Clearance on hold, hold for release

Up until the other day, when I heard "Hold for Release" it was after I
had copied, read back and accepted my IFR clearance, squalk code, and
had received ground control clearance to taxi to the departure runway.
It rarely involved waiting more than 10 minutes before being cleared
to taxi, or takeoff.

Our airport has a clearance frequency, which I contacted first on the
day in question after engine start. The controller said switch to
ground frequency to receive my clearance, which I did. I repeated
"ready to copy" and received my clearance as filed except for a squalk
code and departure frequency. I asked for the code and frequency and
was told "Standby, Hold for Release".

I figured, OK, there's a slight delay. So I asked again in 10 minutes,
as was told in an abrupt manner, "Hold for release", but nothing else.
So, after waiting another 30 minutes with the engine running I called
again for my squalk code and departure frequency. I was pretty
surprised by the response. The controller said, almost as a
reprimand, very angrily, "What are you still waiting there for! You'll
get your squalk when you're ready for takeoff!" Then and only then did
he issue taxi instructions to the active, which I complied with.

After getting into position for the run-up, he said to contact the
tower, which I did. Tower asked me how much time I needed to get
ready, and I said, "About 5 minutes, but I still need a squalk code
and departure frequency." Then, tower said, "standby, hold for
release." After a minute he came back with the squalk code and
frequency, and I was cleared to depart.

So, my question is, what exactly does the term "hold for release" mean
within the context of the situation I've described? What could/should
I have done differently; i.e., said "ready to taxi" after hearing
"hold for release" the first time, expecting to receive the code and
frequency from the tower when ready for takeoff?

Thank you very much.
Hap

I've only ever heard "hold for release" at non-towered airports when
using an RCO or when working via FSS. Then, it's part of the clearance
and needs to be read back. At a towered airport, I don't see the point
in him telling you "hold for release" as ATC has to clear you on to
the runway in any case. I've some times been told "Hold short --
awaiting IFR release" when I've called #1 and ready to go at a towered
airport, but that's really just a hold short instruction with a reason
attached, and even then, it's not like your situation where you were
given the hold pretaxi.

Further to this, I found this in the ATC manual...

http://www.faa.gov/airports_airtraff...atc0403.html.1

"Hold for release" instructions shall be used
when necessary to inform a pilot or a controller
that a departure clearance is not valid until
additional instructions are received.

While it's grouped together with void times and other techniques used
at non-towered airports, there's nothing in there at explicitly says
it can't be used to indicate an incomplete clearance at a towered
field. Still it's awfully misleading. "I'll get back to you with the
beacon code" would have been a lot clearer!

Hap wrote:

Up until the other day, when I heard "Hold for Release" it was after I
had copied, read back and accepted my IFR clearance, squalk code, and
had received ground control clearance to taxi to the departure runway.
It rarely involved waiting more than 10 minutes before being cleared
to taxi, or takeoff.

Our airport has a clearance frequency, which I contacted first on the
day in question after engine start. The controller said switch to
ground frequency to receive my clearance, which I did. I repeated
"ready to copy" and received my clearance as filed except for a squalk
code and departure frequency. I asked for the code and frequency and
was told "Standby, Hold for Release".

I figured, OK, there's a slight delay. So I asked again in 10 minutes,
as was told in an abrupt manner, "Hold for release", but nothing else.
So, after waiting another 30 minutes with the engine running I called
again for my squalk code and departure frequency. I was pretty
surprised by the response. The controller said, almost as a
reprimand, very angrily, "What are you still waiting there for! You'll
get your squalk when you're ready for takeoff!" Then and only then did
he issue taxi instructions to the active, which I complied with.

After getting into position for the run-up, he said to contact the
tower, which I did. Tower asked me how much time I needed to get
ready, and I said, "About 5 minutes, but I still need a squalk code
and departure frequency." Then, tower said, "standby, hold for
release." After a minute he came back with the squalk code and
frequency, and I was cleared to depart.

So, my question is, what exactly does the term "hold for release" mean
within the context of the situation I've described? What could/should
I have done differently; i.e., said "ready to taxi" after hearing
"hold for release" the first time, expecting to receive the code and
frequency from the tower when ready for takeoff?


"Hold for release" is used to inform a pilot that an IFR departure clearance
is not valid until a release or release time has been issued. In the
context of the situation you described, an IFR departure from a towered
airport, it's superfluous as you cannot depart without a takeoff clearance.

On Jun 24, 7:53*am, Hap wrote:
Up until the other day, when I heard "Hold for Release" it was after I
had copied, read back and accepted my IFR clearance, squalk code, and
had received ground control clearance to taxi to the departure runway.
It rarely involved waiting more than 10 minutes before being cleared
to taxi, or takeoff.

Our airport has a clearance frequency, which I contacted first on the
day in question after engine start. The controller said switch to
ground frequency to receive my clearance, which I did. I repeated
"ready to copy" and received my clearance as filed except for a squalk
code and departure frequency. I asked for the code and frequency and
was told "Standby, Hold for Release".

I figured, OK, there's a slight delay. So I asked again in 10 minutes,
as was told in an abrupt manner, "Hold for release", but nothing else.
So, after waiting another 30 minutes with the engine running I called
again for my squalk code and departure frequency. I was pretty
surprised by the response. The *controller said, almost as a
reprimand, very angrily, "What are you still waiting there for! You'll
get your squalk when you're ready for takeoff!" Then and only then did
he issue taxi instructions to the active, which I complied with.

After getting into position for the run-up, he said to contact the
tower, which I did. Tower asked me how much time I needed to get
ready, and I said, "About 5 minutes, but I still need a squalk code
and departure frequency." Then, tower said, "standby, hold for
release." *After a minute he came back with the squalk code and
frequency, and I was cleared to depart.

So, my question is, what exactly does the term "hold for release" mean
within the context of the situation I've described? What could/should
I have done differently; i.e., said "ready to taxi" after hearing
"hold for release" the first time, expecting to receive the code and
frequency from the tower when ready for takeoff?

Thank you very much.
Hap

Hmm, you don't say what weather conditions were but if it was me, and
I couldn't get my clearance on the ground and it was VFR, I would have
departed VFR and picked up my IFR in the air.

I have heard hold for release at a NON radar tower as I have gotten
that at KTUP.

Usually that's at the end of the runway where I get hold for release
while tower coordinates with Center, but I get my squawk with Ground.
If I had what you had going on, I would have asked ground again if it
was VFR ghow much longer and if it was unknown, I would depart VFR and
pick up the clearance with Center. IFR conditions well, you are stuck
between a rock and a hard place.

In article
,
Hap wrote:

So, my question is, what exactly does the term "hold for release" mean
within the context of the situation I've described? What could/should
I have done differently;

My suggestion would have been to call the tower back and say, "Uh, I'm
not sure I understand what you mean by 'hold for release' in the context
of my current situation. Could you please clarify?"

I once sat on the ground twiddling my thumbs for ten minutes because I
didn't follow my own advice when it turned out I didn't know what a void
time actually was (never having departed IFR from a non-towered
airport). And I had passengers which made it doubly embarrassing.

rg

On Jun 24, 8:53*am, Hap wrote:
Up until the other day, when I heard "Hold for Release" it was after I
had copied, read back and accepted my IFR clearance, squalk code, and
had received ground control clearance to taxi to the departure runway.
It rarely involved waiting more than 10 minutes before being cleared
to taxi, or takeoff.

Our airport has a clearance frequency, which I contacted first on the
day in question after engine start. The controller said switch to
ground frequency to receive my clearance, which I did. I repeated
"ready to copy" and received my clearance as filed except for a squalk
code and departure frequency. I asked for the code and frequency and
was told "Standby, Hold for Release".

I figured, OK, there's a slight delay. So I asked again in 10 minutes,
as was told in an abrupt manner, "Hold for release", but nothing else.
So, after waiting another 30 minutes with the engine running I called
again for my squalk code and departure frequency. I was pretty
surprised by the response. The *controller said, almost as a
reprimand, very angrily, "What are you still waiting there for! You'll
get your squalk when you're ready for takeoff!" Then and only then did
he issue taxi instructions to the active, which I complied with.

After getting into position for the run-up, he said to contact the
tower, which I did. Tower asked me how much time I needed to get
ready, and I said, "About 5 minutes, but I still need a squalk code
and departure frequency." Then, tower said, "standby, hold for
release." *After a minute he came back with the squalk code and
frequency, and I was cleared to depart.

So, my question is, what exactly does the term "hold for release" mean
within the context of the situation I've described? What could/should
I have done differently; i.e., said "ready to taxi" after hearing
"hold for release" the first time, expecting to receive the code and
frequency from the tower when ready for takeoff?

Thank you very much.
Hap

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.

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.

"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.


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.

The former is the procedure at my airport (Class D under a Class B).
After taxi and run-up, you contact tower with "ready for departure" and
they then give you "hold for release" and contact the nearby Tracon to
coordinate. Depending on the traffic at nearby airports the delay can be
signficant.

I've never heard "hold for release" from clearance delivery or ground. I
agree that this sounds like a bad procedure, and unclear on the meaning.
Maybe the (new) controller just wanted to make it clear that his
clearance did not include a release or clearance for takeoff, but that
should have been obvious it seems to me.

Mike

BTW, it's nice to see an actual aviation discussion here. Maybe usenet is
still alive!

Mike