Non-Towered Radio Procedures
At non-towered airports, pilots self report their location and intentions and coordinate with other pilots to maintain safe separation.
Lesson Notes
At a non-towered airport, you are responsible for communicating with and avoiding other airplanes. Typically, when you do this you tell them where you are and what you’re going to do. Then, your job is to listen to them and see and avoid other traffic that may not be on the radio. Work to develop an ever-changing mental model of where each airplane is in the traffic pattern and anticipate future traffic conflicts so that you can negate them as early as possible.
Flashcard Questions
Is a radio required at a non-towered airport?
If you call in 10 miles out and another airplane calls in from a similar location, what will you do?
Exercise: What radio calls should you make at your local non-towered airport? Practice these radio calls so that you can say them without thinking too hard about it.
Approaching an airport you call “Jackson Traffic, Cessna 123FA, 10 miles south, Jackson”. What information have you left out?