By Frank Bowlin

We’ve all heard it: the hapless student or awkward pilot failing miserably to communicate with ATC. The worst examples can make you curl your toes in sympathetic embarrassment. Of course, no reader of Aviation Safety needs that much help, but we all can polish our technique a bit. In the extreme, failed communications can cause us to violate an instruction and result in an accident. So, effective communication with ATC is a significant safety requirement.

To illustrate the points, we’re including some of our top radio pet peeves. Some are amusing, but most are simply a style or word choice difference some of which most of us occasionally commit.…