Aero-Tips!

A good pilot is always learning -- how many times have you heard this old standard throughout your flying career? There is no truer statement in all of flying (well, with the possible exception of "there are no old, bold pilots.")

Aero-News has called upon the expertise of Thomas P. Turner, master CFI and all-around-good-guy, to bring our readers -- and us -- daily tips to improve our skills as aviators. Some of them, you may have heard before... but for each of us, there will also be something we might never have considered before, or something that didn't "stick" the way it should have the first time we memorized it for the practical test.

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Aero-Tips 12.20.06

I was working the FBO at Sedalia, MO many years ago (before Whiteman Approach covered KDMO, if any readers are familiar with the area). The crew of a chartered King Air jumped up from the FBO couch as a sedan pulled through the airport gate and onto the ramp. Another quick-launch awaited the charter aircrew.

Skies were overcast, about 1500 feet above ground level (AGL). The crew had filed IFR for a 50-mile hop to Columbia, MO, where they would pick up another passenger and take everyone home. "We'll pick up our clearance in the air," commented the captain as they drew on their coats and exited the airport lounge.

I caught up with the copilot and told him he wouldn't be able to pick up his instrument clearance below the clouds in that area, and unless they wanted to cruise VFR at 1000 AGL all the way to Columbia they should contact Flight Service over Sedalia's Remote Communications Outlet (RCO) on the ground.

Minimum Vectoring Altitude

Minimum Vectoring Altitude (MVA) is the lowest altitude above sea level at which an IFR aircraft will be vectored by a radar controller, except as otherwise authorized for radar approaches, departures, and missed approaches. MVA meets IFR obstacle clearance criteria. It may be lower than the published Minimum En-route Altitude (MEA) along an airway. It may be used for radar vectoring only upon the controller's determination that an adequate radar return is being received from the aircraft. Charts depicting minimum vectoring altitudes are normally available only to the controllers, and not to pilots.

To pilots MVA is therefore unknown and, seemingly, unknowable. In most cases controllers can't activate a clearance in-flight unless the aircraft is above MVA. That makes departing visually from a nontowered airport without radar approach coverage risky when clouds or visibility are tight by VFR standards. If you call Flight Service for a weather briefing your briefer might be able to provide MVA information, if you ask. If at all possible, though, get your clearance with a void time by radio from the ground, or by calling Flight Service by telephone, in such conditions.

Aero-tip of the day: Ask your briefer for the MVA in your area, or get your clearance on the ground before departing IFR into marginal weather conditions.

FMI: Aero-Tips