Cessna 3 Foxtrot Echo, fly heading 240, maintain three thousand three hundred until established, cleared ILS 27 right.
This may sound like a lot, so make things easy on yourself by reading back the clearance and put your tail number last. Many pilots make things more difficult by reading back their tail number first.
Cessna 3 Foxtrot Echo, turn right 240, maintain ... ah ... please repeat the altitude to maintain?
Putting your tail number first can interfere with your short-term memory register just enough that you forget parts of the instruction you're trying to repeat. I've seen this countless times. So repeat the instructions and then just read the tail number off the placard on your instrument panel. This is a great way to reduce your workload, especially when you fly different aircraft on a regular basis.
Heading 240, three thousand three hundred until established, cleared ILS two seven right, Cessna 3 Foxtrot Echo.
When you are handed off by one controller to another frequency, don't check in with just your tail number.
Oakland Center, Cessna 123 Foxtrot Echo.
If you do this, the new controller might not recognize your tail number (even though they accepted the handoff) and think you are making a courtesy call: You want to request services, but you are not yet in the system with an assigned squawk code. Instead, check-in with your full tail number (minus the November) and your altitude. If you're checking in with the approach controller who will ultimately provide your approach clearance (e.g. the approach control frequency listed on your approach chart), add your approach request and the ATIS letter for the airport where you are landing.
Oakland Center, Cessna 123 Foxtrot Echo, four thousand.Or ...
Santa Barbara approach, Cessna 123 Foxtrot Echo, request the ILS runway seven, information Hotel.
If you are trying to get in the system, using the facility's name is like shaking hands when you introduce yourself. If you use the facility name correctly and the controller responds, you do not need to mention the facility name again.
Seattle center, Cessna 123 Foxtrot Echo.
Cessna 123 Foxtrot Echo, Seattle Center, say request.
Cessna 123 Foxtrot Echo, a 172 slant Golf, 14 miles southeast of North Bend, four thousand five hundred, request practice ILS four, full stop, with the one minute weather.
Cessna 3 Foxtrot Echo, squawk 5342 and ident ...
If you are requesting a practice approach in VFR conditions, let the controller know how the approach will terminate. Doing so will save the controller time and prevent them from having to ask you when you are busy programming your GPS or answering an existential question just posed to you by your instructor.
Norcal, Cessna 123 Foxtrot Echo, five thousand five hundred, request Sac Executive ILS two practice approach, multiple approaches, information Bravo.
If you are requesting a practice approach and you want to fly the full approach with a procedure turn, let the controller know when you request the approach.
Travis approach, Cessna 123 Foxtrot Echo, three thousand five hundred, request the Concord LDA one niner right, pilot nav, information Bravo.
Handed off to the tower on an approach, many pilots like to use the phrase "outside the marker," perhaps because they think it sounds cool. I think that phrase is like "clear of the active:" It's not very descriptive because there may be multiple approaches to multiple runways at the airport. I've even heard pilots use this phrase when the approach no longer has an outer marker (the FAA is decommissioning OMs at an alarming rate). It used to be that if an airport had an approach with a marker beacon, it was likely the only approach to that runway, but with the creation of RNAV approaches this is no longer the case. So do the controller a favor and tell them the name of the approach you are flying. It's easy - just read your tail number off the placard on your instrument panel, then read the title of the approach off the chart.
Concord tower, Cessna 123 Foxtrot Echo, LDA one niner right practice approach, request touch-and-go, then back to Travis.
In a non-radar environment, the tower will ask you to report the final approach fix and that is a great time to do your Five Tees - Time, Turn, Twist, Throttle Talk. Remember that reporting the final approach fix to the tower is your last priority. Some tower controllers get very talkative with pilots who are inside the final approach fix. If the tower is bugging you with trivial stuff, don't hesitate to tell them to standby.
When beginning the missed approach at a towered airport, remember to tell the tower. And keep it simple. You've already checked in with them so you do not need to say the name of the facility, just tell them what you are doing:
Cessna 3 Foxtrot Echo, missed approach.
When flying an approach into a non-towered airport where you plan to fly the missed approach, remember that the approach controller will have to radar identify you again. Many pilots do this check-in as follows:
Norcal, Cessna 123 Foxtrot Echo on the missed at Tracy.
A bunch of words that omit the main information the controller needs: your altitude and the altitude to which you are climbing.
Norcal, Cessna 123 Foxtrot Echo, niner hundred, climbing two thousand.Have your finger poised over the ident button on your transponder when departing a non-towered airport because the controller will respond:
Cessna 123 Foxtrot Echo, Norcal approach, ident.
Remember that you don't have to read back the instruction to ident, just press the ident button.
You'll know you've done a good job giving the controller the needed information when the controller responds:
Cessna 123 Foxtrot Echo, Norcal approach, roger.
