Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

1 Answers

IFR with 1 comm radio

Asked by: 3837 views , ,
Instrument Rating

I have always flown IFR with a 2 comm radio aircraft and now I am in a ship with only 1 comm radio.  If I am on with ATC and I need to get the weather for the airport that I am landing at, how do I get the weather? Do I ask ATC for the weather or how do I ask for permission to switch frequency to get the weather?  What communication format is used when I'm back on with ATC? Also, am I correct in assuming that when ATC says, "advise when you have the weather at ..." that this is NOT permission to dump them to get it?   Thank you for the help

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer


    Jim F. on Jul 18, 2015

    Yup, “advise when you have it” is not permission to leave the frequency…

    The two scenarios you suggested are indeed common, but I think most pilots and ATC specialists would recommend you just ask to leave the frequency, instead of have them read it to you. When asked, they’ll usually just say something like, “frequency change approved, report back within 2 minutes.” They can really only do this if it’s not very busy and therefore are reasonably sure they won’t need to talk to you for traffic alerts or a vector. Due to this, it may be more difficult to do so in the terminal environment while on with approach.

    Which brings up my suggestion: Get the weather before contacting the approach controller. So when you get switched form the center to approach, just go listen to the weather first then you already have it for your initial check-in with approach. If the weather is updated after your initial check-in, then you would revert back to asking to change frequencies.

    Note that this won’t really work if/when going into an airport without approach control, where you go directly from center to local; In this case, I’d refer you back requesting to change frequencies.

    Worst case if they’re too busy to let you go off frequency, then inform them you only have one comm radio and it’s on them to provide you with the information.

    +2 Votes Thumb up 2 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.