Rules of the Air — Page 122, Lesson 198

Let’s pick this up right where the flight rules get practical. I want to walk you through three specific pieces of the Rules of the Air that you’ll use every single day as a professional pilot: the EET, how IFR works inside controlled airspace, and how IFR works outside it. First, the EET. That stands for estimated elapsed time. The time you put in field 16 of an IFR flight plan is not just any time — it’s the time from take-off until you’re over the initial approach fix, or IAF, for the instrument procedure at the destination aerodrome. So the IAF is that first fix on the instrument approach you’ll fly at the destination, and the EET is the total time from wheels-up to that fix. It’s not the time to landing, and it’s not the time to the destination aerodrome itself — it’s specifically to the IAF. Now, IFR within Controlled Airspace — that’s CAS. When you’re flying IFR inside controlled airspace, you are to comply with the instructions issued by the appropriate ATC unit. That’s the core rule: ATC instructions govern you. And there’s a specific rule about your cruising level. IFR flights in cruising flight shall be flown at a cruising level, or — when you’re authorized to employ cruise climb techniques — between two levels or above a level. So you have three options: a single level, or, if you’re cleared for cruise climb, you can be between two levels or above a level. And those levels are selected from two sources: the table of cruising levels, which I’ll get to in a moment, or a modified table of cruising levels, if applicable, for flight above FL410. So above flight level 410, the standard table may be modified, and you use that modified table instead. Now, IFR outside Controlled Airspace. This is where the rules get more detailed, because you don’t have ATC instructions to rely on. There are three separate rules here. First, cruising levels. IFR flights outside CAS are to be flown at a cruising level appropriate to the magnetic track of the aircraft. So your cruising level is determined by the direction you’re flying — the magnetic track — not by ATC instruction. That’s the table of cruising levels I mentioned: it assigns specific flight levels based on your magnetic track. Second, communications. If you’re operating outside CAS but within or into areas, or along routes, that the authority has designated as requiring a flight plan to be filed, then you are to establish communication and maintain a continuous listening watch with the ATS unit providing a flight information service — that’s FIS. So the ATS unit gives you flight information, and you must keep listening continuously. Third, position reports. An IFR flight outside CAS that is required to either submit a flight plan or maintain a listening watch with the unit providing FIS is to make position reports. Now here’s the specific timing. For flights operating off ATS routes — that’s off the airways — or in a defined operating area, position reports are to be made at intervals of 1 hour after an initial report has been made 30 minutes after leaving CAS or after commencing the controlled flight. So the sequence is: you leave CAS or start the controlled flight, you make an initial report 30 minutes later, and then you report every hour after that. But there’s an important exception. Where a position report is meaningless — for example, during prolonged controlled flight operations in a confined area — then instead of a position report, you make an ‘operations normal’ call at hourly intervals. The purpose of that call is to prevent unnecessary activation of the alerting service. The alerting service is the system that would start looking for you if you didn’t report — so the ‘operations normal’ call tells them you’re fine, and they don’t need to search. Let me give you the example of an ‘operations normal’ call, exactly as it appears in the rules. It goes: “London Control this is GADRF operations normal at 1020, 2000 ft and below. Will call again at 1120.” So you state who you are — GADRF is the callsign — you say “operations normal,” you give the time, you state your altitude or altitude range, and you say when you’ll call again. That’s the hourly call that keeps the alerting service from activating. Now, one thing I want to make sure you connect: the change of flight rules. Earlier in the rules, there’s a provision that a flight will be continued for ‘a reasonable period’ of time in uninterrupted VMC — that’s visual meteorological conditions. But in any event, a change of flight rules must only be at the request of the pilot. So you, the pilot, are the one who decides to change from IFR to VFR or vice versa — it’s never forced on you by ATC. Let me also point you to the figures that show this visually. shows the IFR and VFR flight levels up to and including FL — that’s the table of cruising levels for the lower range. shows the IFR and VFR flight levels above FL — that’s the higher range, where the modified table may apply above FL410. And shows reduced vertical separation minima and Special VFR — that’s a separate concept, but it’s on the same page and relates to how separation is managed. So to tie it all together: inside CAS, ATC tells you what to do and what level to fly. Outside CAS, you pick your level from the table based on your magnetic track, you keep a listening watch with the FIS unit, and you make position reports — hourly, after an initial report 30 minutes out — unless a position report is meaningless, in which case you make that hourly ‘operations normal’ call instead. And the EET in your flight plan is the time to the IAF, not to landing.