About this Document

This is a reference document to the Study_Guide:Delivery.

The complete tutorial is the Study_Guide.
The overview for radio telephony is Study_Guide:Radio_Telephony.
The next reference document is Study_Guide:Radio_Telephony:GND.

These pages are still at work. Comments, corrections and additions are welcome!

Contact and handover

Radio check

Sometimes, pilots come up first with a radio check:

AUA251: Delivery, AUA251, Radio Check
ATC: Austrian 251, Wien Delivery, read you 5 by 5

(where the numbers mean "loud" and "clear": 1 by 5 is very low, but clear; 5 by 1 means very loud, but almost unreadable.)

Mostly, contact is already integrated into the first request, i.e. the clearance (see #Clearances below).

Handover/Handoff

Handover is short and integrated into the last ATC message, once the work is done:

ATC: Speedbird xxx, readback correct, contact Ground 121,6.
BAAxxx: Contacting Ground 121,6, bye.

If there is no ATC above, then handoff to UNICOM:

ATC: Speedbird xxx, readback correct, no more ATC available, monitor UNICOM 122.8 [, push, taxi and departure at your discretion].
BAAxxx, monitoring UNICOM 122.8, bye

Clearances

Standard clearance

AUA251: Wien Delivery, Austrian 251 [guten Abend], gate C31, Fokker 100, requesting clearance to Munich, Info A [on board].
Syntax= <called station>, <myself>, <position>, <aircraft>, <request>, <ATIS information received>

ATC: Austrian 251, [Wien] Delivery [servus], cleared München SITNI4C, [climb 5000ft,] squawk 4600, info A [correct].
Syntax= <calling station>, <myself>, <clearance destination>, <SID>, [<init. climb altitude>], <squawk>, [<ATIS confirmation>]

(Wien Delivery does not need to say initial climb altitude - it's in the charts. 90% of all aircraft ask or mess it up, so you might as well say it right away.

On very busy events (like Finally Austria), Wien Delivery can put in his/her ATIS line:

Wien Delivery: Report ready for clearance callsign-only

Then it comes down to:

AUA251: Delivery, AUA251
ATC: Austrian 251, Delivery, cleared München SITNI4C, squawk 4600, Info A.

Incomplete/wrong readback

On incomplete or wrong clearance, the wrong part is repeated:

AUA251: Delivery, AUA251
ATC: Austrian 251, Delivery, cleared München SITNI4C, squawk 4600, Info A.
AUA251: cleared München SITNI2C, squawk 4600, Info A received.
ATC: Austrian 251, confirm SITNI4C.
AUA251: SITNI4C, Austrian 251.
ATC: Austrian 251, readback correct, contact Ground 121,6.

Flight plan corrections

ATC: Austrian 251, you need an odd flight level, do you request 210 or 230?
AUA251: Flight level 210, Austrian 251.
ATC: Austrian 251, flight plan amended with flight level 210, cleared Frankfurt SITNI4C, Squawk 4600, info A.
AUA251: Flight plan amended Flight level 210, cleared Frankfurt SITNI4C, Squawk 4600, Info A on board.

Clearance modifications

In some cases, clearances have to be modified due to changing runways or clearance altitudes. Most likely, it is GND or TWR who do this, but still it is a clearance chage:

ATC: Austrian 251, re-cleared SITNI5B runway 34, rest of clearance unchanged.
AUA251: re-cleared SITNI5B, Austrian 251.

ATC: Austrian 251, initial clearance altitude 4000ft
AUA251: cleared 5000ft, Austrian 251.

More Information

The matching Study Guide to this page is Study_Guide:Delivery.
The previous Radio Telephony reference is Study_Guide:Radio_Telephony.
The next Radio Telephony reference is Study_Guide:Radio_Telephony:GND.

Study Guide:Radio Telephony:DEL

Contents