Course materials

The course consists of a set of videos, backed up by pdfs of the slides which take you through different parts of the course. There is also some useful pre-reading.

The course assumes you have Bronze standard knowledge (that is, you've passed the Bronze badge theory). If not, you may well find it useful to look at the Background Theory page, which links to some resources that will be useful reading and viewing.



The six parts of the course are listed below.

Pre-reading

The pre-reading contains material you need to know - at least look it over before getting too deeply into the videos.

As of May 2020 I've updated this package to contain the slides from the following presentations which relate to the theoretical knowledge exam for the FRTOL. Additionally, red change bars mark material which has been added since the original on-line course took place - these are worth paying attention to.

Part 1 - Introduction


The slides for Part 1 can be found here and a direct link to the video here

The breakout group script for Part 1 of the course can be found here

Part 2 - The flight

In this part we carry out a fairly typical cross country flight in a glider.


The slides for Part 2 can be found here and a direct link to the video here

During the online session we will make use of the following. It would be useful if you could make sure that you can see them during the session (either on screen, or by printing).

The Script Rehearser scripts for these examples can be found here, and the instructions for installing and using Script Rehearser here.

Part 3 - The flight (continued)

The second half of our flight


The slides for Part 3 can be found here and a direct link to the video here

During the online session we will make use of the following. It would be useful if you could make sure that you can see them during the session (either on screen, or by printing).

The Script Rehearser scripts for these examples can be found here, and the instructions for installing and using Script Rehearser here.

Part 4 - The TMG flight

In this section we look at how a powered flight would work, using a TMG flight between Sywell and Cambridge as an example.


The slides for Part 4 can be found here and a direct link to the video here

During the online session we will make use of the following. It would be useful if you could make sure that you can see it during the session (either on screen, or by printing).

Part 4 Group Work - Cambridge

For this part, we've put some new content in the online session slides, so we've published them. You can download them here.

The Script Rehearser scripts for these examples can be found here, and the instructions for installing and using Script Rehearser here.

The video below is a good example of a real life flight from Redhill to Norwich by The Flying Reporter. The RT isn't perfect, but it will give you a good sense of how it all actually works.

In the same series we have a flight to an airfield with an AGCS

A flight to an airfield with an AFIS

A flight to an airfield with ATC

And a flight to an airfield in CAS

Part 5 - Emergencies

Here we deal with emergencies and direction finding


The slides for Part 5 can be found here and a direct link to the video here

The breakouts are going to be a little different for this week. You can find the brief for them here.

The flight is going to be based on the Sywell to Cambridge flight from Part 4. To help, we've included an extract of the half million map for that flight. You may need to download it to make it big enough.


Map © Copyright Civil Aviation Authority 2019. Used under copyright teaching exemption. See: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/exceptions-to-copyright

Part 6 - The test (but mostly practice)

The slides that were used for the briefing for the test can be found here

However, most of the time will be spent practising in breakouts. To be getting on with, here is the route that you can practice, with a full script. Try and get to the point where you don't need the script, and can cope with different things happening.

There are two further routes to practice with coaches after the course.

There is a full written script for Route 1. I've made the script for Routes 2 and 3 only available to the coaches.

I've added the Script Rehearser script for all three of these routes to the appropriate folder which can be found here.

There are also two dummy exam briefs.

References

General RT references

Useful books

Examiners

  • Current CAA list of FRTOL examiners - under Radio Telephony here

Acknowledgements

  • Chula Rupasinha (London GC) and Andrew Watson (Cambridge GC) for their substantial input to the course materials and online course. Chris Marren (Lasham GC) particularly for input on the routes.
  • All the coaches who have given up their time to help.
  • Airspace for All for their facilitation of the original course materials.

Changes

V1 - 24 March 2020 - Original release

V1.1 - 10 April 2020

  • Changes to reflect CAP413 SI 2020-01 (already in V1 but marked as subject to completion). Effective date is 8 June 2020
  • Slight change to phraseology for level instructions (Not above X -> X or below ; Not below X -> X or above). CAP413 change.
  • Change to order of wind report and clearance in take off and landing clearances ( "Runway 21, cleared to land, wind 270 10" -> "Runway 21, wind 270 10, cleared to land"). CAP 413 change.

V1.1b - 14 April 2020

  • Slight changes to the Annex (pre-reading) to reflect improved way of explaining how to pronounce numbers. A few references fixed.

Course material for coaching sessions: V1 added 19 April 2020

Example videos for Part 4 added 9 May 2020

References and acknowledgement added 13 May 2020

Pre-reading extended to include TK material - 18 May 2020