Hi all. I am being controlled by an approach, and my arrival airport is in a different area, controlled by the center. But, my arrival airport has a voice atis. What is the proper procedure for switching frequency to get that atis? Do I just switch without telling the controller? Do I request a frequency change and say I’ll report back? Is it better to do it when I am being controlled by the same controller that will control me for the arrival airport or does it matter if I do it with the controller before?
….and in the unlikely case that you need to switch to the ATIS (without the possibility to listen to your ATCO in the meantime), get permission from ATC first.
When you’re flying and you want to hear the ATIS while still being able to communicate with ATC you’ll have 2 different options. I will use the A320 as my first example as this will be the most common case for most VATSIM pilots.
2 Radio Scenario
In most (if not all) modern airliners you will have access to two different radio’s (for redundancy). In Airbus’ case it will look the following way:
As you can see you will have A111 doubled, and the right and left side can be operated independently. If you tune your ATIS on the right hand radio while having ATC tuned on the left one you will be able to hear both simultaneously (just make sure that the VHF 2 volume knob on your left hand radio is turned on otherwise you won’t hear it).
1 Radio Scenario
For single radio’s, like the ones you will find in most GA aircraft, you might have the option to listen to both frequencies using the MONITOR function. This allows you to transmit and listen to your primary frequency while also being to hear (not transmit) your secondary, or as most know it your STANDBY, frequency.
If you need help to figure out how it works on your aircraft I suggest looking up its corresponding FCOM or POH. Alternatively, you can try to look up the model of the radio and see if you can find a manual.
