Clearance Delivery
General Information
Welcome and thank you for taking the time to read this training document. You are about to be introduced to the first position available to you as a ZJX controller. The DEL, or Clearance Delivery, position is the first and one of the most important positions available to controllers. Your job will be to verify the validity of an IFR Flight Plan that has been filed by a departing pilot. This will be your first chance to apply the knowledge you gained in the Basic ATC course. You will be asked to verify that the pilot has requested a correct altitude for his flight, proper SID for the departure airport as well as checking that he has properly indicated weather they are voice capable or not. Problems are corrected during this phase of a flight so as to avoid small problems becoming large ones once the aircraft is airborne.
Clearance Delivery for IFR Aircraft
An important note to begin this tutorial with is that as a DEL controller, you will never initiate contact with a pilot on the ground. It is the pilot's responsibility to contact you for their clearance prior to leaving the gate or ramp area. In the event that they fail to do so, simply chalk it up to an inexperienced pilot and move on to the next departure.
When you are online as the DEL controller, you should be able to see aircraft departing from your airfield within the arrivals/departures box in VRC. To ensure this, list your active airport under general settings as a departure field. This will enable VRC to report all departures for that field to you within the arrivals/departure window.
When you "see" an aircraft listed as a departure from your airport, their are two ways in which to select that aircraft and view their flight plan.
- Simply double click on the aircraft callsign listed within the arrivals/departure window.
- Select that aircraft by clicking it with your mouse on the "radar" display. Press F6 and then your aircraft select key <ASEL>.
Once this is done, the aircrafts flight plan will be displayed. An example is shown below.
Fig 1. VRC Flight Plan
Once you have the pilot's flight plan visible you will want to assign them a valid squawk code for their flight. Once again you have two methods for accomplishing this.
- Click on the "Assign Squawk" button and your done.
- Press the F9 key and then the aircraft select key <ASEL>.
Now you will want to look over their flight plan to verify that the information they have provided is correct for their flight. The aircraft above is heading to MYNN which is located South East of KMCO. Therefore their filed altitude of FL200 is not correct for this flight and would need to be changed to FL190 or FL210. Additionally the Vero Beach (VRB) VOR is an approved transition for an Orlando departure so his route is fine for our purposes.
If any of this information had not been correct, as the DEL controller, you would be expected to manually make the needed correction to their flight plan before granting clearance. All of the boxes above that have a white background may be changed. Once you make these changes, simply click on the "Amend Plan" button for them to take effect. BUT, keep in mind that you must communicate any and all changes and the reason for them to the pilot prior to making them. This ensures that the pilot is fully aware of the changes you are about to make and will be following them during their flight.
An IFR Clearance may contain the following:
- Aircraft Identification
- Clearance Limit
- Route of Flight
- Altitude in order flown
- Holding Instructions
- Departure Frequency
- Transponder Code
Aircraft Identification
This refers to the aircraft callsign. We utilize different phraseology for commercial flights versus that used for general aviation and military flights.
Commercial Aviation examples:
- DAL123.............Delta one twenty three.
- UAL325.............United three twenty five.
General Aviation:
- N123AT...........November one two three Alpha Tango.
- N34GR............November three four Golf Romeo.
Clearance Limit
This refers to the final clearance limit that you are issuing. This would usually be the destination airport that they have filed for if it is a domestic IFR flight. For overseas flights, we can only clear them to the farthest point that falls within the National Airspace System; they would need to get a special Oceanic Clearence while they are flying to enter the over water part of their flight.
Route of Flight
Here you will find the filed route that the pilot proposes to use to safely complete their flight. You will be mainly looking for any SID's for your airport or a proper transition point for them to exit the approach airspace. It is essential that all controllers be fully aware of all SID's and STAR's associated with the airports within ZJX. Updated charts for the airports may be found at www.myairplane.com.
Altitudes
You will be giving pilots two altitudes in your clearance instructions. The first will be the initial altitude limit upon departing from the airport. The second will be their approved cruise altitude.
At MCO, all turbojet & turboprop aircraft are issued 5,000 ft. initially and instructed to expect their assigned cruise altitude 10 minutes after departure. All piston aircraft shall be issued an initial altitude of 1,500 ft. and instructed to expect their cruise altitude 10 minutes after departure.
Holding Instructions
If there are any enroute holds in effect or a gate hold, this information may be provided in the clearance.
Departure Frequency
This is the current departure frequency in use for your airport. Usually this will be the online Approach controller or in their abscence the online Center controller for ZJX. In the event that neither of them are currently online, instruct aircraft that "departure is offline".
Transponder Code
This is the unique four digit code assigned to a departing aircraft. How to properly assign this code is discussed in detail above.
C-R-A-F-T
A handy way to remember how to give a clearance is to use this memory aid device, CRAFT.
Proper Phraseology
Now we are ready to put all of this information together and using VATUSA approved phraseology, issue an IFR clearance. Proper phraseology is the single most important part of becoming a successful controller. This is what sets us apart from the pilots and demonstrates the professionalism and training that we all must undergo. Remember that for all clearances the following script must be followed including the terminology used. We will first look at the flight strip in Fig. 1 and issue their clearance to them.
"Delta forty three hundred, you are cleared to Nassau International Airport, Orlando Eight departure, then as filed. Maintain five thousand, expect Flight Level one niner zero, one zero minutes after departure, departure frequency is one two four point eight, squawk zero seven zero five."
Local IFR Clearances
Occassionally you will see an aircraft with an IFR flight plan filed to the same airport from which they are departing. More than likely the pilot wants to practice flying instrument approaches and return to the same airport. This is basically the IFR equivilant of remaining in the traffic pattern. The clearance for a local IFR aircraft is essentially the same as any IFR Departure. It must contain all the aspects of the CRAFT acronym. Because of the differences these can be a little bit tricky. A few things to remember about a local IFR is:
- Their clearance limit is their departure airport.
- Their altitude in many cases will be lower than the standard 5,000 feet. If so, just instruct them to maintain the altitude they filed.
- Their route of flight will more than likely be left blank. As opposed to "direct" or "as filed" use the phrase "via radar vectors." That's what they're going to be getting from the Approach Controller after all.
Beyond those differences the rest of the clearance will remain unchanged. Here's an example:
Assume Citation N123AB filed an IFR flightplan from KMCO to KMCO at 3,000 feet and is ready to copy. His clearance would read:
"Citation 123AB, Orlando Clearance. Cleared to Orlando International Airport via radar vectors. Maintain 3,000. Departure frequency 124.8. Squawk 0701."
Clearance Delivery for VFR Aircraft
Issuing clearances to VFR departures is similar to IFR departures in some ways and much simpler in some ways. Many times a VFR aircraft will not file a flight plan, a destination or a route so the clearance limit and route of flight portions of the CRAFT acronym are excluded from VFR clearances. Simply remember "AFT" for VFR departures.
- A Altitude
- F Departure Frequency
- T Transponder code
Altitude
All VFR departures from ZJX airspace should be instructed to "maintain VFR at or below 3,500 feet initially."
Departure Frequency
Just like for IFR aircraft, this
is the current departure frequency in use for your airport or unicom on 122.80 if no radar controller is online.
Transponder Code
All aircraft departing from a Class C or Class B airport must be assigned a discrete squawk code, even if they're VFR. MCO has a VFR beacon code range of 0310-0377 for all departing VFR aircraft.
Aircraft Remaining in the Pattern
Since aircraft operating in the local traffic pattern will be remaining VFR and in a non radar environment (the Local Controller's airspace) they do not need any of the items issued by a Clearance Delivery Controller. Aircraft requesting to remain in the pattern should contact Ground Control when ready to taxi and request to remain in the pattern. If a Clearance Delivery controller receives a pattern request they should instruct the pilot to contact Ground with their request when they're ready to taxi. Do NOT tell or infer the aircraft is cleared into the pattern or the airspace or assign an altitude, departure frequency or squawk code.
VFR Departures from Class B Airspace
It is true that ALL VFR aircraft entering or leaving Class B airspace must be issued an explicit Class B clearance however, since the Class B airspace in the area the aircraft will be leaving belongs to the Local Controller it is the Local Controller who must issue that clearance. Clearance Delivery is not responsible for Class B clearances and should never utter the words "cleared into/out of the Orlando Class Bravo airspace."
ZJX Clearance Delivery Policy
Also, Please read through the Clearance Delivery Policy as this gives more information on Clearance Delivery
