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2 Answers

What does ATC Phrase “On The Go” mean?

Asked by: 4917 views General Aviation

Approaching a Class D airport I requested two touch and goes and a departure to the north.  Once instructed to enter a right base for the directed runway tower said, "Runway 26 cleared touch and go, left closed traffic, on the go..."

A few days later at a Class C with a friend in his Mooney we  asked for a practice RNAV approach and departure back to another airport.  We were eventually "cleared for the RNAV Runway 17L approach on the go..."

I've asked several old heads what this means and nobody has ever heard of it.  Not finding this in any ATC glossary,

Thanks

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2 Answers



  1. Bryan on Jun 29, 2022

    It is in the radio controller glossary–kind of. In the glossary you will find “go around,” “touch-and-go,” and “stop-and-go.” Furthermore, “cleared for the option” includes all three options involving a “go” and it’s not much of a stretch to call going missed on a practice approach a “go around” because for the controller, there isn’t much difference.

    In all cases, the “go” means the same thing–departing the runway environment. You might be headed back into the pattern. You might be departing VFR. You might be climbing via an obstacle clearance or SID. You might be proceeding to your first waypoint on an IFR flight plan. There are a lot of possibilities. So in order to give you that next instruction after you leave the runway, ATC tells you to do something when you are in that “go” phase by saying, “on the go…”

    So for your Class D example, the punctuation would be, “Runway 26, cleared touch-and-go, left closed traffic on the go.” The meaning is, once you take off again (the “go”), make left traffic.

    In your Class C example, you told the controller you were doing a practice RNAV followed by a departure to another airport. “Cleared for the RNAV Runway 17L approach,” told you you could do the approach. “On the go…” was followed by some instruction regarding the departure because unless the practice approach ends with a full stop landing, you would be doing a “go” as defined above in the glossary. It doesn’t matter which kind of go it is, so the controller skips the specifics by saying, “on the go…[whatever instructions].”

    Notice this doesn’t happen when you first take off. For example, a controller would tell you to turn to a heading after takeoff by issuing a takeoff clearance such as, “Cessna 1234A, turn right heading 300, cleared for takeoff Runway 28.” The controller obviously means for you to turn right to 300 AFTER you takeoff. But if you were on approach and the controller gave the instruction, “Cessna 1234A, turn right heading 300, cleared for the option Runway 28,” the pilot might reasonably be confused about when the controller wants the 300 heading–during or after the approach. So the clearance would be, “Cessna 1234A, cleared for the option Runway 28, on the go turn right heading 300.” This clarifies that the instruction to turn right to 300 should be executed during the “go” phase of the touch-and-go, stop-and-go, or go-around (missed approach).

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  2. Mark Kolber on Jun 30, 2022

    Sometimes it’s just English and sometimes just English means we shorten things.

    Don’t over think. You started you post with

    “Runway 26 cleared touch and **go**, left closed traffic, on the **go**…”

    What do you think “go” means.

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