Clearance Delivery

Clearance Delivery


Clearance		Ground		Tower		Approach Radar		Area Control		FIS

Description

The Clearance delivery controller is responsible for providing departing aircraft with their IFR clearance. This 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,
understand the Flight Level assignment system,
read chapter 1, 2, 3 of ICAO doc 9432 - Manual of Radiotelephony.

Procedures

Firstly you'll need the following information:

The sector file for the given airport,
As a minimum the ground and standard departure charts for the given airport, though we recommend you download the complete collection.

In the real world some 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 the following procedures.

Elements of a Clearance:

A Clearance shall include the following items:

aircraft identification,
clearance limit, normally destination aerodrome,
designator of the assigned SID, if applicable,
initial level, except when this element is included in the SID description,
allocated SSR code,
any other necessary instructions or information not contained in the SID description, e.g. instructions relating to change of frequency.

Route:

Controllers should endeavor to clear an aircraft according to the route requested. Sometimes this may not be possible, and the controller should explain the reason why when issuing the clearance.

A pilot can request to use another runway than the one in use if he/she finds it is more convenient for him/her. Unless this causes troubles, there is no reason to refuse such a request (of course, this has to be coordinated with the Tower and Approach controllers when available).

Flight Level Allocation

IFR Traffic:

In Irish airspace from 3000ft up to FL290, the semi circular rule shall apply.

Eastbound: FL30, FL50, FL70, ..., FL130, FL150, FL170 etc.
Westbound: FL40, FL60, FL80, ..., FL120, FL140, FL160 etc.

From FL290 up to FL410, cruising levels are allocated according to the RVSM system.

Eastbound: FL290, FL310, FL330, FL350, FL370 etc.
Westbound: FL300, FL320, FL340, FL360, FL380 etc.

Cruising levels above FL410 up to FL660 shall be selected according to the semi circular rule, therefore, flight levels available are:

Eastbound: FL410, FL450, FL490, FL530, FL570 etc.
Westbound: FL430, FL470, FL510, FL550, FL590 etc.

VFR Traffic:

Unless authorised by the appropriate ATS authority, controlled VFR flights shall not be operated above FL200.

Eastbound: FL75, FL95, FL115, ... FL175, FL195
Westbound: FL85, FL105, FL125, ... FL165, FL185

Squawk

Transponder codes are four digit numbers transmitted by the transponder in an aircraft in response to a secondary surveillance radar interrogation signal to assist air traffic controllers in traffic separation. A discrete transponder code (often called a squawk code) is assigned by air traffic controllers to uniquely identify an aircraft. This allows easy identity of the aircraft on radar. Squawk codes are four-digit Octal numbers; the dials on a transponder read from zero to seven inclusive. Thus the lowest possible squawk is 0000 and the highest is 7777.

On Ireland we use the codes from the Irish Aviation Authority.

The section SSR Codes contains specific information about codes used in Ireland

Phraseology Examples

Example of Departure clearance (with SID):

RYR119G is a Ryanair Boeing 737, flying from Dublin to Brussels.

Pilot: "Dublin Delivery, good morning, RYR119G, information FOXTROT, request clearance to Brussels"

ATC: "RYR119G, Dublin Delivery, good morning, cleared to Brussels, LIFFY 4E departure, squawk 2012, information FOXTROT"

Pilot: "Cleared to Brussels, LIFFY 4E departure, squawk 2012, RYR119G"

ATC: "RYR119G, readback correct, report ready for push and start"

Pilot: "Wilco, RYR119G"

---

Pilot: "Ready for push and start, RYR119G"

ATC: "Contact Dublin Ground, 121.8"

Pilot: "121.8, RYR119G"

Example of Departure clearance (No SID):

REA6C is an Aer Arann ATR72, flying from Dublin to Cardiff.

Pilot: "Dublin, good morning, REA6C, information MIKE, request clearance to Cardiff"

ATC: "REA6C, Dublin Delivery, good morning, cleared to Cardiff, runway heading to 750ft, then right turn on track KLY, climb 5000ft, squawk 1424, information MIKE"

Pilot: "Cleared to Cardiff, runway heading to 750ft, right on track KLY, climb 5000ft, squawk 1424, REA6C"

ATC: "REA6C, readback correct, report ready for push and start"

Pilot: "Wilco, REA6C"

---

Pilot: "Ready for push and start, REA6C"

ATC: "REA6C, contact Dublin Ground 121.8"

Pilot: "121.8, REA6C"

Example of a VFR flight:

EICCN is a cessna 172 flying from Dublin to Donegal.

VFR traffic does not receive an ATC Clearence. They get instructions from the Tower Controller just before departure.

Pilot: "Dublin, good morning, EICCN, cessna 172, light aircraft parking B, information MIKE, VFR to Donegal, request start up"

ATC: "EICCN, Dublin Delivery, good morning, squawk 0060, information MIKE."

Pilot: "Squawk 0060, EICCN"

ATC: "Correct, contact Ground on 121.8 for start up."

Pilot: "121.8, EICCN"

Aircraft Labels

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/SID.

In Cleared Waypoint (F5) enter the first 3 or 4 letters, number and letter of the SID (GEL4E/LIFF4A). If the aircraft get vectors instead of a SID, use VECT as waypoint. If the aircraft is cleared direct to a waypoint enter the identifier of this waypoint.

IvAc settings

As a clearance controller, we recommend you set your altitude filter to 000 <-> 030.

Set your IN/OUT box to only display traffic departing the airport you are covering (e.g. EICK).

Set your ATC list to show all facilities of the airport you are covering as well as the appropriate area sector.