VFR Radio Calls: A Worked Flight

A VFR flight from a controlled aerodrome is a chain of short radio exchanges, and each has a fixed shape: which station is named first, what the first call contains, which items come back in a readback and which are only acknowledged. VFR radio calls built on those patterns are short, predictable and hard to misunderstand, which leaves the pilot free to keep flying and looking outside.

This article follows one flight, a light airplane flying VFR between two controlled aerodromes in Europe, through every call from the ATIS to the report after landing, and gives the rule behind each. The phrasing follows ICAO's PANS-ATM and Annex 10 as applied in the European Union by the Standardised European Rules of the Air (SERA). The aerodromes, frequencies and reporting points are invented for the example; on a real flight the AIP and each aerodrome's visual approach chart give the frequencies, entry and exit points and local procedures, and those take precedence. The general vocabulary is in radiotelephony phraseology, the ground and tower phrases in aerodrome control phraseology.

Before you transmit

G-ABCD, a Piper PA-28, will fly VFR from Northfield to Eastbury. Both aerodromes have a tower and a Class D control zone; Northfield also broadcasts an ATIS. Between them the route crosses uncontrolled airspace where Central Information provides flight information service (FIS). The pilot lists the frequencies in the order of use:

Preparation also means reading the AIP's local procedures, which can be exacting. Toulouse Blagnac asks VFR arrivals to read the ATIS and call Toulouse Information at least 5 minutes before the entry points; Nantes Atlantique asks departing pilots to state the exit point they want on first contact with the tower.

Before each call the pilot listens, so as not to transmit over someone else, decides what to say, then presses the switch, pauses and speaks. The initial call names the station called first and the aircraft second, with the full call sign, which is used again on first contact with each new unit. The pilot shortens G-ABCD to G-CD, its first character and last two, only after the controller has done so. A call that gets no answer is repeated after at least 10 seconds. Numbers follow the standard rules: 2,500 ft is "two thousand five hundred feet" and 118.305 is "one one eight decimal three zero five" (see radiotelephony transmitting technique). Calls are made in English or, where the State allows, in its own language, and the pilot needs a language proficiency endorsement for the language used; France, for example, permits French at all its aerodromes. If the radio fails, a VFR flight squawks 7600, continues in visual conditions, lands at the nearest suitable aerodrome and reports its arrival (see radio communication failure).

ATIS and start-up

The ATIS is heard before the first call. Quoting its letter tells the controller which edition the aircraft holds, so only later changes need be passed; without a letter, the controller reads the information out. An ATIS is a broadcast, never a clearance, and its wind, like the tower's, is magnetic. Of its contents only the transition level, when given, must be read back; the letter covers the rest. Where no ATIS exists, the controller passes departure information: runway, wind, QNH, temperature and, if relevant, visibility or RVR.

The QNH passed by Ground is an altimeter setting, so it comes back in the readback. Start-up replies include START UP APPROVED, START UP AT (time), EXPECT START UP AT (time) and START UP AT OWN DISCRETION; taxi is requested separately. Pre-flight calls vary: at Toulouse Blagnac a VFR aircraft departing without a filed flight plan first submits a flight notice on the DELIVERY frequency.

Taxi and takeoff

The runway designator must be read back; reading back the taxi route as well is good practice, and the FAA recommends it. Had the route crossed another runway, the instruction would have had to include a crossing clearance or an instruction to hold short, answered "holding short" with the runway; a taxi clearance never implies authority to cross a runway. CONTACT means change frequency and call; MONITOR means change and listen without calling. Either way the new frequency is read back before the change.

At the holding point the pilot reports "ready for departure", never "ready for takeoff": the word takeoff is kept for the clearance itself and its cancellation. LINE UP AND WAIT is not a takeoff clearance. The zone departure clearance, with its route, altitude limit and code, is read back in full, as is the takeoff clearance with its runway. The wind is only acknowledged.

Leaving the control zone

Inside the Class D zone the flight needs a clearance and two-way radio, and it receives traffic information on other flights, IFR and VFR, with traffic avoidance advice on request, but no separation from either. The clearance limits it to 1,500 ft until it has left the zone at Echo. A request to report is acknowledged with WILCO, which means will comply and already contains ROGER; the report itself follows at the point. Beyond the zone lies Class G, where a VFR flight needs no clearance and flight information service is available on request.

The SSR code and the frequency are both read back. In Europe 7000 is the VFR conspicuity code whenever no code has been assigned; the French AIP, for example, prescribes it in the flight information regions of metropolitan France (see transponder codes and squawk phraseology).

Flight information service and position reports

Here the first call only establishes contact, and the message follows the reply. PASS YOUR MESSAGE invites the pilot to transmit and grants nothing else. The message gives the items SERA requires in the initial call before entering a radio mandatory zone, namely aircraft type, position, level and intentions, followed by the request.

Flight information service gives advice and information useful to the flight, such as weather, the serviceability of aids and aerodromes and known traffic, and with it comes alerting service. It issues no clearances and separates no one, and traffic information covers only the traffic the unit knows about, so the lookout stays the primary defense. Traffic information is acknowledged, never read back: "looking out", then "traffic in sight", or "negative contact".

A position report follows ICAO's order: call sign, position, time, level, and the next point with its estimate; the full IFR form adds the ensuing significant point. The time is normally the minutes past the hour, each digit spoken, so 1027 is "two seven" (see position reports and required reports). VHF works by line of sight, so at low level, especially in valleys, a station only tens of miles away may hear nothing until the aircraft climbs; the Nantes chart warns that radio contact may be lost at the eastern limits of its flight information sector below 2,500 ft.

Joining the destination circuit

The call is made early enough for the clearance to arrive before the entry point, because a VFR flight may not enter Class D airspace until cleared. The QNH has changed from 1018 to 1017; reading it back shows the controller the new figure arrived, and the altimeter is reset.

Joining instructions give the position in the circuit and the runway, with the surface wind and QNH, and the temperature and traffic as required; here the wind and QNH came with the zone clearance. MAKE STRAIGHT-IN APPROACH replaces them when no circuit is to be flown. Unless the AIP, a ground signal or ATC says otherwise, circuits are left-hand. The downwind report is call sign, position and intention, such as "full stop" or "touch and go" (see aerodrome traffic and circuits). At an aerodrome with an AFIS the officer passes the runway, wind, QNH and known traffic but no instructions, and the pilot decides how to join (see communications at non-towered aerodromes).

Landing and after landing

FINAL is reported when the aircraft turns onto final within 4 NM (7 km) of touchdown. One turning on further out reports LONG FINAL, and a straight-in arrival reports long final at 8 NM (15 km), then final at 4 NM. The landing clearance is read back with its runway; GO AROUND would be answered "going around". The runway is vacated only when every part of the aircraft is beyond the runway-holding position, and an instruction such as WHEN VACATED CONTACT GROUND is carried out only once clear.

If a flight plan covered the whole flight, an arrival report closes it at the earliest possible moment after landing, in person, by radio or by data link; at an aerodrome with no ATS unit it goes to the nearest one by the quickest means available. A plan left open starts alerting action, the uncertainty phase being declared when an aircraft has not arrived within 30 minutes of the last notified estimated time of arrival.

Readbacks in this flight

A readback is the repetition of a clearance or instruction, or of its safety-related parts, by the station that received it, so that the sender can check it was understood. Under SERA.8015 the pilot reads back route clearances, runway clearances and instructions, the runway in use, altimeter settings, SSR codes, new frequencies, level, heading and speed instructions and transition levels, ending with the call sign, and the controller corrects any discrepancy at once. On this flight that meant:

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Library articles are written for study and exam preparation. They do not replace your aircraft's approved documentation, your operator's procedures or the regulations themselves.