Report Established - When?

Josh wrote:

And when I run EASA/CAA there will be instant licence revocation and a week in the stocks for anyone saying “Direct the Park” in the London TMA

And “Direct the Pole” on the Manchester frequency

Is it right to request “report final” if you are flying an IAP?

The correct form IMHO should be e.g. “report at 4 miles” and then you get Cleared To Land (possibly with a handover to Tower).

Report Final might be for a Visual Approach, which is basically a circuit join and a right/left base to final, but technically (for the purpose of separation obligations on ATC) is an IFR procedure.

Peter wrote:

Is it right to request “report final” if you are flying an IAP?

The more nitpicking controllers in Germany will say (usually on GPS or other non-precision approaches): “Report established on final track” which makes it a little bit clearer.

I found this handy little document from your our favourite government agency.

1.6.8 When it is judged that this will aid situational awareness, controllers may request
aircraft to report established on the localiser. Notwithstanding its use for situational
awareness, it should be used where the clearance to establish on the localiser is not
implicit within the phraseology used.

AFAICT apparently “Report established” is short for “Report established on the localizer”. I cannot find “Report fully established” anywhere in that document.

It also seems like “Report final” means within 4 NM of threshold (long final beyond), and in the context of an IFR approach “Report final approach fix” may be more appropriate than “report final” although I have always interpreted the latter as “report established on the GS”…

Even more interesting, during my Googling I found an ICAO phraseology guide, and here is one thing that immediately caught my attention because it was recently discussed on EuroGA (sorry – more boring IFR stuff:

Pilot-interpreted Approaches (eg ILS) Phraseology
The phrase ‘cleared ILS approach runway xx’ has, in the past, introduced some ambiguity whereby pilots have taken this to mean they are cleared to the altitude/height depicted on the approach chart immediately prior to the final approach fix. This should not be assumed; normally clearances to descend at this point will be given distinctly.

Other phrases that are commonly in use include:
‘Report established localiser (or ILS, GBAS/SBAS/MLS approach course).’
‘Maintain (altitude) until intercepting glide-path.’
‘Report established on glide-path.’

I could not find “report fully established” in that document either. It does not seem to be a widely accepted phraseology.

what_next wrote:

I stick with the cemented rule “Aviate, Navigate, Communicate!” when making this kind of report.

My IR instructor gave me the very good advice to “protect your final approach fix”, which means don’t talk to ATC one nm before the FAF and until you are stabilized on the final approach. Because that is usually when they will hand you over to tower, and on first contact tower often tends to flood you with information about e.g. the missed approach or questions like where do you want to park, etc. You can deal with that when you have the time. The same goes for contacting approach after take-off – no rush until you are at a safe altitude and have some free capacity.

Unfortunately I sometimes forget this advice. :)

Yes, this is a bit like asking for an early landing clearance, even if it is really too early, (sometimes I say “turning final”), just in case somebody starts reading out Tolstoy as you are on short final, forcing you to go around

According to ICAO (not the misleading and badly written CAP 413) you are “establish” when on final track and descent path (it might be on GS for ILS, Vertical Profile after FAF for Non Precision or Vertical guidance for RNAV or LPV profile). Fully establish? it is like fully ready…you are either ready or not…