Radio manual

01Setting up

Voice or Click. When you set Airside up you choose how to work the desk. In Voice you speak the clearances. In Click every clearance is a button. Voice takes most of the buttons off the deck, because the microphone does their job.

Your microphone. In Settings, under Your microphone, pick the microphone and press Test microphone. Speak, and the bars should move with your voice.

The microphone key. Hold the key, speak, then let go. The key is Right Ctrl unless you change it in Settings, and it works while the simulator has focus. You can also hold the TALK button on the bar.

Voices. In Settings you choose whether you hear the pilots. The radio log shows every transmission either way.

02How a transmission works

1. Wait until nobody is talking. One station transmits at a time, you included.
2. Hold the microphone key, say the whole transmission, then let go after the last word.
3. The crew reads the instruction back and then does it. A takeoff roll starts once the readback is finished.

What was heard is on the radio log. Every transmission appears on the log exactly as Airside heard it, before the crew answers. If a word came out wrong, you can see it.

If the readback is wrong, say it again. The readback is how you check you were understood. The newest instruction is the one the crew follows. If the readback is right you can say “readback correct”, or nothing at all.

Blocked transmissions. If you key the microphone while a crew is still talking, your transmission is blocked and the desk tells you “blocked transmission, say again”. Wait for the crew to finish.

Very short and very long presses. A tap on the key is ignored. If the key is held for more than 20 seconds, the microphone is released and nothing is sent.

Crews wait for you. A crew does not start talking while your microphone key is down. It answers as soon as you let go.

03Callsigns

Every instruction starts with the callsign of the aircraft it is for. The instruction goes to that aircraft and to no other.

Airlines. Say the airline's callsign, then the flight number digit by digit.

The strip shows the airline's radio callsign, for example Speedbird for British Airways, Lufthansa for Lufthansa and Swiss for Swiss.

Light aircraft. Say the registration letter by letter, or the first letter and the last two, the ICAO abbreviation.

When the name does not get through. You can always spell the three letters on the strip in the alphabet instead of saying the airline's name. After two transmissions in a row that reached nobody, the desk reminds you.

Correcting yourself. If you start a flight number wrong, just say it again. The last callsign you say is the one that counts, as long as it names only one aircraft on the frequency.

Without a callsign. If you leave the callsign out and exactly one aircraft is waiting for that instruction, it goes to that aircraft. “Pushback approved” with a single aircraft asking to push reaches that aircraft. If two are waiting, nobody answers and the desk asks you to say again the callsign.

A callsign that is not on your frequency. The desk tells you so, for example “Swiss 789 is not on this frequency”.

04Numbers, letters, runways, taxiways and stands

Digits. Say numbers one digit at a time. The crews accept the ICAO words and the ordinary ones: tree or three, fower or four, fife or five, niner or nine.

Letters. Use the ICAO alphabet: Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu. Alpha and Juliet work too.

Runways. Say the runway digit by digit with its side: “runway two four left”, “runway zero six”, “runway six”. The word runway may be left out when you say a side, as in “two four left”.

• A runway that does not exist at this airport is not accepted. The crew asks you to say again.
• A runway that exists but is not the one the flight is expecting is queried:

• A runway being crossed can be named by either end. Runway 06L is also runway 24R, and the crew reads back the name you used.

Taxiways. Say taxiway letters in the alphabet and taxiways with names as words: “via Alfa Bravo”, “via Kilo One Zero”, “via Base”. Taxiways are checked against the airport's own names.

Stands. Say the stand number digit by digit: “stand two one one”. A stand with a letter is said with its letter, “stand two zero two Alfa”. Where one number exists on two aprons, the apron letter picks one (“stand Echo five three”). Say only the figures and the crew takes the stand that suits the aircraft, the passenger stand for an airliner and the cargo ramp for a freighter. A stand the airport does not have is queried.

05The instructions

5.1IFR clearance

The strip prints the clearance for a departure that is due one. Read it out, or say just the part that matters to you.

• The destination, departure and squawk come from Airside. The crew reads back what was filed, even if the departure name was not clear on the radio.
• The squawk you read out must be the one on the strip. One wrong digit is taken as a slip of the radio. Two or more and the crew asks: “unable, say again the squawk, we copied 7061”.
• The level is yours to give. Say it in feet (“climb six thousand feet”, “climb one two thousand feet”) or as a flight level (“climb flight level one two zero”). Say nothing and the standard climb on the strip applies. The crew accepts an initial climb from a few thousand feet up to flight level 240, in 500 foot steps, and asks you to say again a level it cannot use: “unable, say again the level, we copied 25500 feet”.
• When a clearance is not needed. A VFR flight answers “unable, VFR, no IFR clearance required”.

5.2Pushback and start up

Also understood: “push back approved”, “pushback”, “push back”. “Pushback and start up approved” is a pushback. The engines start while the aircraft is on the tug, so “start up approved” on its own is simply acknowledged.

• An airliner waits for a tug and the crew tells you it is on the way. A light aircraft pushes itself.
• “Pushback approved, expect runway two four left” is read back with the runway to expect.

Which way the nose ends up. Add the direction the aircraft should face when the push is finished, or the direction of its tail.

“Tail east” is the same push. Each stand has one way out, so the crew checks your direction against it. If the push from that stand ends the other way, the crew says where the nose will be and stays on the stand:

5.3Taxi

To the holding point. Name the runway, and the taxiways if you want to give the route.

• The route is a constraint, not a list of every turn. Name the taxiways that matter, in order, and the aircraft finds its way between them. If the route cannot be flown from where the aircraft is, the crew says so.
• “Taxi via Alfa Bravo” works too. With no route named, the aircraft takes its own.
• A departure must push back before it can taxi. Asked early, the crew answers “unable, require pushback first”.

Naming the holding point. Name the holding point by its taxiway if you like. The crew accepts the holding point its route goes to. For any other, it asks for the one it is planned for: “unable, intersection B2, request full length”.

Hold short of a taxiway. The aircraft taxis on and stops before it reaches that taxiway, clear of anything passing along it, and waits there until you say “continue taxi”.

It works on its own or inside a taxi clearance:

If the aircraft's route never comes to that taxiway, the crew says so: “unable, B is not on our route”.

Stopping and starting.

“Continue taxi” also releases an aircraft that stopped for traffic, one you told to give way, and one holding short of a taxiway.

Pace.

5.4Runway crossings and hold short

Aircraft never cross a runway on their own. They stop at the holding point and ask:

“Cleared to cross runway two four right” is understood too. The runway may be named by either end: “cross runway zero six left” crosses the same strip.

Hold short of a runway sends the aircraft on to the painted line and stops it there. It is also how you take a crossing clearance back.

• You can give a crossing before the aircraft gets there, in the taxi clearance. See section 6.
• If you gave a crossing further along the route, “hold short” of that runway takes it back before the aircraft reaches it.
• “Hold short of runway …” is a runway. “Hold short of Bravo” is a taxiway, see 5.3.

5.5Traffic on the taxiways

Give way.

The aircraft stops for the other one and carries on when it has passed. “Continue taxi” ends a give way early.

Follow. The same instruction, said the other way round: let the other aircraft go first, then taxi behind it.

When two aircraft are stuck nose to nose. An aircraft stopped for traffic can be taken out of the way:

The crew tells you when these are not possible, for example “unable, this taxiway is not wide enough to turn on”.

5.6Line up and takeoff

• The wind is optional. “Wind two five zero degrees eight knots, runway two four left, cleared for takeoff” works too.
• “Cleared for takeoff” from the holding point lines the aircraft up and rolls in one go.
• At airports where the only way onto the runway is to taxi along it, say “backtrack and line up”.
• “Line up” and “cleared takeoff” are understood too, and so are the FAA forms “position and hold” and “taxi into position and hold”.

Immediate takeoff. The crew reads the word back and rolls without stopping on the runway.

From an intersection. Say the intersection, and the crew checks it against the holding point it is at. The wrong one is refused and nothing moves: “unable, intersection B2, request full length”.

Taking a takeoff back.

Say the wrong one at the wrong moment and the crew tells you which: “unable, we are rolling, say stop immediately”. Past V1 the takeoff continues.

5.7Arrivals

Arrivals call you on final.

An arrival that reaches the runway without a landing clearance goes around by itself.

Stands. Give an arrival its stand whenever you like: on final, during the landing roll or after it has vacated. Name the stand; the route is chosen for the aircraft and read back.

“Stand two one one” and “gate two one one” do the same. On final the crew reads back “stand 211”; during the landing roll the stand is noted and the route follows once the aircraft has vacated.

Vacate via. Tell an arrival which exit to leave the runway by, on final or during the landing roll.

“Vacate left via Kilo” and “exit at Kilo” are understood too. The crew only takes an exit it can make at a normal braking rate, and otherwise tells you why and keeps its own:

06Two instructions in one transmission

Say them together the way controllers do. The crew reads both back in one transmission, and each instruction keeps its own runway.

What can be combined:

• A taxi instruction (taxi, taxi to stand, continue taxi) with runway crossings, hold shorts of runways or taxiways, a give way or follow, and one pace instruction.
• A crossing with hold shorts of other runways.
• Hold position or continue taxi with a give way.

How the crew handles it:

• A crossing given in a taxi clearance is used when the aircraft gets there, so it crosses without stopping. The crossing starts once the crew has read it back.
• A hold short and a give way act straight away.
• If one part cannot be done, the part that can is still done. “Continue taxi, cross runway two four right” to an aircraft already waiting at the 24R holding point is a crossing.
• “Cross runway two four right, hold short of runway two four right” contradicts itself, and the crew asks you to say again.
• A crossing must name its runway.

Other combinations are taken as one instruction, so give those one at a time.

07Conditional clearances

Clear an aircraft to line up or to cross behind traffic. Say the condition first and “behind” again at the end, as ICAO does.

Naming the traffic. Say its callsign, or what it is and what it is doing: “the landing A320”, “the landing Airbus”, “the departing seven three seven”, “the landing triple seven”. The crew reads back the callsign of the aircraft it is waiting for, so you can hear it picked the right one. Say nothing about it (“line up and wait behind”) and the crew waits for whoever will be clear of the runway first.

What the crew does. It reads the clearance back and waits. It lines up or crosses once the traffic has passed it, or has left the runway. A crew waiting for traffic does not ask you again.

• At an airport where lining up means taxiing along the runway, the aircraft waits until the traffic is off the runway, not just past.
• If nobody on that runway matches what you said, for example a 777 when only an A320 is landing, the crew asks:

• Any new instruction to that aircraft replaces the conditional one.

Conditional clearances are for lining up and for crossing a runway.

08Correcting a transmission

Say “correction” and then the right version. What follows the correction replaces what it corrects: a runway replaces the runway, a route replaces the route, a number replaces the number, and a whole new instruction replaces the whole transmission.

09Answers without an instruction

Not every transmission is an instruction. These get the answer a real crew gives.

• Any “report …” is answered with a wilco, whatever it asks the crew to report.
• Airside works Ground and Tower on one frequency, so an aircraft told to contact another station reads the frequency back and stays with you.
• “Expect runway” is checked like any runway you say: expect the wrong one and the crew queries it.
• “Report” or “expect” riding on an instruction is read back with it: “Taxi to holding point runway 24L, wilco”.

10Being polite

The crews answer pleasantries, and a pleasantry never costs you the instruction it rides on.

Anything else polite is answered with silence, the way it is on a real frequency.

11What the crews say to you

Requests. Crews call you when they need something, in phraseology:

• “Request IFR clearance” when a departure is boarding and due its clearance.
• “Request pushback” when it is ready to leave the stand.
• “Ready to taxi, request taxi” when the push is finished.
• “Holding short of 24R, request crossing” at a runway crossing.
• “Holding short of B” if you left it holding short of a taxiway for a while.
• “Ready for departure” at the holding point.
• Arrivals call on final, report the runway vacated and ask for a stand if they do not have one.

If a request goes unanswered, the crew asks again with how long it has been waiting.

When an instruction cannot be done. The crew says “unable” and why. The most common:

When the crew needs you to say it again.

Words that need more. “Hold”, “continue”, “cleared” and “expedite” on their own each mean more than one thing, so the crew asks you to say again. Say “hold position” or “hold short”, “continue taxi” or “continue approach”, and the rest of the clearance.

Notices from the desk. When a transmission reached no aircraft, the desk writes a short notice on the radio log: “say again the callsign”, “Swiss 789 is not on this frequency”, “blocked transmission, say again”.

12Tips

• Key the microphone, wait a moment, then speak. Let go after your last word.
• Say digits one at a time: “two four left”, not “twenty four left”.
• Speak at your normal pace. You do not need to be slow, only clear.
• Watch the readback. It is your check that you were understood.
• If an airline's name keeps getting lost, spell the three letters on the strip.
• If an aircraft has been waiting three minutes, the deck puts back the one button that answers it, so a misunderstood word never leaves an aircraft stuck.

13Good to know

• Airside is Ground and Tower together on one frequency. There are no handovers; aircraft stay with you until they leave.
• Arrivals reach you established on final. Approach control is not part of the desk.
• The departure procedure, the squawk and the QNH come from Airside. The level and the route are yours.
• Each departure is routed to one holding point. An intersection or holding point you name is checked against it, and the crew asks for its own when they differ.
• Two instructions can be combined as described in section 6. Conditional clearances are for line up and runway crossings.
• A few desk actions are not radio calls: removing an aircraft, and sending or hurrying the ground crews. Their buttons stay on the deck in Voice.
• A conditional crossing waits until the landing traffic has passed the crossing or left the runway. If that traffic turns off onto the taxiway where your aircraft is waiting, both will wait. Give the crossing again once the runway is clear, or give it without a condition.