Atccommunication.com Website Review

“Cessna 9130 Delta, Oakland Center, radio check,” says the controller. “Cessna 9130 Delta, loud and clear,” the pilot answers. “Cessna 9130,” says the controller, “that was my third attempt to call you. If you want to continue with flight following, you’re Why didn’t the pilot answer ATC the first 2 times the controller called him? I can think of 3 possibilities. 1. He was distracted. 2. He heard ATC but chose not to answer. 3. He got tired of listening and mentally tuned out. Reason 1, distraction, is easy to understand because we’ve all been there. Something happens in the co*kpit that takes your attention away from listening to the radio. When flying, the possibilities for distraction are endless. I could name some distractions, but I’m sure you’ve experienced enough of your own to be very familiar with the problem. Reason 2, prioritizing, is also pretty easy to grasp. From our very first day as student pilots, our flight instructors told us our priorities were, “Aviate, navigate, communicate”, in that order. If flying the aircraft or staying on an airway centerline requires Reason 3 is a little more complicated than the first two explanations. When a radio frequency is very busy with conversation, and you aren’t part of any of the ongoing conversations, its easy to become numb to the chatter. We pilots like to think we are excellent at monitoring our environment. With practice, we learn to crosscheck the daylights out of our aircraft’s flight instruments. When the aircraft engine makes an unusual sound, our ears pick up on it immediately. If an updraft causes our aircraft to change pitch, we feel the change in our gut. Pilots are excellent at detecting changes. We don’t do as well at paying attention to the unchanged. Tuning out background noise is a natural process of survival. Filtering what we perceive as irrelevant allows us to focus on and process information we perceive as There’s plenty of good research available online about paying attention–vigilance–in the co*kpit. The FAA and NASA have done