Free AI ATC for radio practice (Canadian phraseology)

[aviator_12]

I was a NAV CANADA ATC trainee - started basic training right as COVID hit (Apr 2020), got laid off about six months in, before I ever went into the ACC. Went into software engineering after that, but I still want my PPL someday, and the part that intimidates me is the radio, not the flying.

I built a small tool to practice radio calls against: you hold a mic button (or the spacebar), speak your call like you would in the aircraft, and an AI controller answers in Canadian phraseology. It then grades the call element by element - callsign placement, "two five" vs "twenty five," self-abbreviating before ATC does, missing the ATIS, readbacks, that sort of thing.

Link: https://radio-trainer.onrender.com - free, no signup, runs in the browser. Put your own registration and aircraft type in and it uses them throughout, including in the controller's replies.

Right now it's Lower Mainland airports: the full flight at Langley (CYNJ) - radio check, taxi, takeoff, circuit and landing, taxi in - a taxi with a squawk assignment at Boundary Bay (CZBB), an MF arrival at Chilliwack (CYCW) with all four broadcasts, and a couple of "the frequency does something you didn't expect" drills. Tell me your home airport and it goes on the list - the phraseology is the same everywhere, the facts are what I hand-build per field. There's also an ear-training mode that hides the transcripts so you copy the controller by ear.

The honest part, and the reason I'm posting here specifically: I'm not a licensed pilot and I didn't finish ATC training. Every scenario is drafted from the TC AIM, the NAV CANADA VFR Phraseology guide and the CFS, and each one cites its sources in the app - but no instructor has reviewed it yet. If you instruct, or you've flown long enough to wince at a bad call, I want every single thing it gets wrong. There's a feedback box in the app, or just reply here.

(Fair warning: it's on my personal API budget, so there's a per-person daily cap. If it says it's at capacity, that's the day's budget gone - resets overnight UTC.)

Two things I most want to know: does it sound like talking to a real controller and does it teach anything that's actually wrong?

[Bede]

Very cool. Well done.

[aviator_12]

Thank you for trying it out, really appreciate it!