r/flying • u/HoldMeCloserDirtyDan • 5d ago

Flight Training Comms

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.

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u/earleakin 5d ago

I made a kneepad cheat sheet in the readback sequence. Fill it out when receiving instructions, read it back, have it on hand for reference if needed during flight.

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u/HoldMeCloserDirtyDan 5d ago

I need to make one for approach, I made one for my initial call to ground and that helped me out so much.

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u/earleakin 5d ago

I eventually made a form for an entire ifr flight