For US student pilots
How to call Ground for taxi
The taxi call is the first thing you say on most flights and the one with the most rules attached, because the runway you are being kept off is the point of the whole exchange. The AIM is precise about what you say, what the controller says, and what you must repeat.
Before you move
At a towered airport you need approval before moving onto the movement area (AIM 4-3-18 a). Listen to the ATIS, then call Ground, or Clearance Delivery where the ATIS tells you to, before you start to taxi (AIM 4-3-14 a).
What to say
The AIM gives the contents: your identification, your location on the airport, the type of operation (VFR or IFR), and where you are going (AIM 4-3-18 d 1). Always state your position when calling for taxi (a 1). Add the ATIS letter, and “student pilot” if you are one.
Palo Alto Ground, Cessna Three One Six Zero Foxtrot, student pilot, transient ramp with Information Bravo, request taxi, VFR to the south.
What you will hear
The controller gives the runway first, then the route, then any hold-short instruction or runway crossing clearance on the way (AIM 4-3-18 a 6). The word “cleared” is never used for taxi, deliberately, so that it cannot be confused with a clearance onto a runway (a 6). A taxi instruction to a runway does not let you enter or cross that runway; crossing any runway needs an explicit clearance (a 5).
Cessna Six Zero Foxtrot, Palo Alto Ground, runway three one, taxi via Alpha, hold short of runway three one.
What you must read back
Three things, every time, with your call sign: the runway assignment, any clearance to enter a specific runway, and any instruction to hold short of a runway or to line up and wait (AIM 4-3-18 a 9). Controllers are required to get a readback of every runway hold-short instruction, and will ask if you do not give one (a 10).
Runway three one, taxi via Alpha, hold short of three one, Cessna Six Zero Foxtrot.
If you do not know the way
Ask for progressive taxi: step-by-step directions from the controller as you go (AIM 4-3-18 b 3). It is not an admission; it is in the AIM for exactly this. And if any instruction is not understood, ask until it is; the pilot in command is responsible for the taxi (b, b 1).
Palo Alto Ground, Cessna Six Zero Foxtrot, unfamiliar, request progressive taxi.
Ready to go
Stay on Ground during taxi and the run-up, and switch to Tower when you are ready for takeoff (AIM 4-3-14 a). Do not call Tower and then do the run-up.
After landing
Exit the runway, taxi clear of the hold-short markings, stop, and change to Ground only when the tower says (AIM 4-3-21). Then: identification, location, request taxi (AIM 4-3-18 d 3). Ground’s taxi clearance to parking does not authorize entering or crossing any runway either (AIM 4-3-21 c note 2).
Palo Alto Ground, Cessna Six Zero Foxtrot, clear of three one at Charlie, request taxi to the ramp.
At a towered airport — Ground, Tower and the clearances
- Before you move
- Call Ground (or Clearance Delivery) for taxi before starting to move on the movement area; state your position on the airport. [AIM 4-3-14 a, 4-3-18 a 1]
- The taxi instruction
- “Runway (number), taxi via (route)”, with hold-short instructions where you must stop. ATC never says “cleared” for a taxi. Read back the runway and any hold short. [JO 7110.65 3-7-2; AIM 4-3-18 a 9]
- Crossing a runway
- Needs an explicit “cross runway (number)”. Absence of holding instructions authorises crossing taxiways only. [AIM 4-3-18 a 5; JO 7110.65 3-7-2]
- Ready
- Switch to Tower when ready for takeoff (stay on Ground until then). Turbine aircraft are assumed ready at the runway. [AIM 4-3-14 a, b]
- Line up and wait
- “Runway (number), line up and wait” — onto the runway, not a takeoff clearance. Read it back. [P/CG; JO 7110.65 3-9-4]
- Takeoff
- “Runway (number), cleared for takeoff.” Runway first, then the clearance; read back both. [JO 7110.65 3-9-10]
- Landing
- “Runway (number), cleared to land”; “cleared for the option” lets you choose touch-and-go, stop-and-go, low approach or full stop. [JO 7110.65 3-10-5; P/CG]
- After landing
- Exit at the first available taxiway or as told; taxi clear past the hold-position markings and hold; change to Ground only when the tower says. [AIM 4-3-21, 4-3-14 c]
- Leaving the tower frequency
- Once outside the Class D you do not need permission to leave the frequency, but staying on it for traffic is good practice. [AIM 4-3-2 a]
Runway two seven, taxi via Alpha, hold short of runway one eight, Cessna Six Zero Foxtrot.
Runway two seven, cleared for takeoff, Cessna Six Zero Foxtrot.
ATIS & “have numbers”
ATIS is the recorded airport information at busier fields: the phonetic letter, the time, wind, visibility, sky condition, temperature and dew point, altimeter, and the runway and approach in use. Get it before you call, and say the letter on initial contact. [AIM 4-1-13]
- “With Information Charlie”
- Tells the facility you have the current ATIS; approach and tower omit the wind, runway and altimeter. [AIM 4-1-18 a 4]
- “Have numbers”
- You have the runway, wind and altimeter only — NOT the ATIS. [P/CG]
- No ATIS
- Ask for the numbers, or the tower will give runway, wind and altimeter with the landing information. [JO 7110.65 3-10-1]
Make the taxi call to a Ground that answers
TowerTalk's Exercise A starts on the ramp: the ATIS, the taxi request and the hold-short readback, at a real US airport with today's weather, graded with the AIM paragraph.
Related
Study aid, written in our own words from the FAA Aeronautical Information Manual (Change 3, 7/9/26) and the Pilot/Controller Glossary, with paragraph references so you can check each point. Last reviewed 10 September 2026; awaiting review by a US flight instructor. It does not reproduce those documents and is not a substitute for them — always defer to the AIM, the current FAA publications, your instructor and your examiner. TowerTalk is not approved or endorsed by the FAA.