"Roy Smith" wrote in message
...
I had almost exactly this same situation happen the other day with NY
Approach. We were coming into White Plains (HPN) from the north, IFR.
Controller gave us something like, "direct FARAN, cleared ILS-16".
FARAN's
not an IAF, the route from FARAN inbound is not marked NoPT, we hasn't
giving us vectors. By strict interpretation of the rules, he gave us a
bum
clearance. On the other hand, not only did I know that he wanted us to
fly
the approach straight-in, but there was no practical reason why anything
else would make any sense, so we did it.

The bottom line is that the AIM just hasn't caught up with real life.

If you regard the direct clearance as an implicit vector, then it was all
kosher. And I think the vector interpretation is reasonable: ATC was telling
you to fly the (off-airway) heading that takes you to FARAN (even though it
was left to you, or your equipment, to compute the numerical value of that
heading).

--Gary