Clearance Delivery

Clearance Delivery


Clearance		Apron / Ground		Tower		Terminal		Centre		Radio / FSS

Description

The Clearance delivery controller is responsible for providing departing aircraft with their IFR clearance. It is not something to be taken lightly. The smooth flow of all traffic depends on these clearances. If a clearance is incorrect another controller down the line will have to amend it, and potentially distract the pilot from his flying, while if the error would have been corrected before take-off the pilot would have had all the time to amend his plan, and not have anything to worry about when in the air.

In light of the above respecting the following guidelines is essential.

What you need to know

In addition to the general guidelines a Clearance delivery controller must:

Understand the basics of verifying accuracy of flight plans;
Be able to issue an IFR clearance with or without SID in accordance with the Canadian phraseology guide;
Understand the RVSM Altitude assignment system;
Understand, and apply minimum routing restrictions whenever published.

Procedures

Firstly you'll need the following information:

The sector file for the given airport;
As a minimum the SID charts for the given airport, though we recommend you download the complete collection.

In the real world most commercial traffic at large airports receive IFR clearance electronically via ACARS, and rarely exchange more than a few words with the clearance controller. On IVAO we can't do it this way, instead we use one of the following procedures. Which one is used will be described in the airport procedures.

Individual clearances
The individual clearance is mostly used at smaller airports, where traffic flow is too low to warrant setting up a blanket clearance system. When individual clearances are used every single clearance will have to be requested from the appropriate IFR unit, which may be a TCU, or an ACC.
First the IFR unit will then send you the clearance, which you read back, and if correct pass on to the pilot verbatim, (exactly as you received it from the IFR unit).
The prefix "ATC clears" will be used as described in MANOPS 333.2
Example: "ATC clears Air Canada 329 to the Ottawa VOR via flight planned route. Maintain 8'000. Depart runway 33, turn right, climb on course. Squawk 6372.

Blanket clearance
A blanket clearance means that the Terminal or Centre delegates the job of giving clearances to the clearance delivery controller. The delivery controller is no longer obliged to request the clearances from the IFR unit one by one, instead he will use the standard procedures for giving clearances which are defined in the airport information pages.

This procedure is generally used at larger airports, where it would be unpractical to use individual clearances. In this arrangement the prefix "ATC clears" will be dropped, as the clearance is not being relayed. Also the phrase "Clearance on request" should not be used, as this implies that you are waiting for someone to give you the clearance. If you have to delay the clearance use something along the lines of "Standby, I'll call you".
Example: "WestJet 722 is cleared to the Vancouver airport via Lester 7 departure, flight planned route. Depart runway 05, Squawk 3122.

All IFR clearances should be issued in the same format. This leads itself to ease of comprehension by the pilot as the information is issued to them and copied. The format of an IFR clearance can be found in MANOPS M412.1 and the accompanying note M412.1 Note. We will quickly describe the 10 points below.

Prefix.
The prefix "ATC clears" is used when the clearance is being relayed by a Tower or FSS on behalf of the IFR unit.
Aircraft identification.
Self explanatory
Clearance limit.
The clearance limit will either be the destination airport, or if traffic congestion, or local procedures require a navaid near the destination airport, or along the route.
SID.
When a SID is part of the clearance it will inserted here. Part 6 and 8 will then be omitted, as the SID contains the initial altitude and departure route.
Route.
Any modifications to the route. If no modifications are necessary the words "Flight Planned route" will be inserted here.
Altitude.
Initial altitude to which the aircraft may climb without receiving further clearance. Depending on traffic this may be the cruise altitude itself.
Mach-number.
Included in non-radar airspace clearances or when flow control programs are in effect. Usually never included in a departure clearance.
Departure, en route, approach, or holding instructions.
If issuing a NON-SID clearance departure instructions will be included here. The same applies for revised en-route clearances, or hold clearances.
Special instructions or information.
Transponder code is inserted here.
Traffic information.
Traffic information may be included when departing an uncontrolled aerodrome, or for a holding clearance.

If a release time is involved it will be mentioned after the read-back of the IFR clearance, as described in MANOPS 443.

Another obligation on IVAO is to update the cleared waypoint and cleared altitude of the aircraft. The format to be used is as follows:

In Cleared Altitude/FL (F8) enter the initial altitude assigned in the clearance;
In Cleared Waypoint (F5) enter the first letter, and number of the SID. If the aircraft is assigned a heading enter Hxxx where xxx is the heading (e.g. H090)
If the aircraft is cleared direct a waypoint enter the identifier of this waypoint, and finally if the aircraft is cleared to proceed on course leave the field blank.

e.g. F8 -> 050 for 5000ft, and F5 -> D5 for the Dorval 5 departure.

IvAc settings

We recommend you use the NARDS colour scheme (available in the downloads section) with all options other than ground detail and aircraft identification turned off.
Set your altitude filter to 000 <-> 030.