Firsts for me

Lance F

Lance F

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Lance F
Got in not one but two aviation firsts for me this week.
1) Used HF radio for making position reports. This was a Hawker trip from Chicago to Puerto Rico. Really amazing that we're still using this 1940's technology.
2) Got a popup IFR clearance. This was flying my Mooney from Greenville, SC to my home airport near Atlanta. I was flying back from a nice airport restaurant lunch with Dave Siciliano and some of his AvSig buddies. I was cruising VFR at 6500' on this 45 minute flight and started getting a solid cloud deck under me. Rather than go down into the hot bumpy air I called up Atlanta approach and asked for a popup IFR clearance. After confirming that the plane and I were legal to do this, he gave me the clearance right away. I guess it's just one more tool for the bag.
 
DavidWhite said:
I do popup IFR clearances almost every trip - they are very helpful.
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I've done it in an airplane and I've done it in an airship. Very helpful when the weather changes when the forecast didn't indicate it would.
 
Lance F said:
1) Used HF radio for making position reports. This was a Hawker trip from Chicago to Puerto Rico. Really amazing that we're still using this 1940's technology.
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Actually, I think SSB came along in the 1950s. Curtis LeMay worked with Collins to perfect the technology, IIRC. And, BTW, we're still using it heavily as it works. :D
 
Lance F said:
After confirming that the plane and I were legal to do this, he gave me the clearance right away. I guess it's just one more tool for the bag.
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Never had ATC ask if I or the airplane was capable of IFR. If I ask for an IFR clearance, then per the FARs I must be qualified and the airplane must be capable. It's not their position to ask.
 
BillTIZ said:
Never had ATC ask if I or the airplane was capable of IFR. If I ask for an IFR clearance, then per the FARs I must be qualified and the airplane must be capable. It's not their position to ask.
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Position or not he definitely asked me. After I said yes to both, he gave me a squawk code. About 1 minute later I had the clearance. I thought he was quite helpful because I don't think they're under any obligation to agree to a pop up..
 
Selcal on the jet?
 
wabower said:
Selcal on the jet?
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Yes, we actually have 2 HF radios. Always a good flight when there's something new. On the first call up he give me a big long routing. A total pita to copy and read back. When I went to put it in the FMS, it was exactly what was already in there. :rolleyes:
 
Ghery said:
Actually, I think SSB came along in the 1950s. Curtis LeMay worked with Collins to perfect the technology, IIRC. And, BTW, we're still using it heavily as it works. :D
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Why not? The wet compass goes back a lot farther... but "when it works, it really works". :D
 
Lance F said:
Position or not he definitely asked me. After I said yes to both, he gave me a squawk code. About 1 minute later I had the clearance. I thought he was quite helpful because I don't think they're under any obligation to agree to a pop up..
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I've never had one denied. Worst case is you call FSS and file your plan, then call controller back and ask to pick up your IFR flight plan.
 
Ghery said:
Actually, I think SSB came along in the 1950s. Curtis LeMay worked with Collins to perfect the technology, IIRC. And, BTW, we're still using it heavily as it works. :D
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In the Navy our HF comms often are more reliable than the satellite stuff.
 
BillTIZ said:
Never had ATC ask if I or the airplane was capable of IFR. If I ask for an IFR clearance, then per the FARs I must be qualified and the airplane must be capable. It's not their position to ask.
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Techinically, anyone can ask for a clearance. It's the accepting of said clearance that requires appropriate qualification.
 
Fearless Tower said:
In the Navy our HF comms often are more reliable than the satellite stuff.
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The beauty of HF is that it only requires a working radio at each end, and no infrastructure at all in between. The cooperation of the atmosphere is not 100%, but outages are rare, and far more predictable than outages in satellites or anything built by a contractor.
 
EdFred said:
Techinically, anyone can ask for a clearance. It's the accepting of said clearance that requires appropriate qualification.
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Yeah I've only had a controller ask once back when I was a noob. I guess he asked because I sounded like a noob.
 
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