As experts in the field have determined, the tongue-tied feeling that occurs at the press of a push-to-talk switch can be primarily attributed to a lack of experience on the radio and venturing into the world of ATC prematurely and unprepared.

That’s where ATC simulations, such as those from PilotEdge, VATSIM, and others, create a virtual world that allows users to practice their communication talents long before they take off. These simulations provide a safe environment for pilots to learn and improve their communication skills, ensuring a higher level of safety in real-world flights.

The only thing you need to hone your radio communication skills using an ATC simulation is a flight simulator program, such as Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, Prepare3D, X-Plane 11 and 12, plus others, or those hardware-based simulators, such as Redbird, that utilize one of the aforementioned programs. 

Pilots who want the most realistic ATC simulation available will likely look to the subscription services of PilotEdge, created by CEO Keith Smith over 11 years ago, instead of the hobbyist services available.  

While any of the current ATC simulators will provide some level of benefit, Kevin Meyers, director of special events and marketing at PilotEdge, emphasizes that “those with current ATC and former military controllers staffing the ranks, such as PilotEdge, will provide you with a replication that mimics life in the real world of ATC, getting you ready and prepared as you take flight.” 

In addition, using an ATC simulation will allow you to practice your communication within various types of airspace—everything from traversing VFR uncontrolled airports to making the journey to and through Class Bravo airspace and beyond. And with the realism of the ATC world that goes far beyond the old text-based and voice-recognition days of past ATC simulations, you will be so immersed in the ATC ecosystem that you may forget that it’s a simulation.  

The cost of admission to a real-world ATC simulation subscription with PilotEdge is a little more than 50 cents per day. VATSIM and others are viable options for those who are not pilots or want to experience ATC simulation as a hobby without spending any monthly cash, but either alternative is better than none. 

And don’t think these simulations are a game—far from it. In fact, if you have a pilot deviation while you’re flying the sim using PilotEdge, you might receive the dreaded warning that Captain Jack Brasher got on his commercial carrier flight on August 13, 1985, long before his last name became synonymous with the warning that no pilot ever wants to hear.

• READ MORE: Say Again?

To be clear, the PilotEdge version of the Brasher warning is not shared with anyone except the operations team to improve the realism of the simulation and determine if tweaks need to be made to the software. It simply adds to the overall realism of your ATC simulation.

Speaking of realism, are you planning on flying into Oshkosh for EAA AirVenture in July? How would you like to be able to practice the approaches into Wittman Regional Airport before your actual flight, where KOSH is the busiest airspace in the world for that period of time? 

With PilotEdge’s unique simulation, you can do just that. Annually, from about two weeks before AirVenture begins, the company rolls out SimVenture. Meyers said it “is the only way and best way to prepare to fly into AirVenture.” 

So, dust off your headset, strap into your simulator, and take to the virtual skies to improve your ATC communication and learn how to talk with controllers just like the pros.

Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared as part of a longer piece in the JULY/AUGUST 2024 issue of Plane & Pilot magazine.

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This was back in 1996. A recently released National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report puts a modern twist on pilots showing off. It turns out we don’t need Mom, Dad, or a Tomcat jet fighter to bend our safety sense. We don’t even have to do anything that feels extreme.

It was May 17, 2021. The weather in Michigan was good. Summer felt close. A 23-year-old pilot departed the Clare Municipal Airport (48D) in a Cessna 182, flying low and slow for two hours. He had a passion for aviation, already logging more than 600 hours aloft. The week before he had obtained his commercial multiengine rating, taking another step closer to his goal of becoming an airline pilot. He landed at the Romeo State Airport (D98) in Ray Center, purchased fuel, and departed from there at noon. An hour later, cruising at 500 feet, suddenly, with no warning and no radio call, the Cessna crashed into a dirt field.

He was flying pipeline patrol. This is a big business. There are loads of commercial pilots in high-wing planes flying above oil and gas pipelines. They are looking for leaks (apparently you can see changes in the vegetation around the leak) and right-of-way encroachments (such as construction activity, trees, or repetitive riding of ATVs causing erosion). Sometimes they fly with an observer, sometimes solo. On this day, the accident pilot was alone in his employer’s 182.

The 1965 Cessna 182H with a 230 hp engine had been flying for the pipeline patrol company for years. NTSB postaccident examination of the wreckage “did not reveal any evidence of a mechanical malfunction or failure that would have prevented normal operation of the airplane.” Likewise, autopsy results showed no medical issues for the deceased pilot. And the accident wasn’t tied to a metrological event. Ten miles away, the official observation was 74 degrees, scattered clouds at 5,500 feet, visibility 10 miles, wind 210 degrees at 5 knots. But the reason for the crash was obvious. It was even marked on the sectional chart.

Close to the field with the main wreckage was a 1,049-foot-high radio tower. The left wing and left cabin door were found by the tower’s base. The NTSB determined the probable cause for the accident to be “the pilot’s failure to maintain adequate visual lookout to ensure clearance from the radio tower and its guy wires.” Radar data shows the Cessna maintaining about 450 to 500 feet above ground level tracking the pipeline northwest. He had been maintaining the normal position, to the right of the pipeline. That’s standard operating procedure for airplanes and helicopters following roads or pipelines. Then he turned a little left, coming out of position and crossing over the pipeline. He wasn’t where he should have been. This was the side with the radio tower.

He saw it too late. The Cessna suddenly pitched up, climbing at 1,500 fpm. But it still collided with a tower support guy wire. The left wing separated from the fuselage at the wing root, falling almost straight down. The rest of the plane impacted in a field, a third of a mile from the tower.

That’s the “how” of the plane crash. But why did the pilot come off track? Why didn’t he see the tower earlier?

After the accident, the NTSB found that “it is likely the pilot was distracted while he used his mobile device in the minutes before the accident and did not maintain an adequate visual lookout.” Managing distractions is an airmanship task, requiring taking charge of our attention. And, down low, attention must be outside the cockpit. The mobile device the NTSB referenced was a smartphone, and this pilot wasn’t just texting or snapping photos, he had an audience. He was posting videos on Snapchat.

• READ MORE: Handheld Avionics

For those who don’t know, Snapchat is a social media messaging, photo, and video sharing platform popular with younger generations. Its defining feature is immediacy. Content is only available for a short time before becoming inaccessible, and after 24 hours it’s automatically erased. Several people were watching the pilot live on Snapchat. They were following his progress on the app’s map. Shortly before the accident, a video reportedly depicted the terrain ahead of the airplane’s position, including wind turbines and cornfields.

By the time the NTSB investigator in charge found out about the Snapchats, the platform had already deleted the footage. The agency was able to obtain screenshots of the Snapchat map, showing the pilot’s position as a jaunty, red biplane, and interviewed two people who had been watching online.

The last post was likely sent 35 seconds before the accident. He was 1.5 miles southeast of the tower, heading right toward it. If you’re playing with your phone, you’re not flying the plane. The NTSB concluded that “contributing to the accident was the pilot’s unnecessary use of his mobile device during the flight, which diminished his attention/monitoring of the airplane’s flight path.” He was too busy showing off.

Airline pilots impose a “sterile cockpit” below 10,000 feet, where phones are put away, and they don’t even talk about anything other than the flight. My glider club bans GoPros in the cockpit for the first month of the season. Professional YouTube pilots have assistants and set up multiple cameras that need no attention in flight.

Hollywood pilots extensively plan film shots and use professional aerial videographers.

After that F-14 crash, an NTSB investigator told me: “The most dangerous thing for an airplane is a camera.” Maybe pilots trying to be social media influencers should ponder this question—who is their camera really influencing? 

The post After the Accident: It’s Not Worth Showing Off appeared first on Plane & Pilot Magazine.

The pilot asking was experienced enough to plan a trip thoroughly but was still learning with every new encounter. Because he wasn’t sure of the significance of “WS020/32020KT” in the Terminal Aerodrome Forecast, he wanted me to give him an up-or-down judgment about going.

Ordinarily, I avoid playing dispatcher when I haven’t been “plugged in” to the weather situation. But I did know a front was moving in, and the time of day was conducive to temperature inversion. Those two factors logically gave rise to the likelihood of low-level wind shear, so I spoke to that effect on his trip. He opted not to go out of an abundance of caution.

For light aircraft, a wind shear note in a TAF is not necessarily a hazardous warning, but a flag that means something is out there, requiring us to be ready to deal with it. It shouldn’t be confused with wind shear alerts generated by LLWAS systems at major airports, which indicate serious, real-time threats. Airliners are maxed out on spare performance capability when taking off and landing, so a loss of airspeed due to a wind shear encounter can be life-threatening.

Piston-engine airplanes flying through changing wind conditions can cope with turbulence and airspeed fluctuations using throttle jockeying and pitch-attitude adjustments. That’s why we fly our approaches at 1.3 VS0 as a speed reference, with half the reported gust spread tacked on for safety, and we’ll lift off and climb out faster in rough air.

So, what’s the issue with those “WS” forecasts? They are telling us there’s a possibility of a change into the noted wind direction and speed at or below the height shown–2000 feet AGL in the opening paragraph. It can be from a frontal passage when the surface wind shifts and the low-level atmosphere gets stirred up by the change. You may take off to the south, then suddenly find yourself battling a northerly wind as you climb out on course. Hopefully, you’ve considered this wind change in your fuel planning.

Any turbulence encountered in the wind shear will generally be short-lived unless your flight profile calls for staying low or there’s perpendicular-oriented terrain upstream. As you climb out, your GPS track will notably shift, requiring a heading change, but the ride will smooth up. In the absence of hills, the rough air comes from the point at which two layers of air are moving in different directions, giving us some piloting to do as we climb or descend through the friction level. 

We used to hear of “low-level jet streams” encountered on clear, cool nights with calm air at the surface. We would find them during climbout, the airplane suddenly bucking and bouncing and then calming down as altitude increased, but with the ground lights moving sideways. I’ve seen 40 knots of wind at 3000 feet AGL, as the cold surface air layer provided a slick cushion for the flow of warm air aloft moving across it. Once up into the inversion, there would be no turbulence, just a massive heading correction.

Therefore, we need to pay attention to the TAF wind-shear notation because it means changes are afoot, but in the absence of other indications, it’s not a reason to scrub a trip. Just be prepared.

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