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.") It's part of what makes aviation so exciting for all of us... just when you think you've seen it all, along comes a scenario you've never imagined.

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, and as representatives of the flying community. 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.

It is our unabashed goal that "Aero-Tips" will help our readers become better, safer pilots -- as well as introducing our ground-bound readers to the concepts and principles that keep those strange aluminum-and-composite contraptions in the air... and allow them to soar magnificently through it.

Look for our daily Aero-Tips segments, coming each day to you through the Aero-News Network. Suggestions for future Aero-Tips are always welcome, as are additions or discussion of each day's tips. Remember... when it comes to being better pilots, we're all in this together.

Aero-Tips 05.26.06

When departing a nontowered airport for an Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) flight you have three options to get your clearance for departure:

1. Depart in visual conditions when you are assured you can remain in Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC), and contact Air Traffic Control (ATC) by radio to pick up your IFR clearance in the air;
2. Contact ATC by radio from the ground at your departure airport, through a Remote Communications Outlet on the field, or sometimes by contacting a nearby ATC facility directly while still on the ground; or
3. Contact Flight Service by radio or telephone and obtain your clearance with a clearance void time.

Clearance Void Time

A clearance void time is an instrument clearance that contains a provision for the clearance to be void if the flight is not airborne by a specific time. Depart into Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC) after your "void time", even by a minute, and you're in violation of FAR 91.173 -- flying in IMC in controlled airspace without a clearance.

Be ready: I've had clearance void times as short as five minutes from the time I get the clearance, though in my experience they average 15 to 20 minutes. Be preflighted, loaded and ready to go before you call asking for your clearance.

If you don't depart by the clearance void time you must advice ATC as soon as possible (Note: you'll usually get an "advise by" time as well when you are given your clearance void time). If you don't notify ATC within 30 minutes of a void time and there has been no further contact, ATC will assume you took off and crashed -- triggering search and rescue operations.

Why a void time?

Unless you're departing from a tower-controlled airport, ATC does not know precisely when you will enter controlled airspace. They need to keep you separated from other traffic using the same airport or the airspace around it. By granting you a window within which you can "pop up" into controlled airspace you're assured IFR separation requirements until you're identified on radar.

Conscientiousness caution: During a clearance void time window, no other IFR traffic may be cleared to approach or depart the airport. If you can safely obtain your clearance some other way, avoid requesting a void-time departure and tying up the airfield.

Aero-tip of the day: Review the implications of, and procedures for, accepting a clearance void time.

FMI: Aero-Tips