I think you might be looking for something like this. It can be used on the kneepad or on your iPad with the iPad pen, so that you can write the clearance on your iPad with this picture as a background. This is of a prof check flight in the south of France to La Mole with an instructor that wrote this on her iPad. I think it can be downloaded for free somewhere from the Orbifly website.
The format of clearances varies so much that I find the best thing is a clean sheet to write them on.
Ibra I understand that and it has been a long standing gripe of mine that a lot of training does not cover this stuff. It should but I was never shown how to file an IFR flight plans from a major airport or how to get them in the air. If back to the OP perhaps Fenland you could make your own up and see how it works? Personally I prefer blank sheets of paper and copy the stuff down. There was an old flight plog I had. Not sure I still have a copy but if I do I will copy it and post. Check Google where there may be copies of headers that people have put on line. One may suit your needs.
BeechBaby wrote:
Also should that stuff not have been covered in training?
If you ask many who did IMCr training, few have flown in IMC and even fewer have flown that IFR in CAS
If you ask many who did IR training, few have flown that IFR in Eurocontrol standard routes, even fewer have flown it IFR in international, from/to uncontrolled, in IMC…
So I don’t think “training” covers everything (nor should), a good value training get you the test
Fenland_Flyer wrote:
has anyone written a kind of “crib sheet” with all the headings so that the departure clearance can be quickly copied and read back
The usual one is CRAFT (clearance, route, altitude/level, frequency and transponder), obviously, I just write what they say to the letter and read it back
I get ready for this when asking for taxi clearance or in runway holds, telling busy UK ATC to standby while you get ready to copy clearance on a kneeboard, they will come back with “ah ok, for you just forgot about, line up an go, runway heading not above 2000ft” (having an expected SID spoils the party, so have that one handy as well as airport taxi diagrams)
If you are planning IFR but can’t fly UK airways (e.g. no Class A for IMCr/IRr holders) just be prepared to tell them which IFR level you want clearance for and that is it ! you can cut that long story short by saying “can you clear us IFR for FLxx going to yy”
When flying on that clearance I just remember altitude/heading an stick to them, ATC should be happy an tweak around the rest gets sorted by itself:
- Routes, unless going airways will be under radar vectors or just own navigation at a given level
- Frequencies, I always get these from SD (as you may have to negotiate airspace access as you go)
- Transponders, if I forgot to set this one they call will call you back
Thank you Peter, most helpful and polite.
BeechBaby wrote:
Ultra, forgive me but is that not a pilot check list that Fenland should have already? Also should that stuff not have been covered in training?
I should have explained in more detail. I have a stack of these sheets in my kneeboard. When getting a clearance, I copy individual items received to the respective lines on the sheet.
What I do is I read the SIDs and see which of them might be relevant to (a) the current runway in use and (b) my filed route. That narrows it down quite a lot; often down to just one SID. Then I know which to expect during the departure clearance. And the rest of the wording is fairly standard.
Taxi clearances are harder because they can be long. You have to take a good look at the airport chart so you know what to expect. Look at the taxiway names. I have had long and difficult taxi clearances at big airports. One at Bournemouth really got me but that was because I had not studied the chart. The hardest one was at Athens (LGAV) which was made worse by the heavy accent.
This is also worth a read.
A note to some: be polite.
Sorry I asked.