Hey all!
Lately, I’ve been noticing some confusion by pilots calling in for landing. In this thread, I’ll go over the commands and when to say them:
Inbound for Landing:
Use this command when you’re inbound on your own navigation (without approach frequency), and do not have a preference as to what runway you will be landing on. You must follow any instruction ATC gives you. Example:
Fort Lauderdale Tower, Southwest 1523 is 20 Nautical Miles to the Northeast at 7,000 feet, inbound for landing
Southwest 1523, enter left downwind runway 10L
Inbound for Landing with a specific runway request:
Use this command when you’re inbound on your own navigation (without approach frequency), and you want a specific runway for landing. However, you must follow any runway change ATC gives you. Example:
Fort Lauderdale Tower, Southwest 1523 is 20 Nautical Miles to the Northeast at 7,000 feet, inbound for landing, requesting runway 10L
Southwest 1523, enter left downwind runway 10R
Inbound on the ILS:
Use this command when approach clears you for the approach for a specific runway. Example:
Southwest 1523, descend and maintain 3000, maintain 3000 until established on the localizer, cleared ILS runway 10L approach
(after you acknowledge and approach sends you to tower frequency: )
Fort Lauderdale Tower, Southwest 1523, inbound on the ILS, runway 10L
Southwest 1523, number 1, runway 10L, cleared to land
Lastly, if approach clears you for the approach to a runway, please do NOT use “inbound for landing”, use “inbound on the ILS” as it makes it much easier for us IFATC!
We hope that you now have a better understanding of what commands to use and when to use them. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. We don’t bite!
Remember that not following ATC instructions on the Expert Server is subject to ghosting!