On Mon, 31 Dec 2007 17:09:13 -0800 (PST), Chris L
wrote in
:

I bought a small portable scanner that allows me to (only) listen
to the channels listed in the book "Airport/Facility Directory" for
the Northwest U.S. ("15 Mar 2007")

My apartment is near the SeaTac airport in Washington state.

I was planning on becoming a "student pilot" in a few months. But,
can I incorporate my scanner into my studying.

Since you are more experienced than I am, how would you learn with
it?

Listening to aeronautical radio transmissions can be useful for the
student pilot by providing a source of real-life situations and
phraseology.

Should I turn to one channel all day long, a few channels, or
what.

If you want to hear examples of radio phraseology, leave the radio
tuned to SeaTac approach control, and you'll get a feel for what is
communicated between ATC and arriving and departing aircraft. The
tower frequency only comes into play briefly at the beginning and end
of a flight, so you'll hear more on approach (which is often used for
departure control also.

You might also pick up a low-level IFR chart that will depict the ATC
frequencies for different sectors of the terminal and en route areas.
At any rate, you'll find a chart that depicts the various fixes to be
useful in locating the positions of the aircraft in conjunction with
your radio monitoring. The more time you spend on the ground
familiarizing yourself with the environment in which you'll be
training, the more time you'll have in the air to concentrate on those
things you are completely unfamiliar with, so listing to the aircraft
transmissions should provide you with an advantage over those students
who haven't invested their time in that.

Which channels should I listen to during the day.

If you plan on receiving your flight instruction at a smaller field,
you might tune to it and monitor the transmissions to get a feel for
what other pilots are doing there.

Could you also give the correct general sequence of channels I would
use if I pretend that I was using it to fly? I can pretend that I can
transmit with the scanner.

The usual sequence is:

ATIS (Airport Terminal Information Service)
Clearance Delivery
Ground Control
Tower (Local Control)
Departure Control
Center (ARTCC)
Approach Control
ATIS
Tower
Ground Control.

You will also want to practice receiving Flight Service Station
weather information by telephone. Give 1 800 WXBRIEF a call and run
through the various recordings, and practice taking notes. You will
have to write your clearances in shorthand notation, so you can
practice that by listening to Clearance Delivery. Going over the
information on radio communications in the AIM will also be helpful.

I used a word processor to create forms for ATIS and Clearance data;
it permits you to copy the information more quickly.


Or, did I waste all of my money!

You will find Bob Gardener's book to be very useful in building
confidence in communicating with ATC as you are training. You did the
right thing. I believe it's important for the student to spend about
two hours to every one hour of flight instruction going over the
material covered in the lessons to aid in its retention. In any
event, keep a notebook during your training. Including physically
writing what you have been taught, in addition to listening will be
useful, as the more senses you involve in your training, the better
your retention will be.

The books listed below I bought a few months ago. I can probably get
the information from them, but wanted to check with you for an easy
start.

1. FAR/AIM 2007 by ASA
2. Say Again, Please 3rd edition by Bob Gardner
3. Captain Carlson's Air Plane Talk
4. (Aviation Radio Communications Made Easy IFR edition [don't
probably need])

How should I use the scanner as I start to fly, and after I get a
VFR license.

Thank you,
Christopher Lusardi

The amount of time you are able to devote to radio communications
during a typical flight lesson will initially be filled with angst and
diversions which will have an inhibitory effect, so listening at your
leisure should help a lot. For some reason radio communications can
be difficult to become comfortable with for the aviation student.
Expect it; don't be intimidated by it.

You will also use the scanner to listen the ATIS broadcast while
planning a flight, so that you'll be aware of the current weather
updates without having to do repetitive phone calls.

Best of luck in your pursuit of an airmans certificate.

PS:
In case you are unaware of it, there is a newsgroup devoted
specifically to aviation students: rec.aviation.student