The first part of the communications rule directs you to continue to your destination, respecting any holds or clearance limits along the way; now you are faced with the question of what route to fly. Equally sensible, this part of the problem is solved in one of three possible ways: You will fly via the last assigned route, the route ATC advised you might expect in a further clearance, or in the absence of the preceding two, the route you filed in your flight plan.
To illustrate, suppose you plan a trip from Lexington, Kentucky, to Bluefield, West Virginia (Fig. 12-1). You requested Victor 178 to
Fig. 12-1. Airways and navigational facilities between Lexington,
Kentucky, and Bluefield, West Virginia. (Copyright Jeppesen Sanderson Inc., 1979, 1997; all rights reserved; not to be used for navigation)
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Bluefield, and your clearance comes through “as filed.” If radio fail- ure occurs anywhere along the route, you will continue on Victor 178 to the Bluefield VOR. So much for the first situation.
In the second case (same route, same clearance), you have just passed LOGIC intersection when Indianapolis Center comes up with this little gem: “Barnburner 1234 Alpha, you are now cleared to the TRENT intersection, maintain 7000 and expect further clearance at 46 via Victor 339 Hazard; Victor 140 Bluefield.” A couple of minutes after acknowledging this clearance, your radios give up. Combining your knowledge of the first two communications-failure rules, you will hold at TRENT until 46 minutes past the hour and then proceed to Bluefield via Victor 339 Hazard and Victor 140; that’s the clearance ATC advised you to expect, so it takes precedence.
Back up one more time and copy the following clearance on the ground at Lexington: “Barnburner 1234 Alpha is cleared to the TRENT intersection via radar vectors to Victor 178, climb to and maintain 7000, expect further clearance at 28.” The implication is that your flight cannot be cleared all the way to Bluefield at this time, but ATC is willing to get you started with a clearance as far as TRENT inter- section, with the rest of the routing to follow. You accept, and as soon as Departure Control has vectored you onto Victor 178 10 miles from LOGIC, the radios die. Proceed to TRENT, hold until 28, and then continue down Victor 178. In the absence of an assigned rout- ing, without even a routing to expect, you’re expected to fly just as you requested when you filed your flight plan.
ATC will frequently direct you around other traffic, or thunder- storms, or if they’re not particularly busy, they will sometimes vec- tor you all the way home. Should radio failure rear its ugly head at this point in an IFR flight, you will proceed directly to the fix to which you were being vectored (using your own navigational skills, of course). Good judgment once again prevails, as it would be rather stupid to turn and fly into a thunderstorm in order to go direct to the next VOR, according to the rule. If you were advised of a storm cell 10 miles wide straight ahead and then were given vec- tors around it, common sense would dictate continuing the vector until you are reasonably certain you are past the storm. Don’t ever let anything or anybody force you to fly through a thunderstorm. And don’t worry about traffic separation if you wisely elect to con- tinue around the storm after the radios stop radioing; you had to be in radar contact to get the vector in the first place, and the controller would probably breathe a sigh of relief, watching you exhibit some “aeronautical smarts.”
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In summary, you are expected to fly one of these three routes when the thread of communication snaps (they are listed in order of precedence):
1. The route you have been assigned as part of a clearance. 2. The route that ATC advised you might expect in a further
clearance.
3. As a last resort, the route you filed in your flight plan.
(When radar vectored, proceed directly — or as appropriate — to the fix to which you were being vectored.)
How High?
Only one more question needs an answer to solve this three- dimensional problem of what to do when you realize you’re talking to yourself, and that’s the one regarding altitude. Your safety is the big concern here, so the rules require you to fly at the highest, and therefore the safest, of these altitudes:
1. The last assigned altitude.
2. The altitude ATC has advised you may expect in a further clearance.
3. The Minimum Enroute Altitude (MEA) for the particular airway segment in which you are operating.
To illustrate, consider the same Lexington-Bluefield trip; you were cleared “to the Bluefield Airport via Victor 178, climb to and maintain 9000.” If radio failure happens anywhere along this route, you will remain at 9000 until reaching Bluefield (notice that there are no higher MEAs on this route), hold until your ETA, and make the approach. You are obliged to stay at 9000 until your time runs out and then to descend in the holding pattern prior to executing the approach. (By the way, in a situation like this, the approach you use is entirely up to you; anything published is legal.)
Had you requested 9000 but ATC was unable to grant it in time for your takeoff, they might have cleared you “to the TRENT inter- section, maintain 5000, expect 9000 after TRENT, expect further clear- ance at 36.” You take off, climb to 5000, and the radios quit before you reach TRENT intersection. Hold there until 36 minutes past the hour, depart TRENT climbing to 9000, and maintain that altitude all the way to Bluefield. Again, you’re above all the MEAs on the airway,
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and since you had been advised to expect 9000 feet after TRENT, that’s the altitude you fly.
But maybe the airways are so congested that Center can clear you only to LOGIC intersection at 5000 with no promise of the nec- essary higher altitude at that time. Your task is to determine if there are any MEAs higher than your last assigned altitude of 5000. Sure enough, you’ll need to climb to 8000 feet for the segment between TRENT and SLINK and then descend to 6000 for the final segment into Bluefield.
You are expected to fly altitudes as published on the enroute chart when they apply. For example, in the absence of an assigned altitude, you would fly at 4700 feet from Hazard to the STACY inter- section. East-odd, west-even, and the “nearest thousand” don’t count here — fly ’em like you see ’em!
Summing it up, your determination of what altitude to fly is rather simple; it’s the last assigned altitude or the MEA, whichever is higher. If ATC has advised you to expect a higher altitude enroute, that’s the one that applies. Whenever a route segment calls for an MEA higher than anything you have been assigned or advised to expect, start climbing to the higher MEA over the fix that begins that segment and begin descending to the previous highest altitude over the fix that ter- minates the segment. Airway segments are defined by enroute VORs and elsewhere by short perpendicular lines — T-bars, if you will — on the airway centerline. When you see a VOR or a T-bar on the airway, look for a change in MEA. (When it’s unsafe because of terrain or obstructions to start climbing at the beginning of an airway segment, the intersection will be clearly marked with a Minimum Crossing
Altitude symbol, requiring you to be at or above a specified level
before proceeding. You should climb in a racetrack holding pattern or start climbing before reaching the intersection.)
When dealing with a communications-failure situation, there’s one more area in which pilots and controllers must agree; you must not comply with the conditions of a clearance unless you are reason- ably certain that ATC has received your acknowledgment. If you have any doubt, proceed as if you had never heard the instructions because a clearance is considered valid only when it is acknowledged.
Here are the regulations in capsule form. When you lose two-way radio communications while in IFR conditions, you will:
1. Maintain VFR and land as soon as practical if the failure occurs in VFR conditions or if VFR is encountered after the failure. (This rule is to be salted heavily with common sense and good judgment.)
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2. Route: Continue to your destination on the last assigned route
or a route ATC has advised you may expect or the route filed in
your flight plan. When being radar vectored, proceed directly to the fix.
3. Distance: Proceed to the clearance limit and hold at the appropriate fix until the EFC or EAC time; then continue on your route. If the clearance limit is the destination airport, hold at the last assigned or appropriate altitude until your ETA, based on takeoff time plus ETE.
4. Altitude: Maintain the last assigned altitude or the MEA, whichever is higher, or at the prescribed fix, climb to the altitude ATC has advised you to expect. If subsequent MEAs are higher than the assigned or expected altitude, climb to the higher MEA for the particular airway segment and then descend to the former highest altitude.
These rules work. Don’t expect to be treated like a hero at the completion of a no-radio IFR flight because the controllers know what you will do and make traffic adjustments as required. But this mutual assistance pact works only if pilots and controllers follow the rules. So hold up your end of the bargain: Take time now and at frequent intervals to memorize and refresh your understanding of the communications-failure procedures; when it happens, it’s too late to learn.