When to descend II

An at or above altitude in a clearance like that almost always means
there will be traffic under you going into a different airport.




Ron Rosenfeld wrote:

On Mon, 29 Oct 2007 15:29:12 -0500, "Dan Luke"
wrote:


You're 4 miles SW of ROYCE.

http://www.naco.faa.gov/d-tpp/0710/00198IL12R.PDF

Approach says "Cessna '1GS,cross ROYCE at or above 2 thousand, cleared visual
approach runwy 12R. Contact the tower on 118.7."

On initial contact, Tower says "Cessna '1GS, runwy 12R, cleared to land."

Do you still have to cross ROYCE at 2,000 or can you head for the numbers and
come on down?


I've not flown in that area, but ATC may be wanting you to fly to Royce
before turning inbound because of traffic on approach to Rwy 12L. There are
some issues with intersecting flight paths that need to be avoided when
dealing with parallel runway operations.

Having said that, I would have assumed ATC wanted me to fly to ROYCE before
turning inbound, at or above two thousand; but I would request
clarification from the tower as to whether I could go straight in from my
present position, if that seemed a viable alternative.

Of course, if in VMC, you could cancel your IFR flight plan, mooting the
previous ATC clearance.
Ron (EPM) (N5843Q, Mooney M20E) (CP, ASEL, ASES, IA)

"Newps" wrote in message
...

An at or above altitude in a clearance like that almost always means there
will be traffic under you going into a different airport.


Hard to fit another airplane between traffic at 2000 MSL and towers over
1000 MSL.