Clearance on hold, hold for release

In article ,
"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote:

will alibrandi wrote:

When you're on tower freq & ready to go at the hold short line, that's
when you'll hear "Hold for release" as that's when the local
controller gets on the land line to the approach facility to activate
your IFR flight plan and get a release. Sounds like the controller was
very unprofessional. Maybe he was a trainee? If you waited 40 minutes
that's BS. Normally you get your clearance including squawk code from
clearance delivery (or ground if combined) before you taxi. That's
been my experience, anyway.


That's a lousy procedure. Why wait until the aircraft is ready to takeoff
to call for the IFR release? Call for it when the aircraft begins taxiing
and the aircraft can be cleared for takeoff when it's ready to go.

It's been a while since I've flown IFR, but at KBED, which is
pretty close to KBOS, the mix of aircraft is such that you can't
be sure who will be ready to go first. Thus I figure Boston
Approach doesn't want to know about the guy until he is
really ready for takeoff.

The tower has, on occasion, asked aircraft if they'll be
ready upon reaching the active runway.

The only time I had a "hold for release" was at KPOU when
NY was busy and the tower advised me of a 15+ minute delay.
So I just sat at the runway with the engine off and my
handheld on (I was the only one there)

Bob Noel wrote:

It's been a while since I've flown IFR, but at KBED, which is
pretty close to KBOS, the mix of aircraft is such that you can't
be sure who will be ready to go first. Thus I figure Boston
Approach doesn't want to know about the guy until he is
really ready for takeoff.


If the controller is competent, it rarely matters who's ready first.