cruise clearance
- Thread starter proheff
- Start date
Here you go sir, http://www.faa.gov/library/manuals/aviation/instrument_procedures_handbook/media/CH-04.pdf
Right from the FAA:
Right from the FAA:
Fly_Unity
Well-Known Member
I get/request them on a weekly basis, mostly at small uncontrolled or private airfields here in the Rockies.
Xcaliber
El Chupacabra
Yes. However, a lot of controllers don't know what they are, or how they work, so they won't issue the clearance. We once got, at FL250, "cruise 10,000." Great...now how do we get down to 10,000? Instead of trying to tell him that he issued it incorrectly, and since it was a nice day, so we just declined and got a visual instead
Zero1Niner
Well-Known Member
Nice reminder. Forgot that a cruise clearance cleared you for an approach.
Thanks!
Thanks!
patthepilot
Well-Known Member
For those of us that don't know-what is a cruise clearance?
Douglas
Old School KSUX
Cruise Clearance allows a pilot to to fly at any altitude from the minimum allowed by IFR to the alt stated in the clearance. The pilot can climb or descend inside that range with out talking to ATC, but if the pilot reports leaving an altitude, he cannot return to it without permission from ATC.
flymo
Well-Known Member
Just got a cruise clearance the other day. Going into a private airport with no instrument approach, the lowest MVA that ATC could get me was still in the clouds (1800 ft AGL) so the cruise clearance enabled me to get the extra few hundred feet of descent to get down out of the clouds (1500 overcast ceiling) for the visual approach.
R
Roger, Roger
Guest
Basically a carryover from the days of Ernie Gann and other badass early aviators when there was a lot less IFR traffic and no radar.
Douglas
Old School KSUX
How'd that work?
If the lowest IFR altitude was 1800' AGL, how were you able to descend lower on a cruise clearance?
-mini
SpiraMirabilis
Possible Subversive
If going to Eagle Pass from San Antonio you get a cruise clearance everytime if you're slant alpha because there are no instrument approaches. The OROCA can be lower than the MVA, as far as I know. Most MVAs are actually just the MEA in a lot of cases.
Xcaliber
El Chupacabra
He said lowest MVA, not lowest IFR altitude. Most likely in his example, the MVA is probably that high due to bad radar coverage, not terrain. Assuming he's not in mountainous terrain, with the cruise clearance he can get down to 1000 feet above the highest obstacle within 4 miles.
The company I last worked for used the cruise clearance in the same way in WY. There's an airport there where the MVA is 8000', but with a cruise clearance, we could get down to 7200', as long as we didn't go any further west than 6 miles from the airport. That 800' could make the difference between getting a visual or having to climb back up and shooting a 20 mile long GPS approach, which only got us an extra 600' lower than that.
