Radio Telephony Operating Procedures and Phraseology
Radio telephony operating procedures and phraseology
This domain tests whether you can run a correct, concise VHF exchange: call structure, ICAO standard phraseology, readback discipline, and the pronunciation rules that keep a transmission intelligible on a busy frequency.
The shape of every call
An initial call carries four elements in order: the station called, your callsign, your position, and your request. 'Nairobi Tower, Five Yankee Bravo Charlie, Cessna 172 at Alpha One, request taxi.' After the first exchange, omit the aircraft type and shorten the callsign only after the ground station does so first.
Procedure words
ACKNOWLEDGE, AFFIRM, NEGATIVE, WILCO (understood and will comply), ROGER (received and understood, not an approval), SAY AGAIN, STANDBY, DISREGARD, CORRECTION, HOW DO YOU READ, I SAY AGAIN. Use BREAK to separate a transmission from one addressed elsewhere, and BREAK BREAK between aircraft on a distress frequency.
Readback
Read back all clearances, runway-in-use, hold-short instructions, altimeter settings, SSR codes, headings, speeds and frequencies. Readback is your proof the message was copied correctly; without it the instruction may be treated as not received.
Numbers, spelling, time
Alfa, Bravo ... Zulu for letters; TREE, FOWER, FIFE, NINER for digits; THOUSAND and DECIMAL for quantities; times as four digits in UTC. Say 'one one eight decimal seven', never 'one eighteen point seven'.
Worked example
Tower: 'Kilo Tango Alpha, taxi to holding point Bravo runway 06 via Charlie, QNH 1018.' Correct readback: 'Taxi to holding point Bravo runway 06 via Charlie, QNH 1018, Kilo Tango Alpha.' Reasoning: four mandatory readback items are present, the order is preserved, the callsign comes last.
Traps
Offering ROGER or WILCO instead of a readback; using OVER and OUT on VHF; giving the destination instead of the present position; saying 'take-off' while taxiing, or 'departure' in place of 'take-off' in a clearance.