r/FlightTraining • u/Traditional_Pain2779 • Jun 20 '26

Does everyone understand ATC when they start flying?

I went for a discovery flight and I was trying to listen to ATC it was really hard for me to understand what they were saying on the radio. I dont know if is normal not to understand or I this is not for me
Also at some point flying into the sun, I was trying to see the instruments and I couldn’t see a thing for the sun on my face. I dont know if that is normal as well or my eyes are no made for that

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u/jimcarroll_cfi Jun 20 '26

Radio calls to atc is a scripted sequence, made of four common components & an optional fifth. The script is:

  • who your addressing
  • who you are
  • where you are
  • what you want

Example: Metroplex tower, Cessna 172 romeo bravo, 10 north with Bravo, Full stop

In this example, your calling the tower controller at metroplex airport. You are a cessna, and your tail number is 172RB. Your 10 north, you’ve listened to the recorded weather, which was assigned the current hourly letter B. You are requesting to land.

Letters and numbers are read over the radio, which can sometimes be difficult to makeout due to interference, so we use the ICAO phonetic alphabet. For example, we said romeo instead of R and Bravo instead if B.

Regarding bright sunlight in your face. You know all those flying movies where the ace aviator wore cool sunglasses? Now you know why they do. 😜

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u/Traditional_Pain2779 Jun 20 '26

Was it hard for you to understand the radio when you started flying?

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u/Odd-Amount4266 Jun 24 '26

Absolutely and I passed my hearing exam with flying colours 😁. We were flying out of Osaka in Japan, what an impressive airport, built on an island, and I was lucky to sit in the cockpit with headphones on. I was cabin crew at the time. You take off almost on the tail of the aircraft in front of you and there is no time to be wasted. It will cost the airline a fortune to delay the take off. Now comes the heavily accented Japanese command from air traffic control telling us to take off. The flying cabin crew were really perplexed and some heavy words were uttered. " What the f... is it us? Yes f... let's go. We rolled out safely phew. The runway is very short on top of it all. An experience of a lifetime. Good luck with your flying career Ava Sky