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How to get an IFR clearance at a non-towered airport

Flight Training Central

For an instrument pilot, though, there is one key difference between a smaller, non-towered airport and a larger one with an air traffic control tower: obtaining an IFR clearance. Call for your IFR clearance, including route, altitude, and transponder code. Here are three ways to get a clearance at a non-towered airport.

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How to Choose the Best Alternate Airport: A Guide for Instrument Pilots

Flight Training Central

Reality IFR Alternate Airport Planning Contingency planning is even more important for IFR pilots on cross-country flights where a cloud ceiling shift of 100’ or visibility change of a ½ mile can mean the difference between seeing the runway at the end of an instrument approach or having to go around and find another place to land.

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Mountain View

Photographic Logbook

Dramatic Ceiling Date Aircraft Route of Flight Time (hrs) Total (hrs) 05 Jul 2024 N21481 SDC (Sodus, NY) - LKP (Lake Placid, NY) - SDC 3.2 While I have an instrument rating in my back pocket and the option to request a pop-up IFR clearance, I try to avoid playing that card unless it's truly necessary.

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Long Trips & Small Airplanes

Plane and Pilot

The route is simple, GPS direct, but…there’s my personal 1,000-foot en route ceiling requirement, and those silly Smoky Mountains. Also, from when I lived out West, there was the mountaintop clearance guideline—1,000 feet for every 10 knots of wind, with 30 knots meaning no-go. It was now time to plan the trip.

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Pilot’s Guide to Class E Airspace

Flight Training Central

While Class E airspace is considered controlled airspace, you do not need an ATC clearance to fly in it. Since Class “E” airspace is basically “everywhere”, most of the focus is placed on identifying the ceiling and floor of the airspace.

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How Low is Too Low?

Plane and Pilot

The conditions were a mile of visibility and about 500 feet of ragged ceiling, barely enough to maintain orientation by landmarks passing below. A low ceiling absolutely ends a planned flight, though visibility may be the legal determining factor in some situations. If on radar vectors, the controller may have another option for you.

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Class B Airspace Explained

Pilot Institute

Pilots must meet equipment and certification requirements and have ATC clearance to enter. This central core extends up to around 10,000 feet MSL, the airspace’s ceiling. However, the ceiling for each shelf is the same as the core. Although Class B airspace has a typical ceiling of 10,000 feet MSL, exceptions exist.