(WACO, Texas) – CAVU, METAR and VFR. These acronyms used in the aviation field stand for Ceiling and Visibility Unlimited, Meteorological Aerodrome Report and Visual Flight Rules.
They are part of the language of aviation that students, instructors and certified flight instructors use daily in Texas State Technical College’s Aircraft Pilot Training Technology program.
“Communication is going to be part of a pilot’s life for the rest of their career,” said Angel Newhart, TSTC’s lead instructor and program team lead in the Aircraft Pilot Training Technology program. “You are always going to have to talk to people.”
Developing good communication skills starts in the program’s first semester. Newhart said that in the Private Pilot Ground School class students learn call signs using the International Civil Aviation Organization phonetic alphabet. She said English is the worldwide language in aviation.
Newhart said certified flight instructors work with students on radio calls during flights. She said some students adapt well early on to talking via the cockpit radio, while others struggle. Safety is at the forefront of everything that the pilot training program does.
“(Students) will stress because they cannot see the person and see their reaction,” Newhart said. “What happens in those cases is we have them listen. Maybe it is a recording we share with them or we get online to listen to towers like Waco Regional Airport or even one of the more intense towers like DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport).”
Ryan Hermes, of Hallettsville, is a certified flight instructor at TSTC and a graduate of the college’s Aircraft Pilot Training Technology program. He said effective and clear communication is important so that there are no barriers between aviation personnel.
Hermes said pilot training students can get anxious when talking to air traffic control personnel and aviation maintenance workers. One of Hermes’ jobs is to get students comfortable with speaking and retaining what they learn during the progression of their training.
Hermes is working to help train Yoltzin Bonequi, of Bastrop, a fifth-semester Aircraft Pilot Training Technology student. Bonequi said he did not find talking to the air traffic control tower staff scary.
“I was the one wanting to press the mic and talk,” he said. “It was hard to understand at first. You understand what is going on later in training.”
Bonequi had aspirations of becoming an astronaut, but he said he did not want to spend years training for his moment in space. He said his interest in how airplanes work and in aerodynamics led him to take a discovery flight.
“I saw how the navigation community was, how the flight instructor was, and how he let me have the controls to fly,” Bonequi said. “It felt free to fly the plane.”
For more information on TSTC, go to tstc.edu.
