I have found that most students religiously annouce all their turns in
the traffic pattern but fail to listen to other airplanes. A radio is
actually a liability in the early stages of training. Hence my
recommendation against carrying a backup radio.



jsmith wrote in :

Teaching them initially to fly without a radio teaches them to look
outside and scan for traffic.
It's the fools with radios that think just because they broadcast over
the airwaves that they have the right of way and everyone should let
them play through.

Andrew Sarangan wrote:
The question was whether a student pilot should purchase a handheld
transceiver. If the aircraft does not have any radios, then a
handheld transceiver would be very useful to have. Although a radio
is not required in class E and uncontrolled airspaces, it certainly
makes things safer. However, a transceiver as a backup radio to the
aircraft radio may be an excessive measure. That was the point I was
trying to make.