proper phraseology for clearance deliv?

TXaviator

Well-Known Member
Ok, my noobiness is showing here:

In my training I never once flew to an airport that had clearance delivery position. (yes, great job UND.)

OK so i get to my job interview at KDAB and im like hrm, guess theres clearance delivery here.... key the mic and gave something trying to sound like i knew what i was doing

"uhhh clearance delivery, skyhawk 1234 is at Commonwealth Aviation ready to taxi, VFR departure to the north"

it worked, they gave me a squawk and said contact ground.

was my guesstimation of verbage accurate? whats the proper way to contact clearance delivery? what do i need to tell them/ask them?
 
This is how I do it:

VFR:

"Daytona Clearance Skyhawk 172 at FBO, with Whiskey, VFR to the north, 5,500."

IFR:

"Daytona Clearance Falcon 100 at FBO, with Whiskey, IFR to Miami."

Depending on the airport, I may leave out the FBO on the call to CD - like our home airport for instance, since they usually know who/where we are.
 
you could prob leave out the ready to taxi part bc clearance doesn't need to know that. every airport is different...just because a tower has a clearance position, doesn't mean that you need to contact them. if you are vfr and you are in class delta, best thing for you to do is just contact fss for a vfr flight plan, then close it out when you land at the next airport. most vfr class delta towers don't issue vfr clearances, they just clear you for take off, once you get five miles away, they are done with you....if you want, you can always have atc activate your vfr flight plan with fss and also close it out once you get on the ground, just ask and they should do it...whenever possible it is always good to file with fss, because you can give them info for SAR purposes, such as ete, eta, fuel on board, persons, color a/c, pilot name....atc can only put in limited information for you...if your a/c goes down and you filed VFR through atc and you are not talking to atc at the present time, you could have some issues with people SAR being able to track you down.

but...you can always request anything with atc...if they can do it and they have time, and aren't a jerk they should hook you up.
 
What I use.
"N926SM,Portland,Delta"

I maybe start with saying clearance if they do not have their own frequency but if the have a clearance freq I leave that out because they know who they are then I just in a few words say my callsign,the name of where I am going and the ATIS. Why waste time and effort saying a bunch of stuff they dont want to hear anyway. Its a win win. I say next to nothing and get what I want faster and they give me what I want faster and go back to reading the paper.
 
"Good morning clearance, King Air N224X ready to copy IFR to Tampa."


Works every time. If you try to sound professional in what you are doing it won't really matter what you say. I once heard one of our controllers rip into a student pilot for using improper phraseology. They even told him to consult his AIM. Not two minutes later I heard a police chopper say this exact phrase: "Ground, Airhawk 7, whiskey, west". Moral of the story, don't sound like you're new to this.
 
Don't waste clearance's time either though, or the other 5 people waiting to get clearance if it is busy.

At denver I just say 'Denver Clearance, Air Shuttle 7097, Aspen.' Its worked every time so far.

When I'm flying with my mom or something VFR in a Cessna I say something like: 'Clearance, Cessna N1234 at Nayak with information Romeo, VFR to the south 2,500ft.'
 
This is how I do it:

VFR:

"Daytona Clearance Skyhawk 172 at FBO, with Whiskey, VFR to the north, 5,500."

IFR:

"Daytona Clearance Falcon 100 at FBO, with Whiskey, IFR to Miami."

Depending on the airport, I may leave out the FBO on the call to CD - like our home airport for instance, since they usually know who/where we are.

Can you tell who the trainees are at Chatt? We've got some "special" ones...
 
even at a Class D that has clearance, you should always request flight following. A good example is at MFD, it is just a regular class D, but they run their own approach and departure (there is not a clearance delivery there). If you just contact ground for taxi, they just taxi you, and once you take off, they just tell you frequency change approved once you leave class D. If you request flight following from ground, it is essentially like talking to clearance, they give you a squawk and departure frequency. Flight following is also a good idea regardless. A flight plan is good for creating a paper trail, but if you have an engine failure, and go down somewhere 10 minutes into a 3 hour flight, a flight plan doesn't do you a whole lot of good for another 3 hours and 20 minutes (and that is only when they start the SAR), but with flight following, you advice ATC, they can give you vectors to the nearest airport, plus if you can't make it to an airport, the proper people are notified immediately, not 3 hours later. I personally do not file vfr flight plans unless it is required for the flight. I would much rather just use flight following, plus a flight plan won't give you traffic advisories either. To protect yourself the most, though, file the flight plan, and use flight following!
 
even at a Class D that has clearance, you should always request flight following. A good example is at MFD, it is just a regular class D, but they run their own approach and departure (there is not a clearance delivery there). If you just contact ground for taxi, they just taxi you, and once you take off, they just tell you frequency change approved once you leave class D. If you request flight following from ground, it is essentially like talking to clearance, they give you a squawk and departure frequency. Flight following is also a good idea regardless. A flight plan is good for creating a paper trail, but if you have an engine failure, and go down somewhere 10 minutes into a 3 hour flight, a flight plan doesn't do you a whole lot of good for another 3 hours and 20 minutes (and that is only when they start the SAR), but with flight following, you advice ATC, they can give you vectors to the nearest airport, plus if you can't make it to an airport, the proper people are notified immediately, not 3 hours later. I personally do not file vfr flight plans unless it is required for the flight. I would much rather just use flight following, plus a flight plan won't give you traffic advisories either. To protect yourself the most, though, file the flight plan, and use flight following!

Just to clarify a bit here, just because there is no published clearance delivery frequency doesn't mean there isn't a clearance delivery position. I'll use WDG (Woodring in Enid, OK) since I used to work there. We didn't have a freq. for clearance however if you were IFR and had a flight plan on file you could call up on ground and receive your clearance there. Ground and clearance were combined at all times and never split. Secondly, we were class D and had no ability to enter a flight plan into the NAS for VFR flight following (we just lacked the equipment) so instead we cleared the aircraft for takeoff and then told them to advise departure of their request. Just as a heads up that not every staffed tower has the ability to actually input your flight following into the system but at towers with the ability, definitely make your request known that you want to be put into the system for flight following. Otherwise, you're usually going to get dropped as you cross the boundary.

HD
 
Ok, my noobiness is showing here:

In my training I never once flew to an airport that had clearance delivery position. (yes, great job UND.)

OK so i get to my job interview at KDAB and im like hrm, guess theres clearance delivery here.... key the mic and gave something trying to sound like i knew what i was doing

"uhhh clearance delivery, skyhawk 1234 is at Commonwealth Aviation ready to taxi, VFR departure to the north"

Well at least you went the right direction form GFK- DAB. What job were you applying for if you dont mind me asking?
 
Might depend on where you are, too. At KAUS, they want your aircraft type and they do want to know what FBO you're at. So my calls are like this,

"Austin Clearance, Cessna 1234 is a 152 at Atlantic, with (ATIS) VFR Llano (or wherever) four thousand, five hundred."

They're cool with that. If they're pretty busy I'll just call em' up and wait for them to acknowledge me.
 
"Good morning clearance, King Air N224X ready to copy IFR to Tampa."


Works every time. If you try to sound professional in what you are doing it won't really matter what you say. I once heard one of our controllers rip into a student pilot for using improper phraseology. They even told him to consult his AIM. Not two minutes later I heard a police chopper say this exact phrase: "Ground, Airhawk 7, whiskey, west". Moral of the story, don't sound like you're new to this.
I'm guessing they figure it's best to get to the students to try to influence change, though I'd argue he went about addressing the situation with the student the wrong way...


As for the question, I use what JDE posted:
Originally Posted by JDE
This is how I do it:

VFR:

"Daytona Clearance Skyhawk 172 at FBO, with Whiskey, VFR to the north, 5,500."

IFR:

"Daytona Clearance Falcon 100 at FBO, with Whiskey, IFR to Miami."

Depending on the airport, I may leave out the FBO on the call to CD - like our home airport for instance, since they usually know who/where we are.
 
Ok, my noobiness is showing here:

In my training I never once flew to an airport that had clearance delivery position. (yes, great job UND.)

OK so i get to my job interview at KDAB and im like hrm, guess theres clearance delivery here.... key the mic and gave something trying to sound like i knew what i was doing

"uhhh clearance delivery, skyhawk 1234 is at Commonwealth Aviation ready to taxi, VFR departure to the north"

it worked, they gave me a squawk and said contact ground.

was my guesstimation of verbage accurate? whats the proper way to contact clearance delivery? what do i need to tell them/ask them?
thats too bad. in the sims if we don't go to an airport that has CD, i always make my students run thru that kind of stuff. all the stuff i was never exposed to as a student i make my student do.

you got it right for the most part, as others have already stated.
 
Does nobody use the phrase, "clearance on request"?

Example:

"Reno ground, Dice 11, IFR to Tonopah, clearance on request, ready to copy."

Maybe that's just a military habit, but that's how I was taught.
 
sooo its

"who am i....where am i...what i want to do"

right?
yup


Hacker15e said:
Does nobody use the phrase, "clearance on request"?

Example:

"Reno ground, Dice 11, IFR to Tonopah, clearance on request, ready to copy."

Maybe that's just a military habit, but that's how I was taught.

i have heard that from ground control, but never used it myself.

example:

Ground : "Sioux 99 taxi to 35L, clearance on request"
 
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