Aero-Tips!

A good pilot is always learning -- how many times have you heard this old standard throughout your flying career? There is no truer statement in all of flying (well, with the possible exception of "there are no old, bold pilots.") It's part of what makes aviation so exciting for all of us... just when you think you've seen it all, along comes a scenario you've never imagined.

Aero-News has called upon the expertise of Thomas P. Turner, master CFI and all-around-good-guy, to bring our readers -- and us -- daily tips to improve our skills as aviators, and as representatives of the flying community. Some of them, you may have heard before... but for each of us, there will also be something we might never have considered before, or something that didn't "stick" the way it should have the first time we memorized it for the practical test.

It is our unabashed goal that "Aero-Tips" will help our readers become better, safer pilots -- as well as introducing our ground-bound readers to the concepts and principles that keep those strange aluminum-and-composite contraptions in the air... and allow them to soar magnificently through it.

Look for our daily Aero-Tips segments, coming each day to you through the Aero-News Network. Suggestions for future Aero-Tips are always welcome, as are additions or discussion of each day's tips. Remember... when it comes to being good pilots, we're all in this together.

Aero-Tips 03.17.06

There was a time not long ago when every airplane, and each individual pilot, was required to be licensed for radio use.

FCC-ing You

One thing we had to do before the first solo flight “back in the day” was to become licensed as a radio station operator.  The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) kept close tabs on persons that could transmit via radio over more than about a mile’s distance (note: part of the popularity of short-range CB radio in the 1970s was the lack of an FCC license requirement). Pilots, almost all having access to “long-range” radio transmitters, had to have a Third Class Radiotelephone Operators permit. It was a paperwork affair; get the form from your instructor, fill it out and send it in -- I don’t recall there was even a fee for the third class permit. It was a lifetime certificate and if I looked hard enough I’m sure I could still find mine because (as my wife says) I never throw away such things. Eventually the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) got together with the FCC and agreed any FAA pilot certificate (from Student on up) counts as a third-class FCC permit as well. Presumably the FAA sends a list of pilot certificate holders to the FCC to this day.

Radio Station

Airplanes, in the FCC’s view, are radio stations (that happen to fly). Until fairly recently all civil airplanes were required to be licensed with the FCC. Radio station permits were valid for five years, if I remember correctly, and were so commonly overlooked that as an instructor in the 1990s I carried a stack of renewal applications in my flight bag. It was legal to keep part of the form in the airplane as a temporary certificate when you mailed the rest to the FCC. Many times I had to give a form to a client and see him/her mail it in before I could legally conduct a lesson. Eventually this too went by the wayside, with all N-numbered airplanes being automatically considered legal transmission stations within U.S. borders. U.S.-registered airplanes flown outside the U.S. still need an FCC radio station license, but apparently either the FCC doesn’t care about airplanes within the U.S., or the FAA automatically updates the FCC with aircraft registration information behind the scenes.

Aero-tip of the day: In most cases the FCC considers pilot certificates and aircraft registrations valid permits for radio transmission. Remember for that flight outside the U.S., however, that your airplane needs an FCC radio station license.

FMI: Aero-Tips