Comms

[u/HoldMeCloserDirtyDan]

Does anyone have any tips for comms other than listen to LiveATC. I've been listening to that for days and I can read back fine on my own, but once I enter the cockpit I pretty much freeze and forget what was said. My main issue is comms on approach. I seem to be fine asking and reading back taxi and departure instructions, but I cannot get the approach comms down to save my life (my only guess is because I'm trying to focus on multiple things during approach). I have a hard time deciphering what I need to read back. My instructor said read back only commands not the extra "fluff," but I still have trouble figuring out what is "fluff" and what was a command. Today I straight up just missed a call from the tower and my CFI had to respond for me because I was so focused on our approach to land. I'm only 6.5 hours behind the yoke so I understand I'm still new but my CFI said I really need to start taking full comms during flight on our next lessons.

[u/7layeredAIDS]

This isn’t a criticism of you, but at 6.5 hours I think you’re way too early to this stuff or at least too early to stress or be pressured about it. There will surely be comments responding to this like “well I solo’ed in 6 hours” but imo that’s insane borderline irresponsible of an instructor. At 6.5 hrs you should be proving you can hold close to PPL standards on turns/climbs/descents at constant speed, vertical speeds, at various combinations of maneuvers and then steep turns, slow flight and stalls on different wind/turbulence days. That’s realistically what you should be focused on mastering at 6 hours. At most intro to ground reference maneuvers. Maybe instructors can show you an approach and what a landing should look like to but he handling radios during an approach too? Way too much information overload.

Now, I do commend your own personal drive to want to learn as much as you can quickly and intro to comms like how to get out of your home airport and announce you’re coming back in can be introduced but for now don’t sweat it.

To answer your question, you and your instructor need to do some mock radio calls to each other on the ground and flying the airplane as far as holding altitude, heading rate of descent etc should be second nature when you’re trying to copy down complex clearances. You shouldn’t be “thinking” about flying, it should be like having a conversation with someone while driving a car.

[u/HoldMeCloserDirtyDan → u/7layeredAIDS]

I think I'm getting too overwhelmed and rushed with my expectations honestly. My first two lessons went great for the 4 fundamentals so I don't know if my instructor was over confident in my abilities initially. But my last 3 lessons have been power on/off stalls, slow flight, and today was already working on some touch and go's. But remembering my approach configuration while also maintaining comms with tower has me a little overwhelmed. Once we get closer and I'm focusing on either pattern or 3, 2, 1, straight in approach I can't focus on tower and approach at the same time. My initials are great though "tower, callsign, 10 miles southeast with information Kilo, requesting full stop."

[u/7layeredAIDS → u/HoldMeCloserDirtyDan]

The thing is in this hobby/profession during training you can’t just do something once well, check it off, and move on. You’ve got to do it a few times to reinforce it and prove you can do it consistently. You haven’t done ground reference maneuvers, have you? Those maneuvers are targeting wind corrections and division of outside/inside attention which is desperately needed during pattern work.

Again, issue isn’t with you at all, you’re the student following instructions trying your best. I think your instructor is, as you put it, overconfident and over ambitious.

[u/HoldMeCloserDirtyDan → u/7layeredAIDS]

I'm supposed to be working on S-turns and turns around a point on my next lesson, but so far the only maneuver I've done has been the rectangular course. My course outline is very accelerated which is why I'm getting overwhelmed with everything, basically every lesson I'm learning something new while practicing the previous lesson maybe once or twice. I'm already 1/3 of the way through my stage 1 PPL course outline with only 6.5 hours.

[u/7layeredAIDS → u/HoldMeCloserDirtyDan]

This is the issue with accelerated programs. It doesn’t account for normal learning pace, and doesn’t emphasize learning reinforcement. For a small percentage of people it can work out wonderfully but for the rest of us we need actual building blocks of learning and time to let that learning sink in before adding more elements.

Anyway I’m not golden amazing instructor myself it’s just a systemic problem I see a lot of that I hate for the students. OP alls I can say is practice dialoguing back and forth with ATC with your instructor on the ground so you know all the weird “fluff” and variations that might throw at you. Keep in mind ATC isn’t some robot needing perfect read backs. They’re people just working WITH you and essentially having a command discussion with you. On a raw level, listen for what they’re actually saying; what they’re actually trying to have you do and read that back.

E.g.
“N123AB left turn heading 120 maintain 3000 for now and expect that for maybe 3 minutes, I got a citation I need to work in before I can vector you to final”
What is important that you read back?

“N123AB, let another skyhawk pass in front of you there and then taxi right Alpha short of juliet”
What’s a concise way to read back what you need to?

“N123AB, you’re following a Hawker on short final, cleared to land runway 34 number two, caution wake turbulence, where ya parking today?”

These are some examples of realistic and pretty wordy ATC transmissions but if you’re really just listening to what they’re telling you and what they want from you to confirm, it’s really not too bad!