How long to wait when you hear silence?

[ajs]

Yesterday I took off from Bakersfield with flight following and was handed off to departure. Immediately after the frequency change, there was an emergency which probably involved a minute or two of comms so I waited that out. I was about to check in with departure, when the controller said "[callsign], say again" (not to the emergency aircraft). I probably waited about 10 seconds and heard nothing, so I made my radio call, which was promptly followed by a scolding from the controller for interrupting. Apparently the other calling aircraft was out of range so I was unaware that someone was speaking on frequency. After the controller got back to me he said "did you see how that exchange with that other plane took about 45 seconds?" and repeated how I need to wait before jumping in.

I totally get that I was in the wrong (and probably will be until I have a lot more experience ), but I'm curious as to how much time I should wait from when ATC says "say again" until I make my call when I hear nothing on frequency?

Thanks so much for the help (and apologies to anyone I inconvenienced with my rookie mistakes)
AJS

[Keith Smith]

AJS,

Some circumstances are more subtle than others. There's not quite enough info to know what happened here without the audio recording of the flight. All you need to know as you get started is there will be times when you cannot hear some of the other pilots that the controller is working. As such, you need to listen carefully to what they're saying to determine if they're in the middle of an exchange (ie, it's likely that a pilot is reading back at a time when you're calling). Since you hadn't yet called (you said an emergency was going on when you tuned in, so I'm guessing you hadn't made an initial call to departure), and the controller specifically asked another aircraft (with a callsign that wasn't yours ) to say again, then I'd say it's reasonable to assume the other plane is calling, and to wait to hear the controller address and finish up with that aircraft.

This doesn't happen as much in real world, proportionally speaking for the duration of a flight, but it absolutely does happen under common circumstances, at least for some periods of time. So, it's a good skill to build. Don't take it too hard. Keep it in mind and keep flying.

[ajs]

Thanks for the info. Follow-up question, which I'm guessing is just as applicable in the real world: what if this happens, say, after taking off from a class Bravo airport? Do I not need to worry about checking in immediately because they should have me on radar anyway, so if there's a traffic issue they'd let me know?

[Kevin_atc]

Thanks for the info. Follow-up question, which I'm guessing is just as applicable in the real world: what if this happens, say, after taking off from a class Bravo airport? Do I not need to worry about checking in immediately because they should have me on radar anyway, so if there's a traffic issue they'd let me know?

If you’re departing IFR and you haven’t been switched to departure within about 90 seconds after takeoff, just say something like “N123 is climbing through 3000” just to alert the controller in case they are distracted with something else.