I'm going to quibble with Roy just a bit. "When able," in my mind, means
"when you can proceed direct without hitting anything." You can get a good
needle and still hit terrain. In this clearance, however, my guess is that
6000 feet was his minimum instrument altitude and you were good to go at
that altitude.

Bob Gardner

"Roy Smith" wrote in message
...
In article 1076365605.761786@sj-nntpcache-3,
"John Harper" wrote:

Got an odd clearance the other day, on climbout from Santa Monica
(IFR but in perfect VMC): "climb and maintain 6000 when direct
Ventura". I took this to mean that someone would later clear
me direct VTU, whereupon I would climb. However I never got
such a clearance, and later an evidently nervous controller called
me, cleared me to 6000', and asked me if I had the terrain in
sight (which I did, but it was getting close for IFR though not
worrying visually).

I suspect you dropped a word (or he did). It sounds like it should have
been "climb and maintain 6000. When able, direct Ventura".

I would have started a climb to 6000, taken a WAG at the heading to
Ventura, turned to that heading, and begun to tune in the VOR (or hit
direct on the GPS). Once I had a good signal, I would have tracked it
direct.