ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the broader environment of air traffic controller (ATC) - pilot communications. It discusses some of the research investigating relationships among factors inherent in the communicative environment of controllers and pilots. The chapter argues that controller-pilot communications take place in a constrained but dynamic environment. Both pilots and ATC interact with a number of interlocutors in the course of doing their jobs, and there are several loops of communication in the ATC-pilot communicative environment. Controllers and pilots are, naturally, seated in different environments and, in the case of voice communication, they communicate with one another over the radio through headsets. Pilots who fly in remote areas may rarely come into contact with ATC. Immanuel Barshi reports a study in which he investigated the effects of linguistic properties and message length on pilot comprehension and retention of controller messages.
