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3 Answers

VFR Clearance Delivery

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Airspace, General Aviation, Student Pilot

I'm based at a small airport (KSQL) with no clearance delivery frequency. Thus, whenever I want to go somewhere, I simply tell ground control and get my information from him. However, I'll soon be flying out of an airport with a clearance delivery frequency (KSJC). It's an area airport that I've flown to before with my CFI, but I've never actually landed there– I've only done transitions. However, soon, I'll land there, meet a friend, and eventually leave. I'll want flight following so I can make transitions through some smaller airports' airspace along the way (a routine procedure that area controllers and pilots call "tower-to-tower flight following") but I've never heard of anybody getting this from the clearance delivery controller. Do I contact ground for my squawk code and expected frequency, like I would at KSQL, or do I contact clearance delivery? I only ask because it seems like something a clearance delivery controller would do, yet I don't know.   Also, because SJC is a class C airport, should I contact clearance delivery for departure instructions (Remain south of ___, remain at or below ____, etc...), or should I just take off and do what the tower controller tells me to do?  

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3 Answers



  1. David Vancina on Sep 18, 2015

    I’m not a CFI but since no one’s answered so far… My understanding is that the Clearance Delivery frequency is only for getting IFR clearances. VFR at a towered airport you just get your taxi instructions from Ground, and you can let them and/or tower know you’ll want flight following after departure. Should be pretty much the same as KSQL, but a longer taxi. 😉

    LiveATC is a huge help for this kind of thing, IMO. Listen to the KSJC radio chatter for a while and you’ll figure out how the procedures are handled there pretty quickly, I bet.

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  2. David on Sep 19, 2015

    I’m based at KAUS, which is Class C with a clearance delivery freq. the ATIS makes it clear that both VFR and IFR flights are to contact clearance before taxi to get a squawk code and departure frequency.

    If in doubt after listening to the KSJC ATIS, just call clearance and tell them who you are, where you are, and what you want. Eg:

    You: San Jose Clearance Delivery, N1234A

    SJC: N1234A, San Jose Clearance Delivery, Good day.

    You: N1234A at Atlantic, Foxtrot, VFR Palo Alto, Three thousand five hundred.

    They will sort you out.

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  3. Mark Kolber on Sep 20, 2015

    Good answer by David.

    For VFR departures from Class B airports, plan to contact CD since, after all, you are going to get the required Class B clearance in order to depart.

    Class C may have the widest variation and the ATIS “should” advise you whether or not to call CD for your departure instructions. If in doubt – not on the ATIS and you haven’t gotten some advice from a local pilot, the general rule I’ve followed is to call CD. So far, in 20+ years, I haven’t been corrected.

    Class D is the opposite. It is rare for a Class D airport to ask VFR pilots to contact CD. And when they do, it should be on the ATIS. If it isn’ don’t bother them.

    There is actually one more. Some Class E and G airports, primarily near Class B airspace, have CD frequencies. – an example is Ft Collins/Loveland (KFNL), a Class E surface area that has become busy enough with corporate traffic to merit a dedicated CD frequency. That, too, perhaps obviously, is for IFR clearances.

    Helping to get a handle on the variety is understanding what CD is. It is just a device to divide labor in the Tower. Just like towered airports divide Ground from Local Control (what we refer to as “Tower”), some will further divide Ground in to Ground and CD stations. It’s really just to free up Ground to handle aircraft in motion on the ground without also having to read and confirm IFR clearances.

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