how can we work as a team how can we better our radio communications
through the aid of our non-flying co-pilots hey everyone jason shapper here mzroy.com joined by my
lovely lovely lady magda hi i'm zorain nation you're listening to the commercial
pilot podcast brought to you by our number one rated online ground school m0a trial dot com
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see the science of learning infused and everything that we do check out the webinars there's a lot of
amazingness is that a good word to use it's it's um just amazing the animations and the yes the
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amazing stuff and yes more is coming and launching at air venture at oshkosh at eaa depending on
where you're from i've learned three things then i promise i'll get into the content here
if you are from outside of the wisconsin area you just say you're going to oshkosh
if you work for eaa you say air venture which is the name of the actual event if you live in
the town of oshkosh or the towns nearby you call it eaa really the ea team is right it's
air venture every interesting event oshkosh name the city ea is the name of the organization so
i just always found that it's just so confusing so i feel when i say i'm going to oshkosh
you be an air venture someone said you mean eaa it's all the same thing it's all the same thing
anyways commercial pilot podcast radio communications is the topic today
and how we can work with our non-flying co-pilots commercial pilots to better serve you commercial
pilots at this point too i hope you are working to serve as a mentor to some non-flying pilots or
aspiring pilots maybe some upcoming private pods i remember very early on
um a um it wasn't a gentleman he was a kid like i was he was older than i was and he went to embarry
riddle i thought you know like cue the music you say wow someone went to embry riddle like
you know that you know i was like 17 years old that that was like the coolest thing ever amber
riddle wouldn't accept me i mean maybe that's why it was so coveted it's like wow it's like
going to harvard or something i could barely get into our local community college let alone every
riddle that's a whole nother podcast commercial pause doesn't matter where you went to school
um anyways he went to every riddle though and was a commercial pilot i was a private pilot and
his family owned an airplane and it was great that he would we would go flying and it was
it was absolutely awesome because i got to help i didn't get to fly a lot but i got to help with
radio communications which was a weak point that i had and magda works to help with the basic radio
communications as well and if you saw tuesday's video you know really the three aspects of that
but what we don't get to do in those tuesday youtube videos is expand like we can in a podcast
and get into the detail yes and let's start with the first one here which is helping with the atus
now all of this let me reel it back for a second all of this takes education training and patience
on the part of you the pilots on the part of the co-pilots it just takes an open mind absolutely
and a willingness to learn this yes one area i always need help with is the atis because show
of hands who's ever been there who's ever been so engrossed in writing down the winds and writing
down this and writing down every note of them that you forgot what information was it again and
my copa can say oh it's information golf that's right or what was that altimeter setting again
i've got my walking altimeter right here so 99 or two exactly well and let's go a step further
so magda helps not only i've given her the two simple tests yes i mean if you want to explain
it just how you do it when we listen up to the atus what are the two things you're listening for
so the two things that i listen for eight is code and altimeter setting absolutely and that helps
and works to serve me immensely while like i said i'm focused on wins whatever that
may be and you might say jason as a pilot we should listen to everything yes you should
but can we create a safer environment by having someone just and you may have understood it's
information golf you may have got 299 or two you may have had all of that that's great
it's nice to cross check and double check with somebody because i'm sure there's nobody listening
who's ever missed the natis code and go was that gold or was that foxtrot was that two nine or nine
or two or two niner you know or two two or eight niner right and you just miss something basic
like that and then magda takes a step further by keying that in on the altimeter forest as well
and making sure we get that pressure setting in there as well well first of all thank you
for taking the time and explaining that to me and what it means because and co-pilots
i'm sorry pilots take the time to explain it to your co-pilots because it's really
really helpful and i love it honestly i love i know it's you know adding the ultimate setting
it's one click and you know and just adjust it but it makes me feel that i can be an asset that i can
help and another aspect is it's different in every airplane you mentioned it's one click and a twist
someone with a what's called a coltsman windows and we need one click and twist i just turn it up
right it's different in every airplane so you as the pilot need to take the time to educate
your co-pilots and say this is how when you hear this this is how we adjust the altimeter setting
and and also educate them on the abbreviations right um two nine or eight niner or the altimeter
eight nine or they'll sometimes just say as well you just have to know what that actually means
three zero eight nine that's that that's astronomical right you know your time it's a
possibility but it's a crazy possibility with that i remember that created a confusion with me i just
heard two dishes and i was wait what was that and so it's very interesting to to see how everybody
approaches says the ultimate is setting a little deeper a little bit differently right so the next
aspect too in the ifr environment i realize we're listening to commercial podcasts but we're also
smart enough to know you're probably flying an instant flight plan most places that you're going
now is how can your co-pilots flying or non-flying help with the read back we write down craft right
we get this big long clearance as soon as we get caught up on the route or the altitude or the
frequency and you know i teach you to always be thinking ahead a little bit as well but
that can prove very challenging with that i give magda the simple task of just grabbing
the transponder that's right code right and the transponder we know is what how atc uses
to identify us and everything else but i give it to magda differently where she not only
writes it down quickly you then go to the transponder and actually put it in that's right
and that helps too so while i'm bringing it back because who's ever read back an entire clearance
but goofed up on the transponder squat code as well it's easy because you're so focused
on the route the altitude whatever that may be the transponder squat code often gets forgotten
at the end especially if there are four very different digits there's no pattern you know
squawk um you know one two three there's there's no pattern to it if it's four seven two
five and that there's no pattern to that that can be very very difficult to actually follow
and work through and actually what i do i write it on my notes and then as soon as i
i i confirm it it really helps me because as soon as i'm done writing it
i listen to jason to the read back and it's when when i hear read back correct it's when i go ahead
and put the code in well sometimes even before that though even before that you'll go and do
that you don't even wait for read back correct sometimes i'm reading it back and you're in
there inputting that transponder squat code in there as well so that's not always the case but
uh if you need to also confirm it and again nine times out of ten i get the transponder squat code
but though time or two i don't it's nice to have somebody else do it it's nice to have somebody do
the basic programming in there as well so and something you mentioned in the in the tuesday
video i want you to mention here as well is about listening for our tale number and the
power of really doing that because we're talking to commercial pilots who yes probably one day
want to be flying airliner but right now their commercial pilot job could be flying for you know
cape air or somebody small or they can hear the passengers in some in some cases or just
flying some gentleman or some lady around in a 172 for all it could be yeah so it really helped
me to know uh the tail number so we fly you know normally with two three mike zulu so i know that
i love to talk honestly and and i'm in the middle of the story and then we get you know
a new frequency chance and if i didn't know that i just when i didn't know that i just kept
going and it was such a distraction for you i'm assuming and then i i was feeling uncomfortable so
what the power of learning the tail number is just amazing because we can be talking and we
hear 23 mike zulu and we all stop and we all pay attention especially if we have other passengers
on board as well but that's a conversation that needs to happen before you leave the ground
and educating passengers flying non-flying yes showing them where our tail number is show them
how to listen educating your passengers about how the radios even work i've had passengers go to me
literally can't they hear us right now i said no no they can't you can you can talk they they only
can hear you when i hit this button yeah right so there's some education that needs to happen
with that as well and when they key into the mike zulu we zip it yes i would like to share one thing
also one trick that you use that it really helped me at the beginning is that jason just to raise
his hand before cueing the the button the mic so it really helped me to pay attention and say
okay now we'd say it's a moment of nothing it's interesting you see that as raising my hand
before i cue the button i would argue and that does happen i would argue it was i heard tooth
and mike zulu and i would raise my hand hear what they had to say and then i hit the button
right so there's probably a little bit of each of that and that that is something else you could
teach me you can teach a new passenger who's very excited about flying in general or very
nervous about flying in general and some people are nervous they're a chatterbox right so you
could educate them to listen to their mike zulu and remind them hey i'll raise my hand every time
it's for us to help them right i mean you can do a hand goes up everybody gets quiet but you
need that hand to fly at the same time so you can do that a little bit but eventually the the
crew and the passengers and everybody just has to get in the habit of listening for that tail
number and i realize in a flying club in a flight school that tail number may change and
you yourself even sometimes get confused we've all been confused flying in in 512 romeo and
i called myself 2 3 mike zulu or that just happens sometimes you get used to your primary airplane so
that's just another thing to be mindful of as well but yes lastly something maggie really
helps with is the actual atc handoff how can you be working with and again you are mentors
commercial pilots and aspiring commercial pilots your mentors at this point your ambassadors for
aviation this amazing hobby and amazing career that you're choosing to embark on how can you
have your non-flying co-pilots help with the handoffs first off explain to them why we
have handoffs i did this a little bit in the tuesday video hey tampa approach has eight
different sectors eight different controllers not just one person at tampa controlling all of
tampa it's eight different people and they each have a little bit of real estate they control
and when they pass you off to the next one you get they have a different frequency you
can explain it that way in plain english so magda knows when they call up and say two
three mike zulu contact tampa approach on 118.6 while i am saying 118.6 to three mike zulu yes
magda's already a step ahead right yeah yeah and it's wonderful because
your read back is my confirmation of 118.6 wow a good point so she's already on the radios yeah
and we've we've worked on how to tune our avionics you know we use avidyne and two through mike zulu
big knob does this little knob does this big not for the big numbers little number for the little
numbers the end and and then also educating 118.6 really means 118.60 remember that was confusing
8.65 they'll give you sometimes and that means 18.65 but sometimes i'll just say one eight point
six yeah or 118.0 yes you go zero zero zero five because there's options with that right and you
could also make the mistake of accidentally grabbing the navigation frequency i have
done it before i wasn't gonna you volunteered the information i wasn't gonna throw it under the bus
and it wasn't even that long ago and she's going why does it not go to 123.45 why will it not go
that frequency you say well you know that's not vhf that's our vor frequencies and then well up
to what the 117s right 116 117 is as high as the vor goes 118 starts vhf frequencies i'm
so embarrassed right now you brought it up i did not bring it up i set you up for it you spiked it
that's what happened there yes i have done it like a champion but but i've done it and we've all done
it and you you spin that little knob where is this frequency then you realize uh it's the vor
up one more yeah it's easy to do and you as the mentor pilot that's a good name we
need to adopt that mentor pilot right you're the pilot you're the mentor pilot because your coach
to help out these uh non-flying like the goal is to to create more pilots don't scare your
co-pilots away your passengers away let them participate in the process and feel involved
you know what you might just go back to the very basics hey listen help me scan for traffic teach
them how to scan for traffic but help me scan for traffic you can click the basics jason this is all
well and good this is a little too much for me i let me fly the airplane cool that's great if you
want to go that route and and you have a passenger that says i i'm fine just sitting here and taking
pictures and taking pictures that's great but find a creative way to at least get them involved you
get them involved you get them hooked in aviation so uh listen mz nation uh you all are outstanding
you know where uh we just announced our amazing contest to win a flight lesson with myself head
over to fly with jason.com to learn some more details on that get all signed up no purchase
necessary on that you know we'll be at oshkosh coming up in weeks at this point if you listen to
this when this comes out weeks to oshkosh we're in hangar b hanger bravo a lot of big announcements
we'll be launching phase two of the new website learning management system some great new
technology you're going to want to check out we'll be live streaming that and giving away tickets
to the exclusive event as well if you're there uh what else is happening there oh the new mzra swag
oh i cannot wait i am so excited you you guys are gonna look you guys are gonna look fancy i
promise you i'm not one to sell things but it's it's gonna look good so uh be looking
forward to all of that mr nation you are such a blessing to us have an outstanding blessed amazing
rest your day and most importantly remember the good pilot is always learning every day
you