im fine with shooting approaches with an ILS, VOR, NDB, and GPS(RNAV) but im on stage 3 and doing cross country flights and talking to center and tower is kinda overwhelming me. I started instrument after i got my private in feb. so i havent really been into many controlled airports lol.   luckly i fly in northern Iowa and minneapolis center isnt horrably busy ha ha. Also i went from 152's and a 172 up to a Cirrus SR20 with glass cockpit and dual garmin 430s
's.  .  Any tips to become more comfortable with ATC?  Thanks

I used to get overwhelmed, too. Flight following can be a small burden, and my biggest problem there was remembering the hand-off frequencies... that just takes practice...  But instrument flight is another story. The information exchanged is time sensitive and to be acted on, accurately and immediately. If you're entering busy airspace and botch a frequency change, or need ATC to repeat something, you're likely gonna fly past a point where that request applies. Things can pile up on you in a hurry.

Experience will get you to a point where you pretty much know what each transmission will be, and it's more a matter of listening for something UNexpected, than it's a matter of remembering everything said. That last call, clearing you for an approach is a good example. You've been vectored to a point where all the infromation in that call, is pretty much rehearsed. What you do, and when you do it (and what you say) is like a small play. Everyone knows their roles.

You'll even get to a point (because you planned your flight so well, via a low-altitude IFR chart), where you'll know what the next frequency will probably be, and when to expect the hand-off.

Believe it or not.. IFR flight in the sim is good practice. The hand-offs are frequent enough to help you multi-task... like keeping up on the navigation (leave the auto-pilot and GPS off )

I also think it's something that just sort of soaks in over time.
During your flights, just relax and listen, and always run your transmissions through your head first before you key the mic. Only takes a second or so.

But one thing you can do is get a scanner, or listen to any of the live ATC feeds available on the Web; eventually you may find yourself answering ATC correctly before the pilots do... as Brett pointed out, it's like a play. In a way, the conversation with ATC is part of the flight plan you made earlier: there are small variations, but each basic part is pre-written, so to speak.


I'm still VFR-only, and have been avoiding controlled airspaces for years now, but I have never felt overwhelmed, even in the NYC area.

Remembering freqs is as easy as writing them down. I often write them on my hand if the kneeboard is a bit cluttered.

I know there doesn't seem to be time to write it down when you first receive it- sure, you should read it back correctly right away. But I find that if I take a sec to jot it down, I will remember it better.

That's another thing- there's always a second or so available, no matter how busy it is. a second to write down a number, to think, or to quickly "rehearse your lines".
  And you don't need to talk too fast... when I first got the "flow" flying out of KTEB, I quickly reached a point where the tower controllers or NYC ATC would ask me to repeat myself because I was going a little too fast.
And I still occasionally hear others- pilots, usually- going faster than they should; not everybody is intelligible at an auctioneer's pace, and being understood is more important than being quick (up to a point).

Brett_Henderson wrote on Jun 6^th, 2008 at 11:16am:



That was a weird one...almost too much information.
Even at TEB, they would usually just say "Drop it in if you can; best possible...Citation on 10-mile final..." 

They were usually satisfied, at a moment like that, with "will do" or "clear to land" and the runway number.

It was a common scenario, when the wind prohibited them from landing jets on one runway and props on the other... or when it was so busy they were using one for takeoffs and the other for landings.

I got an early education in nonstandard patterns and procedures: modified bases, straight-ins with runway changes at the last minute, midfield takeoffs and landings, land-and-hold-shorts, etc.

Those cab controllers, as I recall, were real sticklers only about two things:
1) DON'T make them repeat themselves
2)DON'T fail to do precisely what they tell you

One of the strangest requests I ever got, was to do a 360 for spacing,, WHILE I WAS ON SHORT FINAL 

That was the closest I ever came to saying, "cannot comply".

I'd have rather just gone around, even if it meant getting vectored 5 miles out, to get back in. A climbing turn, initiated at about 500 agl (I could see what the tower guys were wearing), right back into a short final, was something I'm not keen on doing again.

the main thing to consider is this... if ATC gives you something your not sure about or dont understand, request something different.

and dont forget, ATC works for YOU not the other way around, so when in doubt one word will suffice...

"Unable" 

I got a wierd one the other day too at DFW on 18R

it was windy as hell as we were crossing the numbers tower says

"Minimum time on the runway... MD 80 on a half mile final"

i thought to myself OK! its gusting to 40 knots and im 20 knots faster than normal to correct for that and besides IM NOT EVEN ON THE RUNWAY YET! 

Estherville     KEST