And still, to this day, there are more radio-free airplanes than you might expect. There’s even an official designation for flying radio-free. It’s NORDO for NO-RaDiO. That term appears in the Pilot/Controller Glossary and it applies to aircraft that cannot communicate by radio, whether because the equipment has failed or because it was never installed. And while airplanes that never had radios actually get a hall pass on many of the controlled airspace requirements for radio communications, intentionally NORDO aircraft are more commonly found at nontowered fields.

In fact, I was inadvertently flying NORDO just the other day. I had had some tech trouble with my installed radios, so I attached one of the new generation of powerful portables to my antenna, and fastened a temporary push-to-talk switch to my yoke. It worked great when I tested it. But in flight, out of habit, my thumb went straight to the built-in switch, not its stunt double, and no one heard any of my radio calls as I flew into a busy nontowered field for Sunday brunch.

While it was not my intent to be NORDO, it worked out fine, because all of us in the pattern were following the proper procedures for a nontowered airport. NORDO aircraft are one of the reasons for these procedures, which provide for an orderly flow of aircraft in and out of airports. These procedures include a set place to enter, a set pattern to fly, standardized distances and altitudes, an agreed-upon place to turn, and a set way of coming in for landing.

You follow the procedures, observe other aircraft around you, adjust your speed accordingly, and mind your manners. It’s the aviation equivalent of defensive driving.

While radio calls are nice, in the strictest sense, they aren’t required. Not that I’m saying we should all throw our radios out the window, but always keep in mind: Since you have no real way of knowing whether someone in the pattern is NORDO (for whatever reason), you should always fly as if someone is.