100 hours as a student pilot

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EliteEthos@reddit

Why do you is this such an issue for you? You’d think after going there more and more, it would be less stressful…

What are the issues you’re having?

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ghostlykisses_@reddit (OP)

when I hear something I’m not expecting, I just freeze for a second and start overthinking.

Once I’m in the pattern I’m fine, it’s just that initial communication that stresses me out.

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EliteEthos@reddit

Over thinking what? This is challenge and response. They will tell you something, you echo it, then do it.

Please give examples of what is getting said and how you don’t know how to respond.

What tools has your CFI been giving you?

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ghostlykisses_@reddit (OP)

Most of the time it just sounds like fast normal English, not standard phraseology, so it’s hard for me to catch everything.

The tower at my airport is kind of strict and not very patient, so I get more nervous.

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EliteEthos@reddit

I dunno dude.

I think you’re making a much bigger deal of it on your head. Yes, you’re a foreign student but presumably you speak English just fine, right? Is English your second language? Is that a factor?

One thing I can say for sure is that comparing yourself to others is a guaranteed way to bring on self doubt and disappointment.

There are several things you can do to set yourself up ahead of time. One thing is maybe a template that you can fill out as you get radio calls. You likely wont be able to write down everything every time but you’ve been to this place before… you should have an idea of what they are going to say/ask, even if it’s non-standard phraseology. This would allow you to copy down things you might’ve otherwise missed and allow you to get less flustered. Your CFI should be able to help you make something.

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ghostlykisses_@reddit (OP)

Yeah, English isn’t my first language. I’m fine when it’s standard phraseology, I know what they’re saying and what they want.

But when it turns into fast normal English, I just hear words and don’t really process them.

My instructor has gone over everything with me, even uncommon stuff, and we’ve practiced a lot on the ground. I feel fine there, but in the actual flight I just freeze for a second and start overthinking.

And yeah, comparing myself to others is definitely not helping.

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vtjohnhurt@reddit

Is it legit to say, 'please say in standard phraseology?'

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codyrogers89@reddit

Second this. Have LiveATC tuned on some headphones and just listen to different towers throughout the day when you can. Try to pick out things you haven’t heard before, then research the “slang” you don’t know.

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EpiphanyTwisted@reddit

It's difficult for native English speakers. Are you C1 or C2?

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ghostlykisses_@reddit (OP)

I’m c1 and i can’t even understand a thing when they’re talking normal English

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vtjohnhurt@reddit

Pausing for 1 second is not acceptable?

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draggingmytail@reddit

Don’t be afraid to just say “say again your last for N12345”

There are so many times when I’m flying on flight following that I will only hear half of what ATC said. Just ask them to repeat it.

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usmcmech@reddit

About the 8th time you say that, they start talking slower.

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Gabilan1953@reddit

Aviation is not your field I’m afraid! Perhaps being a dog sitter?

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Civil-Resolution8645@reddit

Listen to LiveATC.net. Hell, dial into AOPA and listen to DCA approach. Listen, listen, listen and you will get used to it. A comment from an old pro pilot, 40 years professional flying. Most young, new, airline aspiring pilots talk TOO FAST. Slow down and get it right. Less is better than long, run on sentences. Listen to how the major airline pilots talk. It is slow, clear, concise, and deliberate. They don't have to repeat themselves much because they are easy to understand. It's the new, young want to be pros that are the worst. They think fast is good, but it is NOT.

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Loudsongsinc@reddit

Get a book called "say again, please" and study it while listening to LiveATC.net

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Smokey_Bird@reddit

I’m not an international student and I solo’d at 70ish hours. I’m doing just fine now. It’s going to take time, especially if there’s a language barrier.

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Civil-Resolution8645@reddit

Maybe a different career path?

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Muted-Rhubarb2143@reddit

Its not even a skill issue able to be rectified with practice. OP is a hundred hour pilot who craters on the radio. What happens when shit actually hits the fan?

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PayCautious1243@reddit

I'm a student too, you need to visualize on your own and talking to yourself as you are driving and playing the role of atc and pilot. Speak outlloud and respond as if you were atc yourself. That's how I been doing it. And specifically communicate as if you were in a, "class d" airspace. "Charlotte ground skylane 9334. Ground responds, 9334, charlotte ground. You respond back, 9334 currently at lets say general aviation with papa, requesting to vfr depart west. Ground responds, taxi to runway 24 via charlie, you respond back taxi to 24 via bravo 9334. Keep doing this over and over and over. If you are just up there planning to fumble it won't play out good. It helps that spent a lot of time on the phones with my current job but I also write notes in my pc to help rehearse and it should hopefully become second nature. Im nowhere near the hours you are lol.

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Denim-Luckies-n-Wry@reddit

The many recommendations to sit with your instructor and listen to that tower's Live ATC is such an obvious course -- that one wonders about the competence of your instructor and school.

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ShortOneSausage@reddit

Get the ARSim app to practice different scenarios. The app will listen to your responses and correct things. I used this when I first started and it helped a lot in the early stages.

I flew out of a towered airport though, so it didn’t take long to get used to it.

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dirtbikekid27@reddit

Try Vatsim paired with X-Plane 12. It helped me immensely with getting familiar with ATC. It's relatively cheap, compared to flying costs, and it is honestly just like talking to ATC.

Another thing that helped me is realizing this, ATC are just people too. If you don't understand, just ask! When I was a student pilot, my favorite thing was telling them "Callsign, student pilot," followed by my request. They will then talk a bit slower for you. And like I said, if you don't understand, talk like a normal human being and just ask, eventually you'll get the hang of it.

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Prof_Slappopotamus@reddit

The gaps are a problem. The distance to the tower is a problem. The radio work is YOUR problem.

You have a couple solutions. Find an FBO at a towered field to complete your training at, even if that means you have to drive an hour+ to get there.

Have your instructor get with you and spend 5-10 hours of you walking around chalk outlines on the ground making radio calls as he acts as ATC. Get some friends together and make it a real problem for the both of you.

~~Quit.~~

I don't recommend that.

If you feel like you have a good relationship with your current instructor, do the walk and talk method. Get on LiveATC and see if you can find a pattern that's broadcasting and picking one of the call signs and see if you can respond to all the calls for them at home. It sounds silly, but it works.

The most difficult one is going to be finding the new instructor and school. It may save you the most amount of money and time overall, though. Good luck.

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_-Cleon-_@reddit

FWIW, and keep in mind I'm in a completely different part of the country, but talking to ATC wasn't part of my PPL check ride. In fact I only flew into towered airports a few times during my training.

Don't worry about this - being comfortable with ATC comes with practice, not overthinking, and understanding that they're people and they're not trying to "get" you for something. Even if you've been corrected, take the correction and move on. And remember - asking them to "please repeat" is not a sin.

Worry about your maneuvers, worry about your oral prep. Get that shit done, do your check ride, then worry about making sure your ATC skills are sharp.

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imblegen@reddit

If you have a home simulator set up, look into VatSim or PilotEdge

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thebennyanderson@reddit

My recommendation is ask your CFI to set up a visit to the tower on a slow day - perhaps a day with bad weather. I would think just putting faces to the voices will calm the nerves a bit and while you are there, talk about times when you are having trouble with them directly. They’ll prob give you some tools to use to help communicate to them especially in those instances where you feel like you are freezing up.

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karmacolorado86@reddit

Plane English helped me learn andhttps://planeenglishsim.com/?srsltid=AfmBOorea-oqgOeXTW9P014Sx85mfFiCEeWBH2za3tRoJshslRXR_BYU practice radio calls. Boosted my confidence and allows me to practice calls before flights to and from the airports of my choice:

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Big-Lead5279@reddit

Take a day trip over there with your instructor and book a tower tour see the other side of the radio and put a face to the voice on the radio. They’re just people sometime it takes seeing them to realize that. All it is, is a group phone call that each person unmutes when someone is talking to them. Simple as that your in your own head about it

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Strict-Armadillo-273@reddit

Live ATC, role play, and straight up just talking to tower until they ask if an instructor is on board.

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hear4research@reddit

Is this a language barrier that you aren’t comfortable with?

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ChestertonsFence1929@reddit

Give yourself permission to make a mistake on the radio. The stress of trying to be perfect is what’s tripping you up. Say what you need to say and if something isn’t right the controller will request what they need. It’s no big deal. Relax and it will come together.

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mr_dee_wingz@reddit

You’re an international student not flying regularly and feeling pangs of regression. Time for you to change up your CFI, put a plan together to bang out the last few flight and leave. You’re just burning cash at this time. 35hrs and counting…

Sad to say your school now is seeing you as a money maker. Just feeding you the good stuff without letting progress.

Whats your plans thereafter?

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ghostlykisses_@reddit (OP)

Appreciate it.

I honestly don’t know what to do at this point, What would you do if you were me?

Also, most international students at my school don’t solo until around 30–40 hours and I’m not sure if that’s normal or not.

Do you think it’s more of a school/CFI thing?

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JuicyCarrot723@reddit

You need the hours regardless eventually anyway. No need to compare yourself with everyone else. Sure you might spend a little extra money but you also might not die from being sent on a solo too soon underprepared. I would stick with your school and just get it done. Possibly switch instructors if you think yours is underperforming and not doing all they can to help you be better.

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vanhawk28@reddit

Solo time doesn’t matter. I didn’t solo until 35 hrs and I’m local. Don’t compare yourself. Your only issue is the thing holding you up should not be. Start listening to live atc. If you want another support there’s an app you can download called plane English. It’s good for learning comms. I would stay out of the plane until you have a good grasp on this and role play what you need to say. Then get competency back in a few flights right before checkride

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JuicyCarrot723@reddit

I also struggled with radio communication at the first part of my training flying out of an uncontrolled airport, with a class C being 15 minutes away, I became comfortable quickly. Talking to flight following definitely built my confidence. Practice your script at home or on the ground with your instructor. Think about the next thing before you are going to say it. Often responses and call ups are the same day to day, but do be prepared if there are surprises. Listen to opposing bases podcast, they are/were both controllers and makes you realize everyone is on the same team. Controllers are there to help and keep airspace safe, not just to catch you messing up and report you to the FAA. Listen to liveatc.com from a class c airport. Baby steps, listening to busy class B can be overwhelming. There is no reason to fly an hour to have the same conversation over a radio with a controller. All of these things are free/ much cheaper then paying to run an expensive radio in the sky. Good luck and keep up the training!

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TobyADev@reddit

best bit of advice I was given re talking, "we don't know what we're gonna say to them and they don't know what they're gonna say to us", thankfully however in aviation there's somewhat of a pattern to RTF

if you're not sure what to say, "say again" works, or "unable"

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Creative-Grocery2581@reddit

You will be fine. Keep pushing those towered assignments. It was the opposite for me and where I had to go 20 mins for a G airport. You are almost there and you can do it.

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aftcg@reddit

Easy. Change schools to an airport with a tower and don't take long breaks. If you want to get paid to fly planes, you'll do what you need to do

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ckoly@reddit

I learned to fly at a non-towered airport and had struggles at the nearby Class C airport even after I got my license. After an embarrassing mistake, I changed to a flight school at that Class C to force me to get comfortable with it - worked great actually.

I'm not suggesting completely leaving your current school, but if you could just do a few lessons with a new instructor at a school at a towered field that'd save you a costly 28 minutes airborne each way.

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JumboTrijet@reddit

Many foreigners use ICAO phraseology better than Americans

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Educational-Walk-863@reddit

I got my ppl at 100 hours. Many get it in that range and go on to become great pilots. The world of aviation is new to student pilots. Everyone has their weaknesses, mine was landings, yours are radios.

Luckily for you, radios can be practiced on the ground. Pull up flight aware or flight radar and follow a plane going into a towered airport. Listen to live atc and hear what they are saying and what tower is saying. Chair fly what the plane is doing. Practice writing down what atc is saying. What helped me with radios, while working on my instrument, was immediately reading back what tower said and then writing it down. That way it doesn’t escape your mind as quickly.

Take it easy, you are learning and practicing two different languages at the same time while flying. Don’t lose the spark! You are only at the base of the mountain that is aviation. Keep climbing! If you take to long of a break, you’ll slide down and lose progress!

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ATrainDerailReturns@reddit

Flying 28 minutes to a tower is totally wack

Your CFI should be teaching you how to talk to FSS, getting briefings airborne, opening and closing flight plans, hell you could even be making pirep

You can also get flight following and talk to approach/departure that way

Flying to a tower over and over is ridiculous

Listen to liveatc.net practice responding as if you are the traffic

Have your instructor simulate ATC all the time

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Living_Guess_2845@reddit

Is there a school at the towered airport where you can spend some time with a CFI? Driving is cheaper than flying and you need to be immersed in order to learn the calls.

In the meantime, listen to LiveATC.net while watching an ADSB site.

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TejS40@reddit

I'd say just get really familiar with all the circuit entries that tower can give you. Like if you're coming from the north, what circuit entry makes the most sense? Left downwind, right downwind, left base, right base, straight in? It's not always the same, but familiarize yourself with what type of entry makes sense for each runway. Also just be very careful to not mix up your lefts/rights, it sounds simple enough but people do it quite often i've seen.

You can also say unfamiliar with the area on your initial call - they shouldn't expect you to know landmarks that they commonly ask people to report over if you aren't a frequent visitor at that airport. With that being said, learning those landmarks certainly wouldn't hurt either if you will go there regularly... liveatc is your friend here

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rFlyingTower@reddit

This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:

Hey guys i need honest advice

I’m an international student in Florida and I’m at exactly 100 hours rn

The thing is i finished all my PPL requirements around 65 hours. Everything after that has just been because of towered airports — I still haven’t finished that part yet even though my instructor says my flying is good.

My problem is the radio with tower. Non-towered is totally fine, but once I talk to tower I get nervous, start overthinking, and feel like I’m gonna mess up if they say something I’m not expecting.

Also, the nearest towered airport is about a 28 minute flight one way, so a big part of each flight is just going there and back, not actual pattern work.

On top of that, I’ve had a lot of gaps between flights, sometimes pretty long ones, which I feel like is slowing my progress and making me repeat things.

It’s starting to make me question everything and I’ve even thought about quitting. I just feel stuck mentally.

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