Clearances and readback requirements
Clearances and readback requirements
This domain tests how ATC clearances are constructed, what must be read back, and how to avoid ambiguity in a clearance.
Core rules
- A clearance is an authorisation to proceed under specified conditions. It does not authorise you to break the rules or to descend below safe altitude.
- Read back: runway in use, take-off or landing clearance, line-up, hold-short instruction, altitude or level, heading, speed, frequency, squawk, route, and any conditional instruction.
- Use the exact words: 'cleared to land', 'cleared for take-off', 'line up and wait', 'hold short of runway 23'. Do not say 'take-off' unless it is a take-off clearance.
- If a clearance is unclear or incomplete, say 'Say again' or 'Confirm'. Do not guess.
- 'Expect' is not a clearance; it is advance information.
Worked example
ATC: 'ZK-ABC, hold short of runway 23 at A, contact Tower 118.7.' Correct readback: 'Holding short of runway 23 at A, contact Tower 118.7, ZK-ABC.' You read back the hold-short point, runway and frequency. You do not cross the holding point until cleared. If Tower then says 'ZK-ABC, line up and wait runway 23', read back 'Line up and wait runway 23, ZK-ABC.'
Traps
- Reading back only the runway and omitting the hold-short point.
- Treating 'expect clearance' as a clearance.
- Using 'Roger' for a hold-short instruction.
- Crossing a runway after a clearance to 'line up' only.
Clearances and readback requirements
A clearance is not a script to be half-heard; read back every item that affects runway safety, altitude, heading, frequency or squawk.