Question from the readers: #2

Everyone knows I love to talk, so..what exactly do I chat up to the air traffic controllers about?

Ground control: At any airport, you have to get permission to taxi to a runway.  Some airports, you have to ask someone else, before you even move, if you can move.  When I contact ground control, I say
1) who I'm trying to talk to and who I am ("C'ville ground control, this is Cessna 4843H.." or whatever tail number of the plane I'm in)
2) I tell them if I have the weather information for the airport.  Before contacting ground, I listened to a special frequency of a automatic recording that tells me the temp/dew point, barometric pressure (for altimeter setting), wind speed/direction, visibility, what runway is in use, and any other critical info.  Then, the information is assigned a phonetic alphabet sign.  Alpha is to start, then every time it's update, it rolls to the next letter, so Bravo, Charlie, Echo, etc.  ("...with Alpha...")
3) What I want to do now ("...request taxi to the active...").  Active = runway in use
4) What I want to do after take-off.  I can stay in the pattern to practice take-offs or landings or depart in a certain direction ("...for a south-east departure")
Now, they give me clearance and tell me to "Taxi to Runway 3 via Foxtrot-Alpha".  Runway 3 is one of the runways, Foxtrot is the taxiway that I use to get onto the main taxiway, Alpha, that will take me to the end of the runway.  All those cool lit up signs around runways tell you all of this.

Now, on to the fun guys, the Tower.  These guys run the show of assigning take-offs and landings and keep people from bumping others in the skies around the airport.

1) Who I'm contacting and who I am ("C'ville Tower this is Cessna 4843H...")
2) What I want to do ("...ready for take-off on Runway 3")
3) They either tell me to "hold short" if there's landing or departing traffic or "Cessna 4843H cleared for take-off on Runway 3, proceed on course".  Proceed on course means fly the heading I requested, so SE.  Then I take-off.

Landing:
I contact them either at least 5mi out from the airport if I venture out of the pattern and say "4843H inbound for landing, with Bravo" or whatever the current weather is.  They then will tell me how to enter the pattern (I can't just fly wherever and land whenever) and will ask me to contact them when I enter or will contact me first and give me clearance to land ("4843H cleared to land" or #2).  If I'm in the pattern, I just say "4843H downwind" when I'm flying parallel, but opposite direction of the runway.  Once I land, they tell me either go back to the runway (if I requested to) or will give me directions back to the ramp, or parking area

At all times, the airport's tower will keep an eye out for traffic and will alert you when traffic is nearby or if you should watch out for other landing traffic and follow them in.
When I'm not near an airport, that's when the regional control comes in and they do about the same thing.  They will ask for your heading and altitude and make sure no one else will cross your path.

It's funny, I used to not be able to remember what to say or what frequencies to use, but I know it like the back of my hand now.  Good news for me!