PilotEdge Forums

Dear simmers,

Am I allowed to descend or climb on any given Victor airway or should I establish an altitude and maintain it during the entire leg? For example, while flying eastbound on "V123" at 5500, I need to cross over a Charlie airspace: While flying the V123, could I just temporarily climb to 7500, cross the Charlie, then descend back to 5500?

... as, in this example, I'll be climbing through a westbound flight altitude (6500) of possible traffic heading my way.

Thanks,
Tim

Since you mention cruising altitudes with "500" at the end I'm assuming you're VFR let's answer the questions with that in mind:

1. VFR doesn't have an altitude restriction in the same sense of IFR. If you need to maneuver to maintain visual rules, then you get to do so. If there's a pilot advisory frequency available and the airspace is busy, you might do a callout to say "N123VB is 20 miles east of the Paradise VOR eastbound on V388, climbing from 5500 to 9500"

2. Victor airways don't have a specific altitude restriction for VFR flight--that's up to you and your eyeball. There are sometimes minimums depicted on the low enroute chart for terrain avoidance. Example would be the section of V197 between Palmdale and Pomona has a 10,500 minimum altitude.

Finally and most importantly, if you're VFR flying (real or sim) then get flight following and request a Charlie transition. It's good practice in the sim and it's great for the real world to have a second set of eyes watching with you. In the real world, you'd likely be at the altitude for performance reasons or terrain so the climb over the Charlie would be wasted gas.

Great answer, Steve. Thanks!

When flying on VFR you may be forced to climb and descend or turn off of the victor airway as you encounter clouds. In visual conditions traffic avoidance is the pilot's responsibility, but if you are worried about not seeing opposite direction traffic on the airway, you can always request flight following from ATC to have another set of eyes searching. Also, remember not all traffic will be on that airway, so you have to keep up a good scan in all directions.

If there's a pilot advisory frequency available and the airspace is busy, you might do a callout to say "N123VB is 20 miles east of the Paradise VOR eastbound on V388, climbing from 5500 to 9500"

What would be an example of a pilot advisory frequency? The closest thing I can think of would be a CTAF for a non-towered airport, or the NY SFRA and LAX SFRA. This call wouldn't be applicable for any of those cases.

Keith Smith wrote:

If there's a pilot advisory frequency available and the airspace is busy, you might do a callout to say "N123VB is 20 miles east of the Paradise VOR eastbound on V388, climbing from 5500 to 9500"

What would be an example of a pilot advisory frequency? The closest thing I can think of would be a CTAF for a non-towered airport, or the NY SFRA and LAX SFRA. This call wouldn't be applicable for any of those cases.

I was thinking of 121.95 or 122.85 as depicted on the Los Angeles FLY chart on Skyvector. Example: the magenta box near the Angels Gate VFR reporting port near the Vincent Thomas bridge. Or the blue box of text on the same chart near the Irvine Lake VFR reporting point in the KSNA Class C "at or below 2000'" putting you under the Charlie. All of those generally recommend flight following though.

Tim, the easiest answer is yes, definitely. Better yet, I'd stay at 5,500 and call the approach control to request a Class C transition.

Thank you, guys. I love this forum

stevekirks wrote: I was thinking of 121.95 or 122.85 as depicted on the Los Angeles FLY chart on Skyvector. Example: the magenta box near the Angels Gate VFR reporting port near the Vincent Thomas bridge. Or the blue box of text on the same chart near the Irvine Lake VFR reporting point in the KSNA Class C "at or below 2000'" putting you under the Charlie. All of those generally recommend flight following though.

5500 would be above the altitudes for all of those practice areas except for the Blockhouse area just SE of SNA which tops out at 6k. Those practice areas are incredibly few and far between. 99.999%+ of area covered by airways within the USA does not have a self-announce frequency associated with it. For that reason, I wouldn't recommend that pilots self announce climbs/descents on an airway. My concern is that they'd interpret that as needing to find the nearest CTAF (ie. the nearest non-towered airport) and start announcing there.

uncertifiedpilot wrote:... as, in this example, I'll be climbing through a westbound flight altitude (6500) of possible traffic heading my way.

Just make sure there's no traffic along your climb path, and if you do encounter other traffic, consider FAR Part 91.113.

http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?rg ... 3.10.2.4.7

Unfortunately, drones are unable to comply with that section so the standing rule on PE is drones have right-of-way and you're to get out of it.

This is also a situation where having flight following can help.