Best time to pickup your IFR clearance

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JasonM

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JM
Looking to see what time you think is best to get your clearance in these situations.

A. From a towered field?

B. From a non-towered field (where you have to make a phone call)?

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What I have been doing:

A(towered). After engine start, prior to taxi.

B(non-towered). After run-up when ready to depart holding short of the runway or in the run-up area. - Seems like every time I call for my clearance at a non-towered field, they want me to call back when I am ready.

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Towered, for the most part I pick it up on the ground through ground or delivery. Unless I get some crazy departure routing and I can just launch VFR, in which case I'll put some distance between me and the airspace under FF, before I pick my IFR up

On the ground, if I can get high enough VFR I'll pick my IFR up air borne, if not I call em up on the ground, via headset Bluetooth while holding short ready to rock, I've never been asked to call back when ready.
 
JasonM said:
Looking to see what time you think is best to get your clearance in these situations.

A. From a towered field?

B. From a non-towered field (where you have to make a phone call)?

---

What I have been doing:

A(towered). After engine start, prior to taxi.

B(non-towered). After run-up when ready to depart holding short of the runway or in the run-up area. - Seems like every time I call for my clearance at a non-towered field, they want me to call back when I am ready.

-
Click to expand...

Probably varies from ATC facility to ATC facility, but for towered airports I check ATIS and get my clearance before I fire up the engine.

At non towered airports with a CD frequency, I'll start up, get my clearance with HFR instructions, and then call back for my release when I'm ready for take-off. If I have to call the facility by telephone, I'll call before engine start.

Some facilities are better than others about giving advanced clearance void times. When I can I try to do everything with one call. Problem is, if you wait until you're no. 1 for take off to get your clearance and release, you may be delayed even longer.

It seems my clearances at towered fields tend to be more complicated and may include SIDS and non-anticipated routings. That gives me a bit more time to study the clearance without the prop turning.

At non towered fields, it seems like it often takes more time for ATC to come back with the clearance, as such, I can start checklists, begin taxi, etc. The taxi may be shorter too, so the extra engine time get the oil up to temperature by the time I'm ready to launch. Finally, the routings seem also seem easier to deal with.

All in all, it doesn't really matter. Whatever works for you at the airport you're at.
 
A: from ground or CD prior to taxi.

B: VFR? In the air IMC? If under a B/C, call local tower. If not, call national clearance and obtain before departure.
 
Towered: after engine start and before taxi.

Non-Towered: Depends:
• Good VFR - in the air
• Otherwise, in order of availability: CD (or CD ground outlet) after engine start and before taxi; reachable TRACON/Center*; National CD

* I couldn't decide whether to put the TRACON/Center second or third. Realistically, if the area is IMC they are not likely to have time to give you the clearance. I tried the VFR method once with TRACON and about a 1500' ceiling because I didn't want to "bother" with a void time clearance. I ended up circling for about 15 minutes until my clearance was ready. I would have been better off with the void time sitting on the ground for the same length of time. OTOH, if Center is reachable, you are probably in a pretty remote area and they may have the time.
 
From the tower before taxi,whenever possible. Don't like to pick it up in the air,at non towered,after takeoff ,and you are VFR they may not be able to pick you up,until you can gain altitude,which isn't always possible,also they may give you a long route clearance to copy.
 
Non towered, I call them with the engine off. They put me on hold to get the clearance, I start up, taxi out and run up, or as much of that as I can get done before they get back to me in my experience they usually get back to me just before I start the run up and give me a 10 minute void time. A perfect amount of time to do the run up and get off.


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Towered:
After run up, prior to leaving movement area. Part of my CD call up.

Non-towered:
In the air after departure, or on the phone prior to engine start with a void time if unable to maintain VFR after departure.
 
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Towered: I'll pick it up after engine start but before I move anywhere.

Non-Towered: On the ground, outside, and leaning on the plane. :D Half the time its a 15-20 minute wait just to receive the clearance.

My last LockMart clearance was denied three times by ATC. On the second try, the agent said that ATC wanted me to wait 15 minutes before bugging them again. :mad2:

45 minutes later I got the clearance just to be told to hold until further notice once airborne. It ended up being another 10 min hold and a vector the opposite direction.
 
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Brad Z said:
Probably varies from ATC facility to ATC facility, but for towered airports I check ATIS and get my clearance before I fire up the engine.

At non towered airports with a CD frequency, I'll start up, get my clearance with HFR instructions, and then call back for my release when I'm ready for take-off. If I have to call the facility by telephone, I'll call before engine start.
Click to expand...

Yep. I don't start until I have ATIS and clearance. I program and save the FPL, turn off the avionics master, and run the start checklist. This way, if I have questions about the routing or something isn't in my database I'm not sitting there spinning.

Not really that big a deal to start before getting the clearance either, I suppose.

At non-towered airports I'll usually start up and then call. They may want me to hurry up so better to be started and perhaps finished with runup. If they give me a long HFR I can always shut down and wait or depart VFR.
 
if vfr i usually pick it up in the air. on controlled airports before engine start. on uncontrolled airports in imc when i am numero uno to take off.
 
Obviously A is pretty well answered.

B in my case is via CD radio after engine start if there is a reliable ground radio outlet, via cell phone (Bluetooth to my Zulu.2's) if I have the approach control's phone number (also after engine start). If not, I call LockMart's clearance number and request a sufficient void time.
 
If I need a clearance on the ground it's After loading the plane, before starting engines, tower or not.
 
JHW said:
If I need a clearance on the ground it's After loading the plane, before starting engines, tower or not.
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Although I prefer to wait until engine start because I can do it from the cockpit and ask for a shorter void time, this works just as well - we were all doing that at non-towered fields before cell phones and especially bluetooth) - tough to leave the engine running while hopping out of the plane to run to the phone booth!
 
At non-towered fields it depends on a number of factors such as; weather, airspace overlaying the airport, airport layout, etc.
If the weather's good VFR and just class "E" overlaying the airport I'll usually just depart VFR and pick it up when outside the airport traffic area. OTOH if the weather's IFR and/or there's class "C" or "B" airspace overlaying then I'd like to have my clearance before I take off. One thing to consider if you're picking up your clearance on the ground at a non-towered field; if the weather's IFR you don't want to be on the runway before you obtain an IFR clearance in case there's an IFR inbound. If you can get to the end of the runway via taxiways then taxi out and call for clearance holding just short of the active runway, OTOH at some airports you might have to backtaxi the active runway, in any case stay clear of the runway until you have your IFR release.
 
It usually doesn't take me very long to get from accepting my clearance to being ready to depart. Even when they give me a long compliicatd reroute in Boston to get me down pass NY's airspace. Usually, it's "As Filed."

At places where you have decent comm (either a remote outlet or cell phone call) straight to the controlling ATC, you can get a clearance that ends with "hold for release" and you can call the back when you're absolutely ready. I've found that if you're getting a relayed clearance through LM (or other than just talking direct to ATC), you'll not get a clearance seperate from a void-time release.

The sweetest deal was when ZTL had control of the airspace over my airport and I could raise them on the ground on the same frequency that would be used in the air. Then CLT had an airspace grab and I'm now about 3 miles into the CLT airspace. I can't raise them on the ground. I've tried having ZTL get me a clearance (since my departure takes me directly out of the airspace) but they weren't successful. Usually, the weather is good enough I can proceed VFR out into ZTL's territory and pick it up there. One of these days, I'm going to have a phone call to CLT's sup/qa guy and see if we can work out something.

PCT is great about issuing clearances/releases over cell phones. This I got used to back when I was based inside the FRZ.
 
Towered: prior to engine start.

Non-towered, VFR conditions, non-congested airspace: depart VFR, cold call in the air for clearance.

Non-towered, VFR conditions, congested airspace: get clearance on the ground via phone, RCO or GCO, coordinate VFR release, activate in the air.

Non-towered, IMC: clearance on ground via phone/RCO/GCO. If route is expected, or doesn't require major surgery, request 5 minute window, 5 minutes from now, or just a 10 minute window right now. If route is a trainwreck, tell them I'll call back for release.
 
JasonM said:
Looking to see what time you think is best to get your clearance in these situations.

A. From a towered field?

B. From a non-towered field (where you have to make a phone call)?

---

What I have been doing:

A(towered). After engine start, prior to taxi.

B(non-towered). After run-up when ready to depart holding short of the runway or in the run-up area. - Seems like every time I call for my clearance at a non-towered field, they want me to call back when I am ready.

-
Click to expand...

A. I try to do it via ground-comm or handheld radio before engine start, to prevent idling and waiting if any problems or issues exist with clearance. I have clearance, ATIS, V-Speeds, DP, in-hand and aware prior to engine start, 95% of the time.

B. Typically I pick it up in the air, once clear of the non-towered airport area. UNLESS congested airspace such as departing Casa Grande Arizona destination Phoenix or within a Class-B zone, and unless IMC conditions prevail. I also have a VFR-route in mind to proceed on while center/departure control figures out any clearance problems that may exist.
 
midlifeflyer said:
Although I prefer to wait until engine start because I can do it from the cockpit and ask for a shorter void time, this works just as well - we were all doing that at non-towered fields before cell phones and especially bluetooth) - tough to leave the engine running while hopping out of the plane to run to the phone booth!
Click to expand...
generally speaking, at a non-towered field if the weather is low enough that I need a clearance on the ground, it means I'm going to have a pretty healthy wait for it. No need to burn gas and foul plugs while waiting.
 
JHW said:
generally speaking, at a non-towered field if the weather is low enough that I need a clearance on the ground, it means I'm going to have a pretty healthy wait for it. No need to burn gas and foul plugs while waiting.
Click to expand...
I can understand not wanting to burn 2gph while waiting but a little bit of leaning goes a long way toward avoiding fouled plugs.
 
I'd like to have my gyros getting suction for at least 15-20 mins before I have to rely on them. It rarely takes longer than that to get my clearance and release.
 
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