Big city airport

1. After listening to the ATIS information, tune your com radio to the ground frequency. Listen for a few seconds before keying the mic to make sure you do not step on a transmission. Say your call sign, where you are, your direction of travel, that you are a VFR flight, and the phonetic letter of the ATIS: “Big City Ground, Piper One-Two-Three November Charlie at the FBO, west bound, VFR, with Charlie.” Some towered airports do not have ATIS and use AWOS or ASOS for weather. In this case, tell ground you have “the weather.”
   
   Ground will give you taxi instructions, sometimes complicated ones. It’s best to write the instructions down, and they will make more sense if you are looking at a taxi diagram. “Piper One-Two-Three November Charlie, Big City Ground. Taxi to Runway Three Six via Taxiway Bravo, Taxiway Alpha.” You are expected to read the instructions back to ground to confirm your understanding. Your readback should include the runway number, assigned route, and call sign. If you are asked to hold short of a runway, you must include that in your readback. It’s better to take your time and be accurate rather than hurry and miss an instruction. Speed and concise phraseology will come with practice. “Taxi Runway Three Six via Alpha, Bravo, Piper One-Two-Three November Charlie.” If your readback is correct, the controller will say nothing, and you can begin taxiing. If incorrect, the controller will correct you and you’ll need to read back again.
2. If at any time during taxi you are unsure of where you are supposed to go, stop and ask the ground controller for clarification. You can also ask ground for a “progressive taxi,” during which the ground controller will tell you exactly when to turn right, turn left, and stop, to help you taxi to your destination without making a wrong turn.
3. Once you arrive at the run-up area, tune your com radio to the tower frequency to start building a mental picture of what’s happening in the air around you. Complete your pre-takeoff check and taxi to the runway hold short line. Say your call sign, where you are holding short and runway number, that you are ready for takeoff, and direction of departure: “Big City Tower, Piper One-Two-Three November Charlie, holding short Runway Three-Six at Alpha, ready for takeoff, departure to the west.” Tower might say, “Piper One-Two-Three November Charlie, Big City Tower, Runway Three-Six, cleared for takeoff, left turn to the west approved.” You must acknowledge the takeoff clearance including the runway number: “Cleared for takeoff, Three-Six, Piper One-Two-Three November Charlie.”
4. After landing, the tower controller will often ask, “Piper One-Two-Three November Charlie, say parking.” You’ll say, “Piper One-Two-Three November Charlie is going to the FBO.” Tower might say, “Piper One-Two-Three November Charlie, Big City Tower, turn left on Taxiway Alpha, taxi to the ramp, monitor ground.” Again, you must repeat the full route: “Alpha to the ramp, Piper One-Two-Three November Charlie.” Tower will not always give you the ground control frequency, so you should have it readily available and tune it as soon as you cross the runway hold short line exiting the runway. It’s a good idea to pre-populate your standby com frequency with the ground frequency so all you have to do is select the “swap” button at the tower’s request. Sometimes tower will say, “remain my frequency,” which means you will not switch to ground at all during taxi.
5. When the airport is busy, tower may not ask where you are parking. You should exit the runway at the first practical taxiway, cross the runway hold short line, stop the aircraft, and once you complete your after-landing checklist, call tower for taxi instructions. Tower may tell you to call ground for taxi instructions. Do not begin taxiing until you have received and read back taxi instructions from either tower or ground.

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