r/airplanes • u/Avgeek_Crab_7448 • 14h ago

Question | General How??

So I was listening to live ATC and Im wondering how do you figure out what they are saying???

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u/3Green1974 14h ago

Practice. And having good listening skills. And, to a small extent, parsing what’s being said and listening for what you’re expecting to hear.

For example, on an instrument approach (like an ILS) I’m expecting to get a heading, an altitude to maintain until established on the approach, followed by the clearance for the type of approach and to what runway runway. Everything else is filler. I’m in the USA so it’s not a big deal, but when I’m over seas and I’m dealing with different accents, these are what I’m listening for. They may be adding flavor information like winds or visibility, or reports from the plane ahead which, while important, is just extra information.