British Young Pilots
🗼 YOU HAVE CONTROL 🎙️
This is an interactive presentation
🎮 Games built in
Phonetic alphabet board, spelling bee, chart detective, "You're the controller" — come up to the screen and play!
🎬 Real videos
Real UK control towers and real radio calls. Click the play button when you see one. (Videos need internet — everything else works offline.)
🎙️ Role-play
This afternoon YOU become the pilot — and the controller. Real scripts, real phraseology, real decisions.
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Introduction for BYP Instructors
✓ Success looks like
- Confidence with aviation terminology
- Phonetic alphabet used for fun
- Everyone plays pilot AND controller
- Enjoying the practical exercises
✗ This is not
- Controller training
- A phraseology exam
- About perfect radio calls
- A lecture — keep them talking!
A guide, not a script.
Ages 11–16 · adapt pace and depth · add your own stories · role-play beats theory every time.
Day Course Agenda
Lesson 1
Lesson 1 — what we'll cover
🗼 What is Air Traffic Control?
Who they are, what they do, and why flying would be chaos without them.
🗺️ UK Airspace
The invisible map of the sky — zones, areas and motorways in the air.
📡 Flight Information Services
The different levels of help a pilot can ask for.
What is Air Traffic Control?
WHY?
To prevent collisions between aircraft (and obstacles), keep air traffic flowing smoothly, and help with search and rescue.
WHAT?
An air traffic service (ATS) — from simple flight information, to aerodrome control, right up to complex approach and radar services.
HOW?
From an aerodrome control tower, an approach control office, an area control centre — or a combination of all three.
Split into 4 groups — what do YOU need?
Private Flying
Commercial
Military
Balloons & Gliders
💬 Discuss in your group: what do you need from the sky — and what risks do the OTHER groups create for you? Think: collisions · heights · speeds · day/night · emergencies · weather
UK Airspace — the family tree
using Air Traffic Control
Controlled UK airspace — the building blocks
🛬 Control Zone (CTR)
Wrapped around an aerodrome, from the surface up. Shaped around the main runway — protects everything landing and taking off.
🎂 Control Area (CTA)
Sits on top of the CTR and stretches further out — like the layers of an upside-down wedding cake.
🛣️ Airways
The motorways of the sky — corridors linking airspace together. Named with letters and numbers (like N16). Normally Class A.
🏙️ Terminal Manoeuvring Area (TMA)
Covers areas with several busy aerodromes close together — London, Manchester, Scottish TMAs.
On a real chart — Southampton
🛬 Southampton Control Zone (CTR) — the shape hugging the airport, surface up.
🎂 Solent CTA — the bigger layers sitting on top and around it.
👀 This is a real pilot's chart — every line means something. Ready to decode one yourself?
Can you decode Gatwick?
Airways — motorways of the sky
- Corridors that link airspace together
- Named with letters and numbers
- Example: N16 — track 022°, from 8,500 ft up to 46,000 ft
- Look at the chart — the sky over London is full of them!
Who does a pilot talk to? Follow a flight…
Smaller airfields — AFIS & Air/Ground
📋 AFIS "…Information"
- Run by AFIS Officers
- Controls aircraft on the ground within the airfield
- Airborne traffic managed by position reports and pilots' stated intentions
- Callsign ends in "Information" — e.g. "Denham Information"
📻 Air/Ground (AGCS) "…Radio"
- Run by certified radio operators
- Information only — traffic, weather, positions
- No instructions, no clearances — pilots decide for themselves
- Callsign ends in "Radio" — e.g. "Popham Radio"
🎧 The suffix tells you everything: "Tower" = full control · "Information" = AFIS · "Radio" = air/ground
Flight Information Service — a deal between two people
🧑✈️ The pilot asks…
- What information do I need for a safe, efficient flight?
- Am I going into controlled airspace?
- Flying on instruments — will I need help with headings and altitude?
🗼 The controller asks…
- Do I have the capacity right now?
- Do I have the right equipment?
- How much traffic is in my zone?
📝 They agree a short-term deal: what service the controller will provide for this bit of the flight.
Inside a real UK tower — with no windows!
NATS — "Being an Air Traffic Controller in London City's Digital Tower" · Alt: FAA "Air Traffic Control 101" youtube.com/watch?v=y6g7xCyp8YM
Watch for…
- The "tower" is a room of SCREENS — 80 miles from the airport
- How calm the controller sounds
- The radar + radio combo you just learned
💬 Discuss: would you trust a tower with no windows? Why does it work?
Lesson 1 Quiz — What is ATC?
Lesson 2
What is Radiotelephony (RT)?
- Using radio for voice communication — aircraft ↔ ground
- Essential for safe, efficient flying: routine requests, weather, emergencies
- You need a licence to transmit!
- Built on standard phraseology — everyone says things the same way
- And on… the phonetic alphabet
🎙️ Why standard words? A crackly radio + an engine + an accent from anywhere in the world — and the message must STILL get through, first time.
The Phonetic Alphabet — three big questions
❓
Why do we need one?
🗣️
Why were THESE words chosen?
🌍
Who manages it?
Take guesses before revealing — the video later has the full story!
The board — Alpha to Zulu
Read a real registration
G-ATOO
Golf — Alpha Tango Oscar Oscar
G-FTAB
Golf — Foxtrot Tango Alpha Bravo
Phonetic Spelling Bee! 🐝
Pick a word — team spells it phonetically OUT LOUD — then tap the word to check!
Four words every pilot knows — tap to reveal
"YES" — in response to a direct question
"NO" — in response to a direct question
"I received your transmission" — I heard you
"WILL COmply" — understood AND I'll do it
🧠 Roger vs Wilco: Roger = "heard you". Wilco = "heard you AND will do it". Wilco is the stronger promise!
Say it right! — pick the proper reply
In the circuit — what the PILOT needs
🪪 Who are we?
Our callsign — the registration, e.g. G-DJJA
📞 Who are we calling?
The AFIS or air/ground station name — "Denham Information"
📶 Can they hear us?
Radio check — readability 1 to 5
🌤️ What are the conditions?
Runway in use · wind · circuit pattern
Same circuit — what the CONTROLLER needs
- Who's calling — and what are their intentions?
- Pass the airfield conditions — runway, wind, circuit pattern
- Where do I want them to report? (e.g. "report final")
- How can I raise everyone's situational awareness? ("one ahead turning base…")
- How will I track where each aircraft is?
🧠 A controller's real skill: holding a moving 3D picture of every aircraft — in their head.
The genius logic behind Alpha-Bravo-Charlie
RobWords — "The genius logic of the NATO phonetic alphabet" · Singalong alt: youtube.com/watch?v=eVpiadldPPo
Watch for…
- Why B, D, E, G, P, T, V are dangerous
- Words tested across languages
- Answers to our three big questions!
💬 After: which of our three questions did the video answer best?
Lesson 2 Quiz — RT & Phonetics
Lesson 3
🎙️ This is the one — you fly, you control, you talk.
Exercise Objective
- Fly a real-world circuit pattern with the required RT
- Have a go at playing Pilot AND ATC
- Practise different scenarios — including the unexpected…
- Debrief and discuss what we learnt
🎯 By the break: your first real radio exchange, start to finish.
What is a circuit?
🔁 What
- A pattern for approaching and departing an airfield
- Flown at a defined circuit height
- Each segment is a named leg
- Often several aircraft in the pattern at once
🛟 Why
- Safety! Everyone flies the same shape
- Situational awareness — knowing where everyone is
- Separation from other aircraft
- Avoids obstacles and noise-sensitive areas
The circuit — click each leg
Circuits: what do the pilot AND controller need to think about?
⚠️ What are the risks? It's a busy little piece of sky…
⏱️ Comms short and accurate — no time for speeches on a busy frequency!
🗣️ Accurate phraseology — are we reporting positions correctly?
🔄 What about a go-around? Who says what, and when?
Our practice airfield: Denham (EGLD)
A real grass-and-tarmac airfield just north-west of London — with an AFIS: "Denham Information"
Scenario briefing (tick as you set up)
Denham circuits — left hand, 1,000 ft
The full exchange — tap to play it out
Controller variations — keep pilots on their toes
You're the controller! — what do you say?
Hear it for real — basic radio calls
Scud-Runner — "Basic Radio Calls for New Pilots" · UK RT reference: CAA CAP 413 / BYP guide at britishyoungpilots.com/radio
Listen for…
- Who they call, then who they are
- Short, standard phrases
- Readbacks of important info
💬 Challenge: count the phrases you now understand that you didn't this morning!
How did it go?
✅ What went well?
Best call of the day? Smoothest exchange?
😅 What was challenging?
Talking and thinking at once? Remembering the order?
🔁 What would you do differently?
One thing to change next circuit…
🎭 Pilot or controller?
Which role did YOU prefer — and why?
Lesson 3 Quiz — Circuits & RT
Lesson 4
When it goes wrong — emergency calls
🆘 MAYDAY ×3
Grave and imminent danger — engine failure, fire. "MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY" then who/where/what/intentions.
From the French m'aidez — "help me"
⚠️ PAN PAN ×3
Urgent, but not immediately life-threatening — a rough-running engine, a lost pilot. "PAN PAN, PAN PAN, PAN PAN".
From French panne — "breakdown"
📟 The magic numbers
121.5 MHz — the emergency frequency, always monitored.
Squawk 7700 — makes your aircraft light up on every radar screen.
🧑✈️ Golden rule: Aviate → Navigate → Communicate — fly the plane first, THEN talk.
More Lesson 4 content — coming soon
The source deck marks this section "to be completed". Until then, proven fillers:
🎭 Round 2 role-play — harder plot twists: two aircraft in the circuit, an emergency card, a blocked frequency
🧠 The controller's memory game — 3 students walk circles as "aircraft"; one controller calls all positions from memory, facing away
🐝 Spelling bee grand final — with surnames, streets, football teams
🎬 Skies Above Britain — BBC's look at real UK controllers (link on the final page)
🎙️ You had control!
Today you learned who keeps the sky safe, spoke the language of pilots,
and ran your own circuit — as pilot AND controller.
🔤 Phonetic alphabet
Yours for life — use it on every phone call
🗼 Watch next
BBC "Skies Above Britain" — real UK controllers
🎖️ Keep flying with BYP
Wings · A320 Day · more badges ahead
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