PilotEdge Forums

Hello All,

I have just moved on to practicing for my V2 and I have a question about departures. I have heard many times on the radio "On departure fly heading XXX". I am a little unclear on at what point one says to one's self "Right, I have departed. I shall now turn to heading XXX".

I have also heard on the radio many times VFR pilots asking for a South departure, for example.can someone give me a rundown on at what point the pilot is released to turn south.

Thank you all so much for your help,
Will Brown

If you're departing from a Class C or Class B airport, you'll often receive an initial heading to fly once you're airborne. I generally spend the first 500 ft of take off ensuring the engine is running in the green and that I have positive climb before making that turn. As long as you comply with the instruction, you don't need to advise ATC that you're doing what they asked you. If you've been on that heading for quite sometime without any indication that you're free to change frequency or switch to departure, then you might want to check in.

If you're departing from a Class D, you need to advise ground and tower of your intended direction of VFR departure if not intending to fly IFR. The controller will generally give you a pattern departure instruction such as, "left crosswind departure to the south approved." If you hear that, then you would fly the traffic pattern to the crosswind leg, and then exit the pattern in that general direction away from the airport.

Thanks for the information Julio,
As one would expect another question pops up just as soon as one is answered.
I am trying to plan my communications for a flight from Van Nuys to Camarillo And I noticed that Van Nuys has a delivery frequency listed but not a clearance delivery frequency. If this is the case at an airport, how does one go about the initial communication? I was expecting to have to call clearance delivery as one would at John Wayne and request VFR advisories to Camarillo. I am not exactly sure how delivery differs from clearance delivery.
Any help you could provide clearing this up would be fantastic.
Cheers

Generally speaking, clearance delivery at Class D towers will not handle any VFR aircraft. Any departure restrictions that need to be issued to a VFR departure will be issued by the tower. (Usually there are none.)

At Class C, clearance delivery sometimes handles VFR departures because those facilities require the issuance of departure instructions to all VFR departures. They typically consist of an altitude, departure frequency, and squawk code. Particularly in the PE coverage area, they also issue departure headings. Occasionally some Class C airports will have you contact ground for VFR departure instructions and taxi instructions. If you're unsure, start at clearance and follow the controller's instructions. As an aside, some Class C towers wait until you're holding short of the runway ready for departure to issue your VFR departure instructions.

At Class B airports, clearance delivery usually always handles VFR departures. These airports are intrinsically more restrictive to VFR aircraft, where as the Class C fields have more discretion on what to do with you heading and altitude-wise.