The question I have is what are we suppost to say to get traffic to make radio calls. The reason I ask this question is because where I flight instruct we may have 10 airplanes in a 20 mile radius that are all busy doing flight maneuvers and may not make calls every few minutes. So when we are coming into the area we will announce our location, our planned destination and ask if anyone is in that area please advise. Any suggestions would be helpful

 

I've heard people say it, but never awnsered back beyond my standard radio calls. I've always wondered if I should say it, nice to be able to clear that up; I'm not going to say it if the AIM says not to.

Usually though, when I'm about 10nm out I call for an airport advisory, and sometimes the guys on the ground will give me a heads up on traffic as well as weather.

 

There is absolutely no need whatsoever to ask for people in the area to tell you that they're there. You think you're the only pilot around who wants to avoid a midair? After you announce your positions and intentions, anybody else in the area who might present a conflict is going to speak up to say "Please don't hit me!" Nobody is flying around waiting to be told to report their position on CTAF. Stop wasting valuable radio time!

 

At the risk of being seen as a stupid college student, I would argue against what some of you guys are saying. I will agree with you guys that you shouldn't need to ask for others to advise you, but I will disagree with you guys that it's a bad thing either. One of those not good but not bad things.

1. A lot of you are arguing that "Well, I make such and such radio call at this point, and such and such at this point." Good for you. However, I think everyone here knows that that is not the case for many other pilots. I've seen many cocky or just ignorant pilots who don't think like that. As a safe pilot, should I just accept the fact that they're not gonna make a call because I didn't ask them to? Of course not.

2. In my CRM training, I've learned (and experienced) that one of them most important parts of critical communication is encouraging a response. That's the exact reason why you read back instructions to ATC.

3. I'm not sure I understand the arguement for radio congestion. Most (not all) of the airports one would use such a call at are not busy at all, and taking that extra second to encourage a response should be worth it.

Again, I agree that ideally, you shouldn't have to add something like that to your calls. But I know that the reality is that aviation, just like any other industry, has it's fair share of idiots. Why should I risk the safety of my flight for the sake of not taking an extra second on the radio?