Roy Smith wrote in news:roy-
:

As somebody who flies mostly in the New York area, I've never gotten a
cruise clearance in my life, so I'm not really up on the details. What
happens if I get "Cleared to the White Plains airport, via direct,
cruise 3000, frequency change approved, have a nice night"? For the
moment, let's assume it's 2:00 AM and the tower is closed.

As somebody who flies mostly in the Gulf of Mexico, with spotty radar and
communications coverage, I get them all the time, pretty much every IFR
flight offshore. Center knows we can't talk below 2000' or so, and radar
coverage will also be lost. A cruise clearance gives you all the airspace
at and below the cruise altitude until you report out of it. If you report
leaving an altitude, you can't climb back up to it, but until you report
leaving it (if you do report it) you can go up and down all you like. The
cruise clearance includes the instrument approach of your choice, and a
missed approach clearance if you miss. We have a standard missed in a
letter of agreement, as well as lost comm instructions. The airspace
around your destination is yours until you cancel IFR or report a missed
approach.

You can descend to whatever altitude you like, down to the MEA, and to the
published altitude for any transitions you fly. A direct clearance can
make things difficult, because of terrain clearances. You can fly direct
to the airport, an IAF, or whatever, because ATC must protect all the
airspace, because the cruise clearance is a clearance for any approach.
That's why you don't get them very often up there. I'm not familiar with
the airspace, so I can't comment on the routing you postulated, but in
reality you can do whatever you like, as long as you can maintain a safe
altitude. I would likely set myself up for the most direct published
approach, and fly that, unless I broke out and had the airport in sight.
You can fly the visual at any time you have the airport in sight. A cruise
clearance is a wonderful thing, if you can get it, because it lets you do
pretty much whatever you like.

I guess the gist of my question is, does the cruise clearance let me fly
a single approach, or does it let me stooge around in the vicinity of
the airport trying multiple approaches until I get in or give up?

My understanding is that you can stooge around if you need to, but good
planning should obviate a lot of stooging. Judgement is always necessary,
especially when flying IFR.

--
Regards,

Stan