I recommend in addition to all the systems and procedures you incorporate a review of the charts for your next session. Write down important information and frequencies on a cheat sheet.
It will get covered somewhat during training and reinforced during line Indoc but you should have a pretty good grasp on it during SIM training.
If you have charts, look up the major airports, you’ll see the frequencies on the taxi chart and it’s pretty straightforward
Good luck on your training

[Adam Oke]

I went from an Air Tractor to a Q400 when I made the transition to airlines a while ago. You're many steps ahead of where I was, if you have experience transmitting on a VHF radio.

There is some good information above, but I think it's important to brush up on ICAO standard radio phraseology. This will save you a bit of headache from trainers and controllers moving forward and allow you to focus on and learn the meat and potatoes.

As one mentioned above; Don't sweat the petty stuff, and don't pet the sweaty stuff.

Review the ICAO Manual of Radiotelephoney and you will be good to go. Try to have fun and take everything as training.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... dntnaixLXF

[CaptDukeNukem]

Yup. You’ll be fine my friend. Depending on the airline you work for, they will also have their own documents on specific airports and how they work. And frankly, if you call the wrong freq… they just gonna say;

“Pilot123, wrong freq, contact 122.87 for push.”

Then you laugh about it at the bar with your captain once day is over.

[frog]

I went from an Air Tractor to a Q400 when I made the transition to airlines a while ago. You're many steps ahead of where I was, if you have experience transmitting on a VHF radio.

There is some good information above, but I think it's important to brush up on ICAO standard radio phraseology. This will save you a bit of headache from trainers and controllers moving forward and allow you to focus on and learn the meat and potatoes.

As one mentioned above; Don't sweat the petty stuff, and don't pet the sweaty stuff.

Review the ICAO Manual of Radiotelephoney and you will be good to go. Try to have fun and take everything as training.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... dntnaixLXF

Yes ICAO is the way to do it unless you fly over US !

[Oleo 4]

Enjoy the ride, your winger will have your back!

For our operation we utilise all ATC transmissions on VHF 1 or Left (type dependent) and Company Ops/De Ice Pad/ on #2 or Right. The third radio stack is always set to DATA for ACARS.

Typically we would do the following on #1 or Left radio leaving an airport like YYZ:
Clearance (If no PDC is available), they will tell you to call Metering fully ready
Metering call when fully ready to push back, they will tell you to monitor apron/ground
Apron frequency - Will typically give a spot and tail direction to push to. They will generally tell you at these airports when to switch to ground
Ground Frequency - may be multiple depending on size and runway for departure - will tell you to switch to tower.
Tower Frequency - Will make the fun happen.
Departure - CPDLC as soon as you can to make the noise stop.

#2 or Right radio on the ground:
Company frequency (sometimes more than one)
De Ice Pad
ATIS
121.5
#2 or Right radio in the air:
121.5

O

[DHC-1 Jockey]

For the love of God, don't do what I did on my first flight out of YYZ with Jazz back in 2012.

We landed on 06R and exited one of the high speeds and were instructed to hold short 06L. I thought that since we're now on a taxiway, that I would be proactive and switch to ground frequency.

Boy, was I ever wrong. After ground instructed me to switch back to Tower IMMEDIATELY, and giving us a phone number to copy, I was pretty sheepish.

The Captain laughed and said that he was going to remind me of that and that it catches everyone the first time, and he apologized to me for forgetting to tell me. He called the number Tower gave him, shrugged it off as a learning experience for me, and the rest of the day went smoothly.

[fish4life]

To add complication to it you will have airports like YVR where they have one controller working tower and ground on one side of the airport and another working both for the other side so you end up taxing in on tower freq or getting your taxi clearance on tower and just monitoring (listening) on ground.

The fact you have this want to learn attitude and not a spoon feed me everything I need to know is great and you will find 99% of trainers appreciate someone wanting to learn.

[BingBong]

A helpful tip if the FMS has a scratchpad type your freqs down before tuning….I’ve seen many northern pilots fumble the radio just trying to remember the numbers let alone decipher other language accents or rapid fire radio calls

[Eric Janson]

Good day all,

I recently accepted a job with an airline. All my flying to this point has been in the bush with some ifr experience. I'm concerned about how the radio procedures work in the airline world. Mostly concerned with the sequence on the ground. Starting at the gate. I've been told there's a gate freq. From there is it apron, ground and then tower? Pretty embarrassed that I don't the order but don't want to feel lost around the others at ground school.

It's simple. Take the airport chart (Jeppesen 10-9). Just use the frequencies at the top in order from left to right. Starts with ATIS then Clearance Delivery, (Apron) Ground and Tower.

Parking position charts may have more detailed procedures listed.

Airport reference charts may have specific procedures listed - always good to read these.

SID Chart usually lists the frequency you need after departure. Some airports will put it on their ATIS

Don't overthink it - ATC will normally switch you from one frequency to another.