What the SRG1171 is, and who can sign it

The SRG1171 is the CAA form that records your radiotelephony training and applies for the licence at the end of it. Most of it you fill in yourself. One section you cannot, and who is allowed to sign that section decides who you can train with.

What the form does

It is two jobs in one document: a record that the training happened, and the application for the Flight Radiotelephony Operator’s Licence. That is why it needs a signature from someone other than you. A record nobody stands behind is not a record.

It sits alongside the two halves of the FRTOL itself: the written exam and the practical test. The form is the paperwork that turns a pass into a licence, so it is worth understanding before you book anything, not after.

Who may sign Section 4

Section 4 is signed by the person responsible for your radiotelephony training. The CAA recognises three kinds of trainer, and every one of them must also hold English Language Proficiency Level 6.

Note what is not on that list: a school, a company, an app. The qualification is personal. It belongs to a named individual with a certificate or licence number, not to the organisation they work for, and it is that person’s name that goes in the box.

Where TowerTalk fits, and where it does not

Worth being plain about, because this is the question people arrive with.

TowerTalk does not sign your form: It is a training aid. It is not an ATO, not a DTO, and not a person with a certificate number. No amount of practice here produces a signature.
Your instructor might, through TowerTalk: A flying school using the Academy side can record a qualified trainer of their own, and that named person can sign for their own students. The entitlement is theirs, not ours — we only carry the record.
What practice here is actually for: Turning up to the practical already fluent, so the test is a formality rather than the first time you have said any of it out loud.

Finding someone to train and test with

If you are not already with a school, the next question is who runs the practical. That is covered separately.

How to find an FRTOL examiner →

Practise this at your airfield

Reading it is the easy half. Pick your own airfield, with its real frequencies and today’s weather, and say these calls out loud until they stop being something you remember and start being something you do.

Find your airfield →

Written from the same vetted study data the app uses, and checked against it on 11 September 2026. TowerTalk is a training aid: your instructor and your examiner are the authority on whether you are ready.