It's pretty self-evident that a significant number of pilots avoid 2 way
radio use and the airports that require it. Anyone dismissing this
theory out of hand has their head in a hole.

I was guilty of it for 2 years. After flying gliders for 15+ years
where we use the radio constantly but almost never with ATC, I
re-entered the ASEL community. I avoided ATC whenever possible and as
others have pointed out, you can fly almost anywhere without talking to
anyone. And I live under the outer edge of a Class C. No problem with
CTAF, just no ATC. I came to understand that my behavior was stupid.

As others have stated, an instrument rating is excellent radio training.

A good way to shock under 40 pilots is to tell them that "no one" used
headsets back in the day. How stupid was that!

Jonathan Goodish wrote:
In article ,
Jack Allison wrote:

Jonathan Goodish wrote:


If you fly from an uncontrolled field and aren't an instrument pilot,
there is a good chance that you very rarely, if ever, talk to anyone on
the radio.

What do you base this theory on? Speculation? Gut feel? Facts?


Observation. I live in an area surrounding a large Class B airport, and
there are plenty of pilots who rarely, if ever, use the radio at
non-towered airports. These same pilots don't venture near towered
airports or the Class B because they don't want to talk on the radio.
They also typically don't venture out if the wind is stronger than
"calm" and/or if there are clouds in the sky.

I will say that the "younger" pilots around here seem to have more
towered-airport training, and appear to be less inhibited about talking
on the radio. Many of the flight schools at non-towered airports around
here have dried up, leaving the mega-schools at the larger towered
airports for flight training.



JKG