Start-up clearance in SEP?

but how do YOU do the start-up clearance at a controlled airport?

I never do unless:
1) There is a local requirement as specified in the AIP or similar
or
1) I need to go somewhere which requires taxi clearance , and
2) The frequency is busy enough such that there’s an advantage for me to ask it, i.e. I don’t want to sit there awaiting clearance with the engine running for too long, or there’s some manned ground operation happening around me such that my start up won’t cause damage to property or injury to people. In such cases ATC can advise when to start and maybe transmit any messages to the ground ops crew.

Otherwise the extra call just adds unnecessary load on the radio.

Guillaume wrote:

ATC does provide control services on the maneuvering area but not on the apron.
The airport manager is in charge of the apron.

When you are requesting startup, you are likely to be on the apron. So ATC is not competent to give you engine start-up clearance.

That’s simply not true.

A typical large airport is home to more than two dozen different organizations. ATC, airport authority, fire department, handling, fueling, you name it. All these organizations have DoUs between them to smooth the operation out. As part of a typical DoU, the airport authority can easily delegate the authority for startup on the apron to ATC. So ATC can, and will, give you startup permission on behalf of the airport authority.

Similarly, ATC can deny your startup clearance if another organization on the airport doesn’t want you to startup. For instance if there’s an emergency and the fire department is busy elsewhere, so the airport does not comply with ICAO rules regarding fire cover. Or there’s a runway inspection by the airport authorities. Or customs/immigration have phoned the tower that they want a word with you for some reason or another. Heck, on a few occasions we’ve even called the Tower ourselves to relay a message to an airborne pilot.

All this is a good thing. After all, you will want the tower to inform the fire department if you have made a mishap during your landing, won’t you? Or do you prefer to call them yourselves? Because “alerting the fire department” is not a pure ATC task?

Has the tower ever refused a startup request to anyone’s knowledge?

Yes. Multiple times in fact. Almost always because there was something wrong with my flight plan. At one time it was because somewhere between SkyDemon and the AFTN the plan got lost, other times because the plan hadn’t yet gotten through the system (like in my Norwich example).

And it’s been refused once because the runway was occupied somehow. I don’t remember exactly what it was (maybe snow clearing?), but after half an hour of waiting we simply gave up and told Delivery we were going home.

In all cases I have found ATC really helpful. The advantage of using a Ground or Delivery frequency for this is that they’re relatively quiet, so you can work with ATC to sort things out. That’s not always possible on the Tower frequency.

BackPacker wrote:

A typical large airport is home to more than two dozen different organizations. ATC, airport authority, fire department, handling, fueling, you name it. All these organizations have DoUs between them to smooth the operation out. As part of a typical DoU, the airport authority can easily delegate the authority for startup on the apron to ATC. So ATC can, and will, give you startup permission on behalf of the airport authority.

I work as ATC in a big airport like you describe

When an aircraft ask us to start up the engine, we ask him to check the safety arround the aircraft with the ground crew. We do not give engine start-up clearance ourselves on the apron . It’s not our responsibility. We do not even see most of the apron from the tower. When an aircraft wants to start it’s engine independently from a regular flight, we ask him to phone the airport manager.
This is explicitly written in our operation manual .
BackPacker wrote:

Yes. Multiple times in fact. Almost always because there was something wrong with my flight plan. At one time it was because somewhere between SkyDemon and the AFTN the plan got lost, other times because the plan hadn’t yet gotten through the system (like in my Norwich example).

And it’s been refused once because the runway was occupied somehow. I don’t remember exactly what it was (maybe snow clearing?), but after half an hour of waiting we simply gave up and told Delivery we were going home.

This is exactly what I wrote above.
ATC start-up clearance is mostly about FPL validity and flow regulation.

If an aircraft should not move (seized by customs for example) we will simply deny start-up / taxi clearance.

In general terms, the apron manager is defined in the airport operations manual.

When an aircraft ask us to start up the engine, we ask him to check the safety arround the aircraft with the ground crew. We do not give engine start-up clearance ourselves on the apron . It’s not our responsibility.

That is hardly normal at large airports in my experience.

@JasonC
So when the tower can’t see the apron (low ceiling, fog, night…) how does ATC (at other large airports) knows it’s “safe” for you to start your engine ?

ATC aren’t saying it is safe for you to start, they are saying you are allowed to start. You are confusing the two concepts.

Okay, now we’re getting confused between the sequence of events that lead up to an eventual departure from the airfield, and the mechanical act of starting the engine.

When I refer to ‘startup clearance’ I’m referring to the clearance that sets a sequence of events in motion. That starts with me starting the engine, and ends somewhere when my wheels left the runway. Or even later.

If you want to run the engine for another reason, on a part of the airport that’s not under ATC control, and have no intention to enter an ATC-controlled area, then I agree that a startup ‘clearance’ from ATC makes no sense. In that case local rules (and common sense) applies. Although in my experience a courtesy call to ATC with your intentions is always appreciated.

At my local airport, we can start the engine and even taxi around, without clearance from ATC, as long as we do this on a non-controlled portion of the field. If we intend to taxi across a controlled part (e.g. to the fuel station), we need both startup and taxi clearance, but no flight plan. And if we intend to do any flying, we need to file a flight plan.

BackPacker wrote:

At my local airport, we can start the engine and even taxi around, without clearance from ATC, as long as we do this on a non-controlled portion of the field. If we intend to taxi across a controlled part (e.g. to the fuel station), we need both startup and taxi clearance

American ATC controlled airports certainly operate like this (I crossed out the startup part), and as Guillaume described, for both VFR and IFR. I’ve mentioned to US pilots that in some places you actually have to ask ATC before even starting your engine, and the typical response is disbelief.

If I try rephrasing what @Guillaume wrote since his first post, there are potentially two distinct startup clearances:

• IFR startup clearance
• engine startup clearance.

The first one applies to all IFR traffic in Europe, is delivered by ATC and is for making sure the FPL is available, accepted, flow control, sequencing etc. The second one depends on the facility – at large airports it is delivered by ramp control or ground crew, but at some airports may be delivered by ground control.