Anyone ever gotten a cruise clearance??

[Boilermaker21]

has anyone had any experience with cruise clearances while IFR?.....in the AIM it says they can give you an altitude block from the minimum altitude in that area up to whatever they give you in the clearance....it sounds like they might only use these in very uncongested areas?.....if there is a lot of traffic around they can't really just give you a couple thousand feet to do what you please with right?.....i talked to an airline guy today who said in his 31+ years he's never seen one....

 

[RiddlePilot]

My IP mentioned that he actually got one once. Something like 2am out between California and Arizona...y'know, when the controller was probably playing Xbox instead of watchin' the scope.

 

[stuckingfk]

I got something similar this summer while flying at night on the south side of a thunderstorm. I was having troulbe maintaining altitude because of the up and downdrafts. I asked the controller for a lower altitude, but she came back and issued a clearance to maintain between 5-9 thousdand the rest of the way home.

Needless to say, not many were flying that night because of the weather. I was with MSP Center and all the airliner guys checking in with the new controller kept asking for different altitudes and routes because of the bad turbulenct between 25-37 thousand. For me, it was nice not to have to fight the drafts anymore so I thank the controller for that one.

 

[pilotjww]

Similar to lruppert, coupla years back got a cruise clearance after complaining to ATC about a vector right into a green wall of fire-hose water on the south end of Lake Michigan. We had been skirting westbound the storms just fine, expecting the normal southerly vector towards EON away from CGT VOR. In the wash, we couldnt hold altitude any better than a first-time student with sweaty palms, so we got a cruise clearance in the general direction of MDW, which was a surprise. Popped out of the bottom and landed just fine at DPA. Plane was a little cleaner, but not the rest of me.

 

[MikeD]

Common occurrance in the early morning hours from ABQ to PHX/TUS.