Filing IFR

You probably follow one or more online forums. They can be a good source of information, and they can be a good source of mis-information. I skip any post that starts with "I'm not instrument-rated but..." or "I'm not an instructor but..." or "I'm not a doctor but...". At least they are honest.

Today's discussion began in a website newsletter and in an online forum, so use some judgment. The Aeronautical Information Manual may or may not change based on it. But the final advice is so compelling that I am sure it worthwhile. It's about one of my pet peeves,

Filing Direct

 

Look back this post about lost communications. One of the many big puzzles is what to do when the clearance limit is the destination airport, for example, "You are cleared to the Boise airport via as filed, climb and maintain 12 thousand, departure with Salt Lake Center... ."

Boise airport is not an initial approach fix (IAF), so what do you do? The rule (14CFR91.185) is almost clear: you should go to the Boise airport, then fly to and hold at an initial approach fix (IAF) until the appointed time. Strictly speaking, you are supposed to go to the clearance limit, and then go to the IAF. In principle, you can go to the clearance limit by following the approach path at the lowest of the 91.185 altitudes (that is, not descending at all). But then what? How do you get the to the IAF without compromising your safety (don't hit anything) or someone else's airspace?

The punch line: some people now recommend that you include an IAF in your flight plan route. This makes a lot of sense to me.

The alternative is to just file "direct" to the destination; one wag justified this particular bit of laziness by saying that "filing direct tells ATC that they can put you wherever they like." This is fallacious in two ways. First, ATC puts you wherever they like no matter what, so they gain nothing. Second, if your destination airport is in a different center's airspace, the computer may not know where it is, so a controller will have to go look it up and enter your flight plan by hand. Filing direct doesn't save ATC from work; it gives them more!

---

Let's pin this down by considering an IFR flight to Scottsdale, AZ from the north. In a non-GPS aircraft, the basic route must be V257 to Phoenix: V257 takes you down the PHX 336 radial. The only - the only - IAF for Scottsdale is the PHX VORTAC, so the proper route to file ends with V257 PHX. If you are lost comm then you hold at PHX until it's time to start down.

(One of the automated online routers uses V257 BANYO; BANYO is a fix on the PHX 336 radial, but it is not an IAF. Their route leaves you scrambling if you lose radio contact.)

The IAF route takes you well south of the airport, but that's the way things go in the IFR world. Unless you can get vectored for a visual approach, you are going to go to PHX anyway. If you want to stay north of Scottsdale, you have to invest in an IFR GPS, and include POURS in your route.

Picking an IFR route is work, but it is artful work. Enjoy the journey; the destination becomes that much sweeter. This applies to finding the route as much as it applies to flying it.

Lost Communuxqruba

I promised to pass along some lost communications stories. I might have written nothing, shut down the blog, and called it an object lesson, but I have lost my taste for sarcasm and excessive irony. So let me communicate about not communicating.

---

I had just gotten my instrument rating. I was trying to listen to local IFR traffic on a scanner, but all I heard was someone giving instrument instruction to a student. This guy was good; he was patient with the student, and used memorable phrases. "Missed approach!" I heard, "Pitch, power, trim." I learned a lot from listening to him coach his student. "Missed approach!" I say, "Pitch, power, trim." Just like him.

The problem is that I was not his student. I was driving around in my car, and he had a stuck microphone, and nobody else could use the frequency. In other words, he was lost comm (or NORDO, as the controllers say), and so was everyone else on the frequency. It was an approach control frequency for a Bradley (Hartford-Springfield), a busy Class C airport, during the rush.

---

I was a student on the downwind at Carlsbad-Palomar, a busy Class D airport. No answer from tower. No answer from tower. No answer from tower. "Better call them on ground," my instructor said.

Years later, I was on the downwind to Boise, another busy Class C airport. It was VFR. Airplanes are checking in with the tower, but the tower had become the Roach Motel ("Roaches check in, but never check out."). So I called ground, "Boise Ground, 00X, tower's not answering, we're on the left downwind for 28L." "Clear to land," they replied, "Somebody turned off the transmitter."

---

It was IFR and I was going into Olympia, Washington. Radar vectors for the ILS. Downwind, then base, then

"Approach, Skylane 1234X, I departed from Klamath Falls about two hours ago, VFR, on top, red with white and yellow trim, my wife's on board, and, um, we're squawking 1200, 4 thousand 500, going to Bremerton, and, um..." He went on and on and on and on. Guess what? That makes me "lost comm." No equipment has failed, except for the space between someone's headsets, but lost comm is lost comm.

I'm getting close to the localizer, wondering whether I should turn in, when the guy finally let go of the button. "Seneca 4BR, this is a vector through the localizer, turn left heading ... ." The controller got it all out quickly.

This is an incredible dangerous situation. If you are on base for the ILS to runway 17 at Salt Lake City and some confused VFR pilot ties up the frequency like this, it could kill you: you only have a couple of miles to sort it out and you are already below the mountains.

---

You do check the volume on the receiver every time you change frequencies, right?

---

Departing London, Ontario (CYXU) eastbound, tower says "Clear for takeoff, contact Cleveland Center on xxx.yy when airborne." Shoot, I was at 3,000 MSL in an Archer, there was no way my little GA transmitter could hit Cleveland Center all the way across Lake Erie.

Then things got spooky. I flew over an airport than wasn't on my charts (it was Aylmer, an abandoned RCAF field). A DC-3 flew directly over me, 1,000' above, heading in the opposite direction. I started to feel a little, well, panicky. So I did the right thing, and called London Tower.

"Oh, right, you're still a little far away, try him again in 10 minutes."

This used to annoy me going into Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Salt Lake Center would hand me off to the next sector before I could hit their transmitter, which seems to be deep in some valley. There was no problem as far as traffic, but a few times I flew by the IAF for the approach I wanted while waiting for them to answer, which meant a big turn. I tried asking for the approach from the previous sector, but they would never give it to me. Luckily, I usually flew this route empty, so the passengers didn't think I got lost.

---

Faster airplanes sometimes get out of transmitter range before the controller can hand them off. Usually they'll call another aircraft from the same company and ask for a relay. "American 123, can you call American 456 on Guard (121.5) and tell him to contact Denver on ... ?" Just as often, you'll hear "Any aircraft on Guard, United 789, can you find out what frequency they want us on?"

---

These stories might sound a little scary to the uninitiated, but they're not. The lost comm rules mean that everyone knows what do, and the risk of a collision or even a so-called "near miss" is very, very low.

A Lost CRAFT

I think most instrument pilots know about CRAFT: it's the acronym for the order of the elements of an IFR clearance:

Clearance limit;

Route;

Altitude;

Frequency;

Transponder code.

My IFR Ground School has reached the point where we are starting to try to understand Air Traffic Control (ATC). Where do you begin understanding such a complicated system? I have always taught that the answer to every IFR puzzle begins "Well, in the event of lost communications, ..." That's where we began.

The lost comm rules (14CFR91.185) have puzzled pilots for years. Most of it is logical: if you fly into a big hole in the clouds, continue under VFR, and land as soon as practicable. Call Flight Service and tell them what happened, and continue on your way VFR. You don't even have to shut down.

You fly the highest (i.e. safest) of the minimum IFR altitude, the altitude you were cleared to, and the altitude you were told to expect. Still pretty simple.

You fly the route you were cleared, or told to expect, or what you filed. OK.

But when do you start down? The rule is complex, and I have heard a lot of silly interpretations over the year, some of them from my mouth, I am ashamed to say. "Just land and get out of their way" is the most common one. But what do the rules really say? And are they that hard to interpret?

Yes, they are that hard to interpret. The difficult time is when ATC clears you to someplace other than the airport. They may or may not give you an Expect Further Clearance (EFC) time. You do different things in each case. Let's look at an example and see what the rules say.

Let's fly from Provo, Utah (KPVU) to Idaho Falls, Idaho (KIDA). Checking skyvector.com shows that V21 goes from Fairfield VOR (FFU) to Idaho Falls VOR (IDA). The Departure Procedure takes you to FFU, so you file "FFU V21 IDA."

This route crosses the Salt Lake City Class B airspace, and a typical clearance is "Cleared to the Fairfield VOR via the Provo Three Departure, Squawk 4321." The altitude and Departure Control frequency are on the chart, so ATC leaves them out. The chart also says "...Expect clearance for filed route and altitude within 10 minutes after departure."

So far, the clearance limit is FFU, which is not an Initial Approach Fix for KIDA. The regulation is clear: your clearance limit is not an initial approach fix, and you do have an Expect Further Clearance (EFC) time. Start a timer when you're cleared for takeoff. If there is a communications problem, fly the departure procedure, hold at Fairfield until 10 minutes have passed, and proceed on your way. What has happened here is that ATC has given themselves 10 minutes to clear a path for you if something goes wrong. It's about 19 miles from KPVU to FFU via the Departure Procedure, so your 10 minutes will probably be up when you get to FFU.

If nothing goes wrong, as you get close to Fairfield you hear something like "Cleared to the Idaho Falls airport via fly heading 330 to intercept V21, then as filed, climb and maintain 11,000." The heading is a radar vector, so if you lose communications you know to fly toward V21.

Is this in the a gray area? The clearance limit, that is, the airport, is not an Initial Approach Fix. But since the airport is not an IAF, and you don't have an EFC time, if you lose radio contact you go to an IAF, then start the approach at your ETA. There should be an IAF in your flight plan route.

Approaching Idaho Falls, you hear "Proceed direct Idaho Falls VOR, expect ILS approach." The clearance limit is an IAF and but you have no EFC time, so if you lose communications before Idaho Falls then you hold there until your ETA. You are given a route to "expect," too, so that's the route to fly.

If it's busy, they'll spin you. "Hold South of the Idaho Falls VOR as published, maintain 11,000, expect further clearance at ... ." Now your clearance limit is an IAP, and you have an EFC. If the radios go bad, you leave IDA at the EFC and fly the approach.

That's not so bad, is it? Of course it is. Not. But one way to learn is to imagine a few scenarios of your own. What if the destination is your favorite Class B airport? What happens if the destination is shut down by weather (I once had to divert from Laramie because the VOR had been hit by lightning, and all they had was a VOR approach. I didn't want to go there, anyway.) Playing "What if..." is a great way to sort this stuff out.

Just remember to begin your answer with "Well, in the event of lost communications... ."

---

Next: Unusual lost comm scenarios.