Learning to fly, or thinking of learning? Post your questions, comments and experiences here

Moderator: AndyR

By Fellsteruk
#1818228
Just curious?

Let’s say either by accident or malicious source a frequency get a stuck mic or illegal transmission of stuff/Carp.

What’s the process for the station on frequency?

I’m just thinking out aloud, what would happen, especially if in controlled airspace?

As you can tell I have lots of anxiety about loss of comms whilst flying.
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By Rob P
#1818232
If you are already in controlled airspace and their comms go down you will already have had a clearance so you just go about your lawful business without a care in the world (assuming you keep a good look out)

If you are outside the controlled airspace and the comms go down you will not enter, and simply go around, over or under (where possible.)

You will also find the aeroplane flies quite satisfactorily even with the radio turned off, in fact it's a lot more pleasant.

Under training your instructor will have you chattering away to all and sundry. This is for practice. Once qualified you use your own discretion and only talk to the people who can give you something useful. A transit for instance, or a traffic service in marginal weather.

In over thirty years flying the event you worry about has never happened to me.

Rob P
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By lobstaboy
#1818239
Ah yes. The 'stuck mike'.
Usually it's not actually stuck. The PTT is being pressed by mistake - your map or knee board resting on the top of the stick for example (guess how I know?). Word to the wise - if the frequency you are on suddenly goes quiet, don't immediately assume equipment failure; it may be that you are on transmit.
Sort it out and whatever you do, deny it was you!
I remember once listening to a husband and wife touring the Essex coastline and pointing out to each other things like the pub they'd had lunch in the day before - all of us on Southend App could hear this for about ten minutes.
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By Fellsteruk
#1818246
Thabks guys I guess that all makes sense similar to a radio failure I guess.

Not that I hope to use it but I’ve got a handheld transceiver coming as a backup

I think I worry too much about low risk events.
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By rikur_
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1818249
often with a stuck mic some communication is still possible, just with a horrible whine

remember most airfields have more than one frequency, so e.g. if approach frequency is blocked, you could call tower. Many units have more than one approach frequency for use at busy times, so may even temporarily move to an alternative frequency
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By Grelly
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1818250
Happened to me once before we even used the radio.

We were running through the pre-taxi checks and Tower said: "Could whoever is constantly broadcasting, please stop".

We said to each other, "is that us?"

Tower said "Yes!" So we switched the radio off, shut down and reported the problem to the FBO.

I've always been slightly baffled by that as my understanding is that if we are broadcasting, we can't receive. But we definitely did.

BTW, it turned out it was a faulty push-to-talk switch.
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By JAFO
#1818270
I was lucky enough to work with the only person who ever said “huge cock and balls” to Lakenheath Radar. He’ll tell you he didn’t – he did, though.

As most of you will know, one of the skills to pick up when you’re going to spend your time in the air, is pattern recognition. It helps in all sorts of ways, particularly with navigation. You can always make it back to Wattisham, for instance, if you can see Scotty Dog Wood which is, unsurprisingly, a wood – whose real name I don’t know – which is shaped like a Scotty dog. It even helps at night, for example, you knew that you were on track for Lowestoft when the Pissing Pixie passed just down your right-hand side - that was the town of Halesworth because the shape of the town’s streetlights do, indeed, look like a pixie and the arching stream of yellow sodium streetlights make it look as though he is relieving himself on the village of Holton.

One day, I was flying in the back of the police helicopter and our unnamed hero was joined in the front by one of my colleagues. On a longish transit to a job in Cambridgeshire we were discussing these patterns and learning from each other’s observations. Our hero pilot mentioned a small copse and avenue of trees located in mid-Suffolk which, to use his phrase, looked like a "huge cock and balls". Immediately after he had said this an American voice on the radio said:

“Police three-five, say again.”

We were in contact with the United States Air Force air traffic controllers at Lakenheath and it was entirely clear to all of us, even if only two of us were willing to admit it, that our pilot had accidentally knocked the transmit switch when he had said, “huge cock and balls”.

He studiously ignored them whilst steadfastly denying the obvious but Americans are made of sterner stuff.

“Police three-five, Lakenheath Approach, say again your last message, sir, it was broken.”

I don’t know what he said back to them as, by now, I was fighting for breath and could not see through the tears streaming from my eyes. I had to unstrap my safety harness to take off my jacket because I was so hot from laughing so much. I was gasping for oxygen and really wondered if I might actually die from laughing. Every time I recovered and managed to suck in a lungful of air, our hero would say, “I didn’t say huge cock and balls to Lakenheath Radar” and I’d be off again. I have no idea what the job was we were going to.
Last edited by JAFO on Wed Jan 06, 2021 10:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
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By JAFO
#1818272
Grelly wrote:I've always been slightly baffled by that as my understanding is that if we are broadcasting, we can't receive. But we definitely did.


That would suggest to me that someone else in the aircraft that was actually transmitting had the same response as you at about the same time but you didn't hear it. Maybe. :?:
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By rikur_
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1818276
If ATC don't respond to you as expected, always check for a stuck mic.
I was in the tower at Manchester one day with a commercial airliner taxing for departure.
Ground controller told him to contact tower, which he duly did, but at the end the PTT stuck..... the next 5 minutes went roughly as follows.
'Tower, Britannia 123Y holding at Alpha ready for departure .... [pause] ....
Tower, Britannia 123Y holding at Alpha ready for departure .... sigh ...
come on .... [expletive] .... some of us have got places to be going...
Ground, Britannia 123Y, no response from your colleague on tower .... [pause]
oh for [explitive] sake, they can't have all gone on a [expletive] tea-break ....
Ladies and Gentleman, your captain speaking, apologies for the little delay we're having here, we're just waiting for air traffic control to get back from their tea-break and we'll be on our way.'
Various further slagging off of ATC continued for good couple of minutes, along with complaining the 'paddys' had got their push back clearance first.

Ground ops were dispatched - but the pilot twigged just before he got alongside.

Just as he cleared the stuck mic, a different Aer Lingus aircraft promptly announced 'Paddys are ready for immediate from link Charlie'
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By riverrock
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1818282
As an aside, most modern radios will automatically stop transmitting after a period of time to let a controller tell you what's going on ( and stop the radio over heating)
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By cockney steve
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1818301
Back in the days when Barton was the home of Lancs Aero Club A newly-qualified (may have been first solo) pilot spent a considerable time singing to all on-frequency,-

"Oh, I'm a pilot, i'm a pilot, I'm a pilot, I fly through the air with the greatest of ease.".........and on.
I believe he spent many months being ragged endlessly in the clubhouse!

Tale told to me many moons ago, sadly I missed that entertainment! :D
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By Dodo
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1818304
Many years ago I heard what appeared to be an instructor with a stuck mike castigating a student after a poor landing, using the sort of expletives that you don't usually hear on the air. This went in for a good five minutes causing chaos in the circuit.

Bizarrely, I discovered later, that there was only one person in the aircraft and they were self administering the telling off with the PTT stuck on.
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By ROG
#1818323
Another---carry a transceiver. I"ve only used it in anger twice in 40 years.--but also useful for ATIS pre flight/ firing up.
Also used it to check radio working after 50 s and annual. A couple of times the radio has been tuned out by the avionics guys--better to find out on ground than in the air.
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By David Wood
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1818329
Picking up on a sub-theme, there are three likely reasons why it all suddenly goes quiet on the RT - and it's worth knowing what they are and what do about them.

In third place: stuck PTT. Sometimes it's a mandraulic fault (passenger pressing the PTT by mistake, or a mis-placed knee-board fouling the switch). Remedy is to slap the passenger or move the knee-board, or both. Other times it's an electrical short in the PTT switch (which is a press-to-make switch and can therefore stick On). In some aeroplanes there is a pull-able plug that disconnects a shorted PTT switch. You can do that, but you then need to use the P2's PTT when you want to talk, but you'll also probably need to plug your headset into the P2's plugs.

In second place: wrong frequency. Surprisingly common (especially in these 8.33 days) to mis-select the frequency and be met by a strange silence. Remedy is to double check and reselect if in doubt.

In first place: volume turned down to zero! Strangely this is the most common cause of 'lost comms' or missed messages in my experience. Bloggs is on Box 1 and selects a new freq on Box 2; changes to Box 2 and either experiences a 'loss of comms' which causes him to faff about (and, in one case I know of, to subsequently infringe whilst faffing) or simply doesn't notice the strange silence and blunders on in blissful ignorance. Remedy is to check the volume on both boxes at the pre-flight comms check, and periodically check the squelch volume in the air if in doubt.
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