Pilot's tip of the week

Contacting Departure

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Subscriber question:

"When departing from a towered field (Class C or D) on an IFR flight plan, do you wait for the tower to tell you to contact departure frequency or do it after you are airborne without instruction from the tower?" - Andrew

John:

Contacting Departure“Always wait for the tower to issue instructions to contact departure. The controller may be keeping you on the tower frequency to resolve a conflict in the local traffic area.

If you have flown a reasonable distance – a mile or two – and still not have been transferred to departure, ask the tower. The controller’s first transmission may have been blocked or just simply forgotten.”

(NEW) IFR Mastery scenario #173 “Mammoth Winds West of Macon” is now available. A last-minute switch to a slower airplane is unfortunate, but flight planning shows strong tailwinds will almost make up the difference. The time and range should still work—until you level off in cruise and see an ETA an hour further out than you anticipated. Surely that can’t be right. But what is right? Watch the Intro video.

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