Cockpit preparation - 09.45 LT
Brussels (EBBR), Apron 2 North, gate 206, 9:45h local time.
Our plane, the Boeing 737-300, is ready for departure to Schiphol and we get comfortable in the “cold and dark” cockpit.
After a while, our checklist is completed and the passengers are boarding. We contact Brussels Ground (normally Brussels Delivery but that station was not manned) and request a radio check and the approval to start up the engines. The frequency of Brussels Ground is 121.870 MHz or 118.050 MHz. This can be seen on the charts of EBBR and via IvAe.
Request radio check 09.55 LT
The quality of the communication is reported, both by the pilot and the controller, by using numbers on a scale from 1 till 5. These numbers do not tell anything about the intensity (loudness) of the message but only focus on comprehensibility. So, if the controller can clearly understand you but hears you vaguely, you still get a “5 by 5”.
|
Scale |
|
|
|
5 |
Perfectly readable |
comprehensible, good quality |
|
4 |
Readable |
Comprehensible, could be better but poses no problem |
|
3 |
Readable with difficulty |
Comprehensible but effort must be made |
|
2 |
Readable now and then |
Messages are breaking up, cannot be understood partially or completely |
|
1 |
Unreadable* |
Incomprehensible, most of the times there is a signal but no modulation |
* In this case, the controller does not even know who to talk to since the message was incomprehensible. He’ll use the following phraseology : “Last station calling <controller position>, unreadable”