ATC Terminology

Livin_Legend · Guest

I was wondering if there was a good site where I could find some terminology. I tried searching but with no success. For example I was wondering what the term Squawk means. I hear that everythere, although I haven't figured out what it means yet! Embarassed

originalgrunge · Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2005 5:11 pm

When ATC asks you to "squawk 4568", that means that if your aircraft is equipped with a transponder (all FS aircraft are), you enter that number in the transponder. Now when you pull onto the runway, you activate the transponder (only add-on airliners need to actually be activated) and the ATC can now see your plane, altitude, etc. etc. You'll notice if when you fly VFR through the simulator and first make contact with a center for a flight following, they'll ask you to squawk a certain code, and then after you enter that in (for FS you just have to confirm ATC and it automatically re-tunes your transponder), ATC will pause for a few seconds and then report what location/altitude it sees you at, and then you confirm your position to them.

A great place to learn ATC terminology is www.vatsim.net. It's free to sign up and to fly with their ATC on line, but even as just an educational site it works well. After you sign up and get your VATSIM I.D., you can log into their Pilot Center on their website and go through a very thorough training on what to say, when to say it, how approaches/departures work, etc. etc. It might be a bit overwhelming, especially if you don't intend on using it much, but give it a look.

Livin_Legend · Guest

Thank you for responding so quickly and your response helps a lot.
I am a VATSIM user I've joined them recently. I've tried to search for training information but didn't manage to find them. And I use squawkbox 3.0 to fly online with people, but seems like there are not as many people connected to that as VATSIM, or maybe there is something in there that I do not understand.

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