IFR Tips and Tricks

Congratulations on your first IFR trip: it all sounds very familiar!

I often ask ATC to spell waypoints with which I’m not familiar.

In reply to the question about descent: yes they are quite happy for you to stay up there: if they want you lower, they’ll tell you.

They usually try to give you shortcuts when they can, even if you don’t ask for them, but asking for big directs usually doesn’t work. A more general request of: “request shortcut if available” can sometimes work, especially if you can work out on the map why they are keeping you on a particular track (eg to route you away from something) and ask for the shortcut as soon as you are clear of it.

A couple of other funnies you might get in that part of the world:

I have occasionally been given a frequency requiring the box to be set to 8.33 spacing

On a couple of occasions (in western Germany) I have been told: “route to 10 mile final for runway xx”.

Neither is a big deal if you know how to get the GTN to do them (or GNS come to that)

That said: never be afraid to ask, they’d rather you do that than guess and get it wrong. Also, don’t be afraid to say “unable” if they give you a waypoint not in the box or which you can’t find, or if they ask you to do something your aircraft can’t or shouldn’t do such as exceed its POH ceiling, sensible maximum descent rate or fly into dangerous weather.

We’ll hear from pilots with more experience, but …

- I did get directs across borders, like through all of the czech republic, but don’t know if that is normal

- don’t care if THEY are ready, say your are ready when YOU are. What’s more problematic is when they “forget” you up there and you have to remind them and they don’t react … that one happened to me a couple of times

- If you don’t understand, then you don’t understand and ask them to “say again”. But a MAP or ipad certainly help to identify what they are talking about. If necessary let them spell it. I had that one in France where the controller’s English was so bad that i had no chance. I almost didn’t understand the spelling …

- RNAV waypoints – same!

Other:
What happened to me on one of my first international IFR flights was than I came back from Croatia over the alps (towards a landing on my uncontrolled airport) and ATC was very eager that I cancel IFR as soon as possible. The very first time I was naive and confirmed in FL90 – only to find myself almost entering Airspace Charlie of Munich airport. Actually I had two miles to go with a ground speed of 190 in the descent from FL140 … When I realized (after looking at Skydemon on my iPad) I had to do a steep turn away from “C” airspace and it took e three wide circles to get below the airspace.

Then on my next IFR flight towards Berlin I had the same thing, but this i refused and asked to stay IFR until I was close to the Schoenhagen airport. I cancelled when I had it in sight and was clear of any controlled airspace.

If they bother you about cancelling IFR, tell them you’re IMC and they will leave you alone ;-) OR ask them for a CLEARANCE for the controlled airspace before cancellimg IFR.

Getting directs within a single country seems to be easy – getting longer directs was immediately refused. Is this normal?

It really depends on how the two ATC units work together. Sometimes they have strict agreements on how and where to handover. Belgium-Germany is one example, they always send you by the same waypoints.

Today I experienced the opposite: Croatian ATC cleared me direct through Slovenia to a waypoint in Austria. France-Germany also works well (if ATC have time to pick up the phone), I had a 200NM DCT more than once.

I recommend to always ask. Very often ATC just do not have the time or motivation to suggest DCTs to you. A lot of times I ask for a DCT and get it immediately approved. Had I not asked, they would have let me fly a detour.

You seem to have to know the full names of VORs.

A very bad habit of some ATC. They know you’re GA and they should not do this. If you’re a BA jockey flying the same routes every day, you know exactly what is going to come next but for GA aircraft this is totally unnecessary. A “say again” will give you the 3 letter code typically.

Approach seem to give “descend when ready” 20+ miles before I’m ready

That’s great, they leave it up to you. Using either your intuition or a tool (such as the GTN), calculate a descent profile and do it so you arrive at the right altitude for the STAR/approach at the right time. The more aerodynamically refined and fast your aircraft, the more important.

Finally, Langen had me direct to DG012 – a point on the RNAV approach for EDDG. Luckily the GTN has all these points so that was easy.

B-RNAV is mandatory equipment in European skies. They very much like to give you waypoints instead of headings because this needs less supervision (wind drift). The older GNS430/530 recently lost a lot of those terminal RNAV waypoints so you can always ask for something else. German ATC love those terminal RNAV points because they allow them to precisely feed slow GA aircraft into a busy approach sequence.

Directs can be of any length really. The best I have seen was about 450nm to a VOR. Would love to try that one conventionally!

Descend when ready means what it sounds like. It think it’s often given when the controller doesn’t need you at a certain level due traffic or airspace, and to save you requesting descent when they have forgotten about it they give you a clearance to crack on with it when ready.

VORs being called by name is common everywhere I think. If you fly the same routes you get to know them, otherwise you just ask. No shame/harm in asking. Same with waypoint names.

I think the direct to approach waypoints is quite a German thing, I have never had it in the UK. What I do get quite often is direct centre fix or direct 10 mile final.

Other oddities? Hard to say. Some of them are so common that they are no longer oddities but normal when you have done it for a while. I suppose you should be aware of CTOTs and things like that if you aren’t already.

How do your set up a 530w to do a direct 10nm final .

Getting directs within a single country seems to be easy – getting longer directs was immediately refused. Is this normal?

It depends, they will almost always give directs if they can in that area but sometimes they are not possible.

Approach seem to give “descend when ready” 20+ miles before I’m ready (happened to me three times). Are they really happy with me carrying on another 10 minutes before I start descending?

Yes, that is why they said it. If they want you down they will come back and ask you to start your descent now.

You seem to have to know the full names of VORs. Amsterdam in particular rattled off a couple of VORs I had never heard of and expected me to find them. I ended up asking them to “spell the identifier”. Is it normal to be caught short like this, or should I just learn all the VORs within 50 miles of my route?

You get used to some common ones otherwise just ask them to spell.

Finally, Langen had me direct to DG012 – a point on the RNAV approach for EDDG. Luckily the GTN has all these points so that was easy.

You will find when flying IFR they will expect you to fly the approach. Have it set up in advance and in Germany in particular they will give direct to a point rather than vectors. You can of course conduct a visual approach but unless you ask you will be put on an approach.

Congratulations on getting your IR and on your first IR-trip! It does make flying long distances and across borders a lot easier, doesn’t it?

Some more general points I found useful to learn in connection with ATC when flying with a retired airline captain:

• Pilots should be mentally prepared when making a radio call, be professional and friendly towards ATC. Although not standard radio phraseology a “Hello, Gruezi, …” in the initial call and a “Thank you/Good day” when changing frequencies, provided the frequency is not too busy, cannot do harm.
• Try to help a controller where sensible but controllers provide a service to you, not the other way round. Offering to wait so an airliner can go first onto the ILS is ok, being asked to cancel IFR somewhere far from your destination because the controller would like to focus on something else might, depending on circumstances, not be ok at all.
• When being asked something you cannot reasonably/sensibly do, say “Unable” and maybe offer a solution/explanation “Unable rate of climb 1.000 ft p.m., max rate of 500 ft p.m.”
• When not ready for a procedure, say so. “Request vectors for delay” can work wonders to take the pressure of you and give you the time to do things properly prepared rather than rushing into an approach which has not been briefed/incorrectly configured etc.
• If something is unclear or does not seem right to you, ask/clarify early and before acting. A “Confirm descent to xxx” might also bring a controller to re-check his clearance if you feel that something might be amiss. ATC is being staffed by humans and they make mistakes, too (as do pilots), e.g. not listening properly to an incorrect readback as they might already be focussed on their next task.

Generally, I find professional controllers to be extremly helpful and friendly (unlike some German “Flugleiter”) and they much prefer a question or a request to repeat a clearance, unless you overdo it on a busy frequency, over the risk of you doing something wrong resulting in a potentially dangerous situation.

Rob,

you could use the “OBS” feature to set the final course and then use the Distance Measuring feature of the 430/530 to create a waypoint on the final course. Just press the small right knob, place the cursor on the waypoint (airport) to measure FROM and the move the cursor ten miles out to 10 miles. You could also simply leave the cursor there… no need to create a waypoint …

I just pick a waypoint on the approach about 10nm from the threshold. They don’t really care whether it is 11 or 9.