Tony

In the case of a clearance short of the destination (BEBOP, in your example) ATC will issue an EFC, with or without a hold. As ATC expects to issue a clearance beyond BEBOP, they don't have to issuing holding instructions until you actually approach the fix. They either issue a clearance down route or issue a hold at BEBOP. If you lose radios prior to BEBOP, you are expected to depart BEBOP at the EFC issued with the airways clearance to BEBOP, doing so might require holding there, shortening the last leg to cross BEBOP at the EFC.

As I said, not frequently done anymore, but used to be common under procedural control. I flew across Pennsylvania in an Arrow in the early '70s and probably had to an EFC and a reclearance twice.

GF

 

I used BEBOP in my example, only because I cleared a thousand or so airplanes to that fix over the tens years I worked at Oakland Center.

There's no requirement for ATC to issues an EFC when a hold is not issued, or when no delay is expected. That's the "paper stop" I was referring to earlier. Also, no requirement to WITHHOLD an EFC. Heck, it doesn't even have to be a time, for example, "Cleared to BEBOP, expect Bravo track to HNL on the next frequency".

In my two years flying in western Africa, virtually all of it non-radar, I never once got issued holding instructions, or an EFC, from each FIR. But, of course, each FIR cleared me through on initial contact to the transfer point of the next FIR. I gave my estimates through to that point.

It's difficult in that part of the world to always get a 10 minute call in before the next FIR, but I never ended up holding... getting back to the original question. The next clearance always came through, "just in time" ;-)

 

I'll add that when I went through the FAA ATC Academy in the 1980's (post strike), that was ALL non-radar. Of the five of us who graduated and went to Oakland Center, two were sent to the non-radar oceanic area of Oakland. I still feel lucky to have dodged that bullet !!!

 

Tony

I agree with all that and, in the case of a route but no EFC, ATC would expect the crew to go down the B track to make the ETA at PHNL. But, there is no reason they can't issue an EFC with the expected route and the crew would have to hold to proceed from the limit at the EFC. More of a theoretical, I suppose.

Why was non-radar a "bullet dodged"? I was inbound to Koror, Palau and the cruise clearance took the other pilot completely by surprise. "What is that?"

If you flew in west Africa, it wasn't non-radar, it was uncontrolled; been to everywhere past Dakar--Abidjan, Accra, Libreville, Franceville, Kin, Brazzaville, Lianda, the lot, all unpleasant. I was just passing thru.

GF

 

GF -

I was just recently introduced to a 'cruise clearance' myself. I guess some of our fleet get them when flying in the South Pacific quite often. I had never heard of it and the guy gave it to me as kind of a reading assignment. I don't expect that I'll be seeing them flying domestically any time soon, but I can see why your other pilot hadn't heard of one before. What was his background btw?

USMCFLYR

 

It was probably REAL work, and took a lot longer to certify on (like 3 -5 years). Also, initially, it paid less.

I only issued one or two contact approaches, one "through" clearance, but never a cruise clearance.




You didn't miss THE garden spot of the west, Lagos?

 

The other term introduced to me at that same time as 'cruise clearance'.

USMCFLYR

 

Read through FAA Order 7110.65 for that, and lots more interesting trivia that you'll rarely use.

 

YIKES!
That was it?
Para 4-2-6

Thanks for the FAAO though.
I'm sure I can come up with something good out of that!

USMCLFYR

 

USMCFLYR

His background was F-18 in Canadian Forces. When I got my IR in the early '70s, a guy named Kershner wrote training books that included all sorts of trivia. It used to be in the FAA writtens, too.

What was interesting was how KOAK OAC used the cruise clearance to "get around" Palau (Koror) being in uncontrolled airspace. We arrived from HKG with 2 US airliners. The one with the earliest estimate was given a descent to FL100 and a cruise clearance; each of us was given a flight level and holding clearance, "leg lengths and direction at your discretion". Once DAL was on the ground, Air Mike got a cruise clearance at FL100; we were given a descent to FL 160; once he reported on the ground with a closed flight plan, we received a cruise clearance. All told it took about 40 minutes to land. Funny part, I meet the DAL captain at the hotel, he said CO forwarded an incorrect ETA for the airport and that allowed him in first.

Outside FAA control, you will probably get something like a clearance to leave controlled airspace. That is the Canadian terminology, anyway.

The extremes of KOAK Oceanic and perhaps small plane IFR in the Plains and Alaska are the only places cruise and through clearances are used anymore. The last through clearance I got was in Grand Island, Nebraska in the early '80s on a fuel stop. It is used throughout Micronesia now.

GF