So when you hear "Annex 10 Vol — Page 1, Lesson 6

I want to walk you through the very start of your Communications syllabus. This chapter is called Definitions, and it opens with the Introduction, which sets the legal foundation for everything we do on the radio. The standard for all aeronautical operations was laid down by the International Civil Aviation Organization — ICAO — in its 1944 Chicago Convention. Most of the specific standards for Communication, covering equipment, standards, and procedures, are laid down in Annex 10, Volume 2 to that convention. So when you hear "Annex 10 Vol. 2," that is the ICAO document that governs how we communicate. Here in the UK, the guidance for pilots is the CAA publication CAP 413. You should have that in your possession as a reference. But there is an important note for your exam: the JAR-FCL Communications examination standard is ICAO. Most of CAP 413 is valid for the exam, but it differs in some areas, especially in the use of R/T — that's radio telephony — for take-off and for altitude instructions. These notes you are studying are based only on ICAO, so that is the standard you must learn. The JAR-FCL Communications exam itself is divided into two half-hour sections: VFR and IFR. VFR stands for Visual Flight Rules, and IFR stands for Instrument Flight Rules. It is not possible to entirely separate VFR and IFR communications because much of the detail is equally valid to both phases of flight. In the initial lessons, you will concentrate on those sections that can be placed solely on the VFR section. And please note: what you learn in the VFR section may be tested again by similar — if not identical — questions in the IFR exam. Now let's move into the first technical content: Transmission of Letters and Numbers. In some circumstances, it can be difficult to hear clearly what is said over the radio. Perhaps the aircraft is noisy, or the reception is poor, or there may be words that sound similar and could be confused. For example, the letter 'A' could be confused with the number '8', or the letter 'C' — pronounced "see" — sounds like 'D' — "dee" — or 'V' — "vee". To help overcome these problems, a standard way of saying letters, spellings, numbers, and so on has been devised. You must know these. The standard alphabet has a phonetic pronunciation for each letter. The key point is that the sound should be the same, whatever the speaker's natural language. So whether the pilot is French, German, or Japanese, the phonetic word for each letter is pronounced the same way worldwide. A word should be spelt whenever its meaning is not clear technically, or when using proper names, service abbreviations, and words of which the spelling is doubtful. Let me give you the first few letters of that phonetic alphabet. 'A' is Alpha, pronounced AL FAH. 'B' is Bravo, pronounced BRAH VOH. 'C' is Charlie, pronounced CHAR LEE. 'D' is Delta, pronounced DELL TAH. 'E' is Echo. You will need to learn the entire alphabet, but these are the first five to get you started.