Common exam traps

The points students reliably trip over, most are drawn straight from the chapter practice questions:

• Frequencies need all six digits with 8·33 spacing: 129·550 → "one two nine decimal five five zero". Only if the fifth and sixth digits are both zero do you drop to four (127·000 → "one two seven decimal zero").
• Digit-by-digit always wins for time, pressure, squawk, heading, frequency, wind and runway. So 3,500 ft (an altitude) is "three thousand five hundred", but QNH 1001 is "one zero zero one" and time 2053 is "two zero five three".
• "Standby" means wait: say nothing and don't acknowledge with Roger/Wilco. No response is expected.
• Roger ≠ understood, and ≠ yes. Roger = "I have received all of your last transmission." Use Affirm/Negative for a yes/no, Wilco for "will comply".
• The three ATSU types are ATC, FIS and A/G (control/information/limited-information). Don't confuse them with the services (Basic/Traffic/Deconfliction/Procedural).
• Designators: "Tower/Approach/Radar" = ATC; "Information" = FISO; "Radio" = A/G. So Weston A/G is "Weston Radio".
• You abbreviate your callsign only after the ground station does. G-MIHE becomes "Golf Hotel Echo", not "Golf Hotel Easy".
• Must read back in full: clearances to enter/cross/backtrack/hold short of/land on/take off from a runway, altimeter settings, and SSR codes.
• Flight details order (ADDPAA): callsign and type, departure, destination, present position, altitude, intentions.
• "Ready for departure" at the hold, never "ready for take-off". The word take-off appears only in the clearance.
• Safetycom is 135·475 MHz, used only below 2,000 ft aal (or 1,000 ft above circuit) and within 10 nm. Call "(place) Traffic".
• Height ↔ QFE, Altitude ↔ QNH. A QFE of 997 is read "QFE nine nine seven hectopascals" (units stated below 1000).
• LARS = Lower Airspace Radar Service: a Traffic or Deconfliction Service, to FL100, ≈30 nm.
• Position report order (APTLN): callsign, position, time, level, next point and ETA.
• QDM = the magnetic heading to fly to the station (no wind). Request it with your full callsign at both ends.
• Respond to traffic information with "traffic in sight" or "not sighted": not "Roger".
• MATZ penetration: request 15 nm or 5 minutes before the boundary; say "request MATZ penetration".
• The two emergency states are Distress and Urgency: not "Mayday and Pan" (those are the prefixes). The prefix is said three times.
• First call for a Mayday is on the frequency in use (not straight to 121·5). 121·5 may be used for a Practice-Pan, never a practice Mayday.
• Radio failure → squawk 7600; emergency → 7700; hijack → 7500; VFR conspicuity → 7000.
• Steady red light in flight = give way and keep circling (do not land): on the ground it means stop.
• VHF band is 30–300 MHz, line-of-sight; range ≈ √(1·5 × altitude in feet) nm.