Airspace and radio belong together: one tells you where you may fly, the other whom you have to talk to in order to do so. Both are well regulated in Germany and poorly explained. Here they are described the way you need them at the airfield and en route.
The chapters
How the Airspace Is Structured
Four classes, three special zones and the question of what lies above you.
Airspace E
Controlled, but without clearance – and with IFR traffic that will not necessarily see you.
Control Zone, TMA and Airspace C
The wedding cake around the commercial airport – and how a clearance comes about.
RMZ, TMZ and ED-R
The first wants a word, the second a code, the third a decision.
What You Need to Use the Radio
BZF II, BZF I and why 118.005 is a channel and not a frequency.
How a Radio Call Is Built
Whom, who, where, what – and what has to be read back.
At the Airfield: "Radio" instead of "Info"
How little a ground station without air traffic services is allowed to say.
Position Reports in the Circuit
Downwind, base, final – and why left-hand is the norm.
En Route: FIS, FMC and Emergencies
Langen Information, the Frequency Monitoring Code and the four numbers.
Flying Abroad: What Is Different
Eight questions before crossing the border – and where the official answers are.
Austria
More class G airspace, D instead of C, transition altitude 10,000 feet – and a transponder that replaces the flight plan.
How it all fits together
The first four pages work through the airspace: first the system, then airspace E, where we actually fly, then the controlled areas around the large airports and finally the special zones. The second half deals with radio – what you need for it, how a radio call is built, how people talk at their own airfield and whom you can reach en route when it matters.
The last page prepares the jump across the border; Austria, Switzerland and Italy follow in detail. The drawings are my own and deliberately schematic, with German labels. The current ICAO chart, the AIP VFR and the NfL are always binding – not these pages.