When to contact tower?

[Vincent Meier]

OK, a little history.
I was a student S1 ground controller for VATCAN(Vatsim) for a month or so, until I realized that I preferred flying. I was being taught at CYXU.
I was taught that once the aircraft was rolling on the taxiway getting close to his/hers departing runway that, as ground, I was to contact the pilot and hand them over to tower and give the frequency.
I have noticed that this is not the case here, at least not at KSNA. it is left up to the pilot to contact tower. Please tell me the way it is in the real world...or does it vary from place to place?

[Orest Skrypuch]

Have a peek here ..

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1161

Unless advised otherwise, you would normally switch to tower when holding short of the runway, or as Keith put it, "joined the Conga Line". Not a bad idea to monitor tower before that, if you have two radios.

* Orest

[Keith Smith]

To answer this specific question, one common deviation on VATSIM from real world procedure is ground handing aircraft to tower. It's very rare for this to happen in real world.

In fact, the only times I've had it happen have been when I've been in an extended conversation with the ground controller, reaching a point where I would've normally swapped myself over to tower.

Otherwise, the swap from ground to tower is usually done at pilot's discretion as they get closer to the runway.

An exception to this would be airports like SFO and possibly LAX where the signage directs pilots to 'monitor' tower at a point well short of the runway.

[Mark Hargrove]

The "monitor tower on xxx.xx" instruction is extremely common at DEN as well, often happening as soon as the plan leaves the parking area and joins the taxiway. I flew weekly out of DEN (as a passenger on United) for about 18 months and I cannot remember a time this type of hand-off DIDN'T occur. On the other hand, returning from SJC back to DEN I never heard it even once. Perhaps it's only used at very high-traffic airports.

[Kevin_atc]

Perhaps it's only used at very high-traffic airports.

Generally, yes. It's much easier for the tower controller to choose which plane he/she wants to talk to rather than having every single plane call up and the controller just having to reply with "[callsign], xxx Tower, hold short runway [runway]." Especially if there is a big departure lineup where the aircraft have no where to go except to follow the plane in front of them heading for the same runway. If all of the planes were to call up when holding short/approaching the runway at a busy airport, it would just provide unnecessary congestion on the frequency.

[TomATL]

To answer this specific question, one common deviation on VATSIM from real world procedure is ground handing aircraft to tower. It's very rare for this to happen in real world.

In fact, the only times I've had it happen have been when I've been in an extended conversation with the ground controller, reaching a point where I would've normally swapped myself over to tower.

Otherwise, the swap from ground to tower is usually done at pilot's discretion as they get closer to the runway.

An exception to this would be airports like SFO and possibly LAX where the signage directs pilots to 'monitor' tower at a point well short of the runway.

Keith,

Maybe it's just my field, but I always get specifically handed from ground to tower, usually after reporting "runup complete". They may say "contact tower" or "monitor tower", but I've never had a situation here where I switched frequencies at my discretion.

[Keith Smith]

Tom,

Interesting. It sounds like you go to a run-up area and then communicate with ground when you're done. In that case, the ground controller needs to say something when you call him with "runup complete" so that doesn't come as too much of a shock. In cases where you're simply complying with an instruction to taxi without any additional ground interaction, I'd be surprised if ground would proactively call you as you got near the runway.

[Daddy O]

"The "monitor tower on xxx.xx" instruction is extremely common at DEN as well"

Don't let hubs like Denver confuse you with normal airport operations. Denver handles so much traffic that they not only have ground control, but each of the major airlines have their own ground control (terminal services.) Look around Denver and you will notice that there are about a half a dozen smaller towers in addition to the main ATC tower. These terminal services are the guys who figure out where flight 132 from Atlanta is going to park when it gets there, maint crews, etc.

But to reaffirm what Kieth said, outbound traffic autonomously switches from ground to tower when they arrive at the hold short line for their departure runway. If you need approval to cross a runway on the way to your own, you still call ground.

But...when landing, you stay on tower until advised to switch to ground. The reason is that in some cases you still belong to tower--like for instance if you have to cross several busy runways as you taxi to parking. Some towers prefer to not let go of you until you are totally out of their way.

[Orest Skrypuch]

... and some towers will take you all the way to the ramp as well.

* Orest

[Steven Winslow]

Every Sunday afternoon I go out to KBZN and listen to LiveATC as I watch the activity on the field. We don't have Clearance/Delivery so clearances are requested from Ground. The next call from aircraft is to Ground for taxi. Once taxi directions are given and affirmed, I don't hear any radio traffic during taxi. The next call I hear is to Tower when the aircraft is holding short. Tower then gives take off permission. It appears to me that every field is slightly different, depending on the size and amount of traffic. Bozeman's airport is the second busiest airport in the state of Montana, but this year it will become the busiest because of a major expansion of the terminal and some more direct routes, like one to New York City. Not sure it that will be JFK or LGA.