Radiotelephony Procedures and Phraseology
This domain tests whether you can build and decode ICAO standard RT in the Hong Kong environment: the order of a call, the small set of words that carry precise operational meaning, how numbers, levels and times are spoken, and exactly which transmissions must be read back. Marks go for exact phraseology and complete readback; they are lost for improvised English, missing callsigns and readback by paraphrase.
Anatomy of a call
Station called first, your callsign second, then position or level, then request or intention: 'Hong Kong Tower, B-HKA, Cessna 172 at the club apron, request taxi for runway 07R.' Keep it short, drop courtesies, and never use 'OVER' - on VHF it is unnecessary; 'OUT' is not used either.
Words that are not small talk
- ROGER: received, nothing more. It is not an approval and not a readback.
- WILCO: will comply - but if the instruction is on the readback list you still read it back.
- STANDBY: wait, I will call you. Never a clearance.
- CLEARED: authorises exactly the action named, nothing beyond it.
- SAY AGAIN, CORRECTION, I SAY AGAIN, CONFIRM, DISREGARD, WORDS TWICE.
Saying numbers and levels
Digits separately, except whole hundreds of feet and flight levels: 'SQUAWK SEVEN SIX ZERO ZERO', 'HEADING ONE TWO ZERO', 'FLIGHT LEVEL ONE ZERO ZERO', 'FOUR THOUSAND FEET'. Altimeter: 'QNH ONE ZERO ONE THREE'. Decimal: 'ONE ONE EIGHT DECIMAL FOUR'. Times: four digits UTC. ICAO pronunciations: THREE = TREE, FOUR = FOWER, FIVE = FIFE, NINE = NINER.
Mandatory readback
Route clearances; clearances to enter, land on, take off from, cross or backtrack a runway; runway in use; hold short instructions; level, heading and speed instructions; altimeter settings; SSR codes; frequency changes. Callsign last, and listen for the correction.
Worked example
Tower: 'B-HKA, line up and wait runway 07R.' Weak readback: 'Line up and wait, roger, B-HKA.' Correct readback: 'Line up and wait runway 07R, B-HKA.' ROGER adds nothing, and the runway is part of the clearance: if the active runway has changed, the full readback exposes the error before you enter the wrong runway.
Traps
Using ROGER or WILCO in place of readback; saying 'TAKE-OFF' when requesting departure (say 'ready for departure'); reading back a clearance without the runway or callsign; treating STANDBY as permission; mixing QFE, which is not used in Hong Kong, with QNH.