How to Get an IFR Clearance Enroute | Picking up IFR Clearance | Pop Up IFR Clearance

just because you filed an ifr flight plan doesn't mean you have to get a clearance and depart under ifr if the weather conditions permit you could pick up your ifr clearance while enroute having begun the flight vfr so here we are circling the town of roswell new mexico looking for crashed ufos at 4500 feet we're vfr now but we have an ifr flight plan on file we filed before we departed roswell airport an ifr flight to hobbs airport to the southeast at seven thousand feet via this route here which includes victor 68. so we started our flight vfr taking off from roswell and circling the town to the north and now we're ready to head back to our home base to the southeast and we want to activate our ifr flight plan so let's switch over to the ifr and route low chart for the area our flight plan has us joining victor 68 and flying southeast we're not talking to anyone so the first thing we'll need to do is get a hold of air traffic control there's a few ways to find the right frequency the chart supplement page for the nearby airport will list communications frequencies here's the appropriate frequency for roswell approach 119.6 if we have forflight we can get the same information by looking at the airport info screen and finding the approach frequency if we don't have any of that on board we could contact flight service on 122.2 or a locally listed frequency give them our position and ask the appropriate frequency to activate our flight plan now that we have our frequency we'll dial that into our com1 119.6 we'll contact them by saying roswell approach cessna 9r334 hotel is 1-0 northeast of the field looking to pick up ifr to hops atc will respond with november 9 or 334 hotel roswell approach squawk 3201 and ident so we'll punch our squawk code into the box and hit ident so the controller can find us on their screen once they've identified us the controller will say november 3 4 hotel radar contact 9 north of roswell 4500 feet are you able to maintain your own terrain and obstruction clearance until reaching 5400 feet hold up what was that last part can we maintain terrain and obstruction clearance i thought that was the controller's job before ifr actually isn't the whole point of getting our instrument rating to be able to fly through clouds and not have to maintain our own terrain and obstruction clearance well not really let's have a look at the inroot chart again we're circling around at 4 500 feet vfr not bugging anyone our ifr root has us taking victor 68 but we have to get there first because we're off route we might want to have a look at the off-route obstruction clearance altitude for this sector the oroka which is 7 900 feet that's pretty high up and this sector is really large do we really need to get all the way up there have a look around it's pretty flat in this part of new mexico except that one peak way out to the southwest in fact that's the highest point in this map quadrant and it's on the opposite side of roswell from where we're headed no factor atc is actually able to slice this area up into smaller segments and assign minimum vectoring altitudes based on terrain in those smaller areas in the area where we're flying the mva is only 5400 feet well below the aroca for the whole quadrant let's picture these altitudes from the side the eroka is at 7900 feet high enough to give us clearance over the highest obstacle in the quadrant the minimum vectoring altitude for our area is 5400 feet and we want to climb to 7000 our filed altitude and join victor 68. so atc wants to make sure we can get above this minimum vectoring altitude the controller can't see clouds or obstacles so below the mva there's no way to guarantee clearance so it's up to us to not smack into anything until we're up high enough to get a vector that assures us protection so when the controller asks if we can maintain clearance until 5400 feet this is why it's a perfectly clear day we have no problem with this so we reply in the affirmative and we'll get an instruction to climb and receive our ifr clearance here's what that will look like cessna 3-4 hotel cleared to hobbs airport is filed climb and maintain 7000 leaving 5400 fly heading 150 to intercept victor 68. so we'll start our climb read back the clearance clear to hops airport is filed climate maintains 7000 feet after 5400 fly heading 150 to intercept victor 68 and atc will say cessna 34 hotel read back correct sometimes the best laid plans don't always work out here now we're approaching our destination of suffolk exec from the southeast we're vfr and don't have any flight plan on file unfortunately it looks like the clouds are a lot lower than forecast and will need an ifr clearance and an approach to land at suffolk we can get what's called a pop-up ifr clearance which is where we request an ifr flight plan directly from the controller rather than file it via flight service or online from the ground we may already be talking to approach if we're on vfr flight following or something or we might be calling them cold for the first time if it's our first contact with atc the old formula for radio still works who you are where you are and what do you want norfolk approach says the 9r334 hotel is one five miles north of elizabeth city request pop-up ifr clearance to suffolk exec sierra foxtrot quebec it's important to tell etc you want a pop-up clearance or to somehow let them know that you don't already have an ifr clearance filed so they don't go fumbling through their flight strips to try to find it workload permitting they will oblige your request assign you a squawk code and they will often ask if the aircraft and pilot are ifr equipped and current with that out of the way they'll issue a clearance by saying cessna 3-4 hotel cleared to suffolk executive airport via radar vectors direct descended maintain 4000 fly heading 3-1-0 and of course we'll read that back notice no talk about terrain or obstruction clearance if we're already above those minimum ifr altitudes getting a pop-up ifr is a great tool if things start turning south for us but there are a few things to keep in mind when trying to get one besides the fact that we've sort of outsourced our planning responsibilities for filing ifr to atc so they'll handle them for us first we need to be out of any active moas atc can't fly ifr traffic through special use airspace that's hot so for vfr and moa we may have to wait until we're out next there are traffic separation minimum under ifr such as a thousand feet vertical and 3 miles lateral we don't have any of that in vfr besides the requirement not to trade paint with any other aircraft so atc may need to wait until after we're properly spaced to clear us finally there's this issue with the minimum altitudes the unfortunate scenario would be us finding ourselves scud running vfr below clouds trying to get over the blue ridge mountains here when we finally give up and ask for a pop-up when atc asks us if we can maintain our own terrain and obstruction clearance to 4 000 feet and we look around and reply no they'll tell us to maintain vfr and we're on our own so that's a rundown on picking up an ifr clearance when we're already in flight under vfr filing ifr and departing vfr can be a great way to manage weather risks while still maintaining control over your own route at first in addition to that pop-up ifrs can be real conveniences but make sure you're not in a position where being denied the clearance doesn't leave you without a plan b if this was helpful please click subscribe so that you could stay up to date on every new training video coming out each tuesday and friday and get access to posts and articles on the community page that'll take your training even further it just takes one click and it's so worth it

Channel: FlightInsight

Views: 10,949

Keywords: IFR Clearance, pop up ifr clearance, pop up ifr denied, ifr communications, ifr communications training, ifr atc communications

Id: lxFOetUSnf0

Length: 8min 20sec (500 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 22 2021