For US student pilots
CTAF radio calls at non-towered airports
Most US airports have no control tower. Nobody clears you to do anything: you tell the other traffic what you are doing, on the common traffic advisory frequency, and you listen to what they are doing. The calls have a fixed shape and a fixed rhythm around the pattern, and the AIM is specific about both.
Below is the pattern of calls from ten miles out to clear of the runway, the traffic pattern itself, and the examples, each with its AIM paragraph so you can check it.
Non-towered airports — CTAF, UNICOM & self-announce
Without an operating tower, everyone transmits on the common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF) — which may be a UNICOM, MULTICOM (122.9) or the closed tower’s frequency. [AIM 4-1-9]
- When
- Inbound: monitor and announce from 10 miles out; entering downwind, base and final; clear of the runway. Outbound: before taxiing, before taxiing onto the runway, and until 10 miles out. [AIM 4-1-9 c, TBL 4-1-1]
- How
- The airport name at the START and the END of every transmission; runways by number, never “the active”. [AIM 4-1-9 g 8]
- UNICOM
- State the station in each call; 10 miles out ask for wind and runway. [AIM 4-1-9 h]
- Straight-in
- Discouraged; if you do one, announce at 8–10 miles and coordinate — you have no priority over the pattern. [AIM 4-1-9 g 4]
- Never
- “Any traffic in the area, please advise.” Not a recognised phrase. Listen instead. [AIM 4-1-9 g 1]
Strawn traffic, Apache Two Two Five Zulu, ten miles south, two thousand five hundred, landing Strawn, Strawn.
Strawn traffic, Apache Two Two Five Zulu, entering left downwind runway one seven, full stop, Strawn.
Strawn traffic, Apache Two Two Five Zulu, clear of runway one seven, Strawn.
The traffic pattern
The legs have standard names — departure, upwind, crosswind, downwind, base, final — and the tower uses them in instructions. [AIM 4-3-2 c]
- Pattern altitude
- Propeller aircraft: 1,000 feet AGL unless the Chart Supplement says otherwise; large and turbine aircraft 1,500 feet. [AIM 4-3-3 a]
- Turns
- Left unless the chart or the tower says right (“RP” on the chart for a right pattern). [AIM 4-3-3 c, d]
- Entry
- Level, abeam the midpoint at pattern altitude; the tower may say “enter left downwind”, “enter left base”, “straight-in approved”, “make right traffic”. [AIM 4-3-3, FIG 4-3-2; JO 7110.65 3-10-1]
- Reports
- Give the report the tower asked for — “midfield downwind, runway two seven” — and nothing more; the tower adds “report two mile final” when it wants that.
- Extend / I’ll call your base
- Acknowledge with your identification and fly it. Do not turn base until told.
- Go around
- Answer “going around” with your identification, then fly: overfly the runway, climb to pattern altitude, enter on the crosswind unless told otherwise. [P/CG]
Say them out loud, with traffic that answers
TowerTalk's Exercise K works the non-towered airport calls against simulated pattern traffic at a real US airport, with feedback on each transmission written from the AIM.
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 9 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.