Temporarily deviating from IFR

James M. Knox wrote:

Mxsmanic wrote in
:


Can you reactivate an IFR flight plan after cancelling it and continue
from some point within the plan, or do you have to file a brand new
one if you want to return to IFR.

I take it there's no such thing as "suspend IFR."


Certainly not in those words.




You guys sure make this hard. The IFR system is not that rigid.

Newps writes:

You guys sure make this hard. The IFR system is not that rigid.

But there does seem to be a gulf between what is theoretically and formally
allowed and what actually works in practice.

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James M. Knox wrote:

Mxsmanic wrote in
:


Can you reactivate an IFR flight plan after cancelling it and continue
from some point within the plan, or do you have to file a brand new
one if you want to return to IFR.

I take it there's no such thing as "suspend IFR."

snipped reply...

For the case you described that started this thread, the usual case is
simply to request deviations as needed. But IFR is really *not* for
sightseeing. [That's why airlines fly IFR always, now. They used to
always "sightsee" in good weather, until the day two of them ran into
each other over the Grand Canyon. After that the rules changed.]

I was on a commercial flight years ago with an
active COM feed to the SLF headsets. Ours and
several other planes were picking their way through
a storm front and were continually requesting
10-20 degree right and left deviations to avoid
weather.

I was on a commercial flight years ago with an
active COM feed to the SLF headsets. Ours and
several other planes were picking their way through
a storm front and were continually requesting
10-20 degree right and left deviations to avoid
weather.

Sure. That's what the Garmin 396/496 is for. The big boys have on-board
radar, of course. When there are storms about the frequency is full of
such requests.

Mxsmanic,

But there does seem to be a gulf between what is theoretically and formally
allowed and what actually works in practice.


Not at all. It's all exactly the way it is in your game. No difference
between simulation and real life, remember?

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Thomas Borchert writes:

Not at all. It's all exactly the way it is in your game. No difference
between simulation and real life, remember?

The gulf I discussed applied entirely to real life, independent of any
simulation.

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"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
...
You're flying happily over the desert in your small plane, in bright,
clear
weather, on your IFR flight plan. You notice a plume of smoke a short
distance away at your nine o'clock, and looking more carefully, you see
what
looks like a stranded car with some people standing around it. You'd like
to
investigate just to see if it might be someone who needs help.

So just tell ATC what you've seen and tell them you'd like to go have a
look. If, for whatever reason, they can't accommodate you, they'll probably
ask you to tell them as accurately as possible where the incident has
happened so they can alert the police or whoever. If, on the other hand,
they can handle a deviation, they'll co-ordinate this deviation with you.
They'll leave getting there up to you - don't expect them to vector you
there (let's face it, they know exactly where you are right now, but the
chances are you'll be telling them something like "about five miles to the
northwest", and they can't exactly give you an accurate course).

If the problem appears potentially serious (e.g. there's a car on fire
upside-down in a field, thus implying that it mightn't be visible from the
road, so the emergency services mightn't be aware) then declare a PAN. The
controller can then give you the required priority, and other pilots on
frequency will be aware of what's going on as they'll hear it's a PAN call.

On a related note (whence the crosspost to r.a.p.), has this ever happened
to
you? That is, have you ever seen something that looked like a possible
case
of people in distress on the ground and decided to go over and take a look
and/or report it to ATC?

Well, it happened to me (and presumably everyone else) on my PPL radio exam.
Actually, what I mean is that the "PAN" part of the oral exam involved me
supposedly spotting a life-raft in the water below me and reporting it to
ATC via a PAN call.

I've never had something like this for real, but there was one occasion when
I knew an instructor from our club was considering sending someone on a solo
navex in a particular area, and once I got airborne for my own flight I saw
that the conditions differed markedly from the forecast/actuals report. I
asked ATC to relay a message to the club to say that the weather down there
wasn't up to a solo student on a navex, which they kindly did.

David C

In a real urgent situation I can guarantee you that what comes out of
my mouth will resemble MAYDAY far more than it will PAN whatever the
hell that means in French////

denny

David Cartwright writes:

Well, it happened to me (and presumably everyone else) on my PPL radio exam.
Actually, what I mean is that the "PAN" part of the oral exam involved me
supposedly spotting a life-raft in the water below me and reporting it to
ATC via a PAN call.

I didn't know you could make a PAN call for another aircraft. I thought PAN
and MAYDAY only applied to your own aircraft. I guess it makes sense to have
some sort of special call you can make, and PAN is probably the more
reasonable of the two, since you aren't actually in danger yourself.

I've never had something like this for real, but there was one occasion when
I knew an instructor from our club was considering sending someone on a solo
navex in a particular area, and once I got airborne for my own flight I saw
that the conditions differed markedly from the forecast/actuals report. I
asked ATC to relay a message to the club to say that the weather down there
wasn't up to a solo student on a navex, which they kindly did.

There are transcripts of ATC traffic when aircraft have gone down and others
have observed it. Most of the time other pilots are pretty calm, although
there might be a certain tenseness to their voice when they see the aircraft
hit the water or ground. The greatest departure from the norm I've heard or
read in such transcripts was after TWA 800 exploded, when one pilot said "God
bless 'em."

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Denny writes:

In a real urgent situation I can guarantee you that what comes out of
my mouth will resemble MAYDAY far more than it will PAN whatever the
hell that means in French////

Even if it's another aircraft and not your own? It's important to stay calm
in emergencies.

MAYDAY comes from "m'aider" (help me) and PAN comes from "panne" (breakdown).

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