Flight Training - September 2012 - 30

OTHER COOL TOOLS
If Parrot or Pilotedge don’t sound like what you’re looking for in a communications trainer, there are many other excellent resources.
Aeronautical Information Manual. A thorough understanding of radio communications is impossible without reading the AIM. Comm1. The original interactive communications training software, Comm1 describes the proper phraseology, records your voice trying out the phrases, and then compares it to what a professional sounds like. It’s easy to use and very effective. Say Again Please: Guide to Radio Communications. This book is popular among those who learn through reading. It’s available from ASA (www.asa2fly. com). Say It Right: Mastering Radio Communications. This highly regarded interactive course from the AOPA Air Safety Institute is free. Find it online (www.airsafetyinstitute.org/sir). Vatsim. Keith Smith’s idea for Pilotedge came from Vatsim, a virtual air traffic control environment, but without guaranteed coverage. Check it out (www.vatsim.com). See also Boston Virtual ATC, which is the same type of online community as Vatsim. Both are free (www.bostonvirtualatc.com).

Redbird Flight Simulations is best known for its relatively low-cost, full-motion simulators. The company continues to innovate, and Parrot, its voicerecognition communications training software, promises to do for radio communications training what its simulator line has done for flight training as a whole. Parrot can be added on to or act as an integral part of any Redbird simulator and provide an equivalent level of air traffic control. Since it’s a computer voice and recognizes only proper phraseology, it will train you as you go. Here’s an example scenario. Let’s say you are flying out of Deer Valley Airport on the north side of Phoenix. Your instructor will set up the airport, the weather, and the runway to start the simulation, as you would for any simulator session. Parrot will recognize these parameters and respond just as the ATC system would when you provide the proper inputs. Tune in the automatic terminal information service and it will reference the current simulated conditions. Then you tune in the tower frequency and request a takeoff clearance. It goes like this throughout the flight. Perhaps the biggest benefit of Parrot to new students is its complete intolerance for bad phraseology. Say, “Tower, I’m ready to go,” and it will respond with a simple, “Say again.” But say, “Deer Valley Tower, Redbird One-Two-Three, ready for takeoff on Runway 25 Left,” and it will say, “Redbird One-Two-Three, Deer Valley Tower, cleared for takeoff Runway 25 Left.” Because Parrot is used in curricula that include self-study in simulators, the system isn’t a complete and total dictator. Key the microphone, say “Help me,” and it will guide you along. Learning pilot-speak is only half the battle. It’s like learning French and never going to Paris, or even Canada. To be a master you must be comfortable in the environment, and that takes practice. Until recently, there were very few options to get that practice, other than to go fly at hundreds of dollars per hour, or listen to a scanner and talk to it like a loon. Pilotedge brings sanity and ingenuity to the task. The Internet has allowed for many wonderful advances, including voice over

Internet protocol (VOIP)—the ability to talk over high-speed connections. By taking that technology and pairing it with a simulator network, Pilotedge provides live air traffic control without leaving the ground. It works like this: Anyone running a device with certain versions of Microsoft Flight Sim or XPlane downloads a small program, connects to the Internet, and starts flying. It’s nice to have a dedicated push-to-talk switch, rudder pedals, a throttle quadrant, and the rest of the kit. But those are not necessary. You just need a computer headset and you’re on your way. Trained air traffic controllers, some of them off-duty active controllers or already retired, run the simulation through radar scopes on their computer screens. They are available 18 hours a day. No need to schedule or let them know what you’re doing; just fire up and go. The only area currently available for the service is Southern California, which is fine considering that it includes some of the most complex airspace in the world. While anyone with a computer can join Pilotedge and practice at will, some of the greatest benefits come during simulator training with an instructor. Aero Safety Training at the Lincoln Park Airport in New Jersey is one of the first schools in the country to install Pilotedge on its Redbird Flight Simulator. Chief CFI Matt D’Angelo says that if the simulator is running, Pilotedge is running with it 95 percent of the time. “It helps with all the new SRM [singlepilot resource management] issues, especially situational awareness,” D’Angelo said. The need for situational awareness is evident when the student can both see other Pilotedge traffic on the visual display of the Garmin G1000’s TIS, and hear them on the radio. Because of the benefits, Aero Safety Training uses it for much more than simply calling the tower for takeoff prior to a lesson on stalls or other air work. “It’s great for airport signage,” he said. “We’ve even done taxi-only lessons.” The ability to gain confidence by flying in to Los Angeles International Airport in a nonthreatening environment is too enticing for many students to pass up.

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http://www.asa2fly.com http://www.asa2fly.com http://www.airsafetyinstitute.org/sir http://www.vatsim.com http://www.bostonvirtualatc.com http://FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORG

Flight Training - September 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Flight Training - September 2012