PilotEdge Forums

I've been wanting to build a library of recordings of interesting IFR scenarios. This is a great one to kick it off. This is an edited recording of an end to end flight (removed most comms with other aircraft) where the pilot picked up a VFR on top clearance, cancelled, then later picked up an IFR clearance to get back to the airport which had become VFR by that point.

http://assets.pilotedge.net/recordings/ ... on_top.mp3

Keith,

Do you realize your initial clearance for the VOR approach into Long Beach was "...maintain 3000 until established on the first segment of the approach" (at around 6:40)? This after clearing the pilot down to 2000 just a bit earlier? The guy is a bit confused and asks you to say the clearance again. The second time you tell him to maintain 2000 until established. No wonder the poor guy was confused.

-M.

That's a mistake, definitely meant to say 2k. When it's repeated afterwards, I use 2k. I believe his confusion was actually related to the fact that it was a non-precision approach (his first one). You hear him use the phrase "localizer" in his first readback.

Yeah, I was actually just kidding you about confusing him. I could tell he was struggling with unfamiliar clearance phraseology. I learned a new phrase myself while listening (which is what makes these things valuable). I'd never heard the phrase "until established on the first segment" before.

-M.

The other option would be to wait until he's established on the approach, then I could simply say "cross SLI at or above 1500," in fact...that's what I ended up doing because we were still negotiating the clearance by the time he was on a segment of the approach

For those that are curious, the reason we can't say "cross SLI at or above 1500" while still vectoring for the approach is that the MVA for that area is higher, so it's a bust for us if the target gets to 1500 prior to being established on the approach.