Lost Communications in IFR - The 91.185 Debate

Do you remember your IFR training? Yes? Good. Me too. Even though my current career is limited to VFR flying only, I still aim to keep my part 91 IFR currency proficient by doing VFR practice approaches and flying IMC on IFR flight plans on part 91 reposition legs.

Actually, my first two students were both instrument students. I love teaching instrument. I love the streamlined rules and a “if this then that” methodology.

This brings me to the point I’d like to make today; what to do when you lose comms in IMC.

A lot of people minimize the regulation 91.185 into the acronym AVEF MEA for IFR lost comms. Most of you have heard this phrase before, and if you haven’t, here’s what it means:

The priority of the route is AVEF, in this order: assigned, vectored, expected, filed.

The priority of the altitude is MEA, the highest of: minimum enroute altitude, expected altitude, or assigned altitude.

However, this flow misses the biggest part of the regulation, LEAVING THE CLEARANCE LIMIT.

What is the clearance limit?

Many people, me previously included, would say, “when I reach the IAF on the approach I filed, and if I was early on my ETA to the airport, I would establish a hold on the IAF until I neared my ETA, then I would commence my approach as close to my ETA as possible.” This idea works, if you were cleared to the IAF only.

The argument my DPE made was if you are cleared to the airport, you do not need to hold at the IAF until you are close to your ETA. How do you know if you’re cleared to the airport? Well, ATC would tell you in your good ole CRAFT clearance. Remember that thing you receive before you depart? “November 123AB, you are cleared to Palm Springs International Airport via…” Here, you are cleared to the airport, which is not a fix in the sky, it’s on the ground.

How do you know if you are not cleared to the airport? Well they will say it. “November 123AB, you are cleared to Palm Springs VORTAC via…. you can expect further clearance at 1215Z.”

I asked the DPE, “why would they not clear you to the airport?” He said, “well, maybe there’s a disabled aircraft on the runway and they can’t clear you because the runways are closed. They are getting you as close as they can to where you want to go with the hopes it will open up when you are en route. In a situation like this, I wouldn’t depart. I would call back in an hour and see if the runway is reopened and depart then.”

I debated this multiple times around the CFI white table at my instructing job. Some people even argued that if they were cleared to the airport, they would actually fly to the fix over the airport at the highest MEA, hold over the airport, then go off route to the IAF, and then commence the approach.

What is an expected altitude in a CRAFT?

Another thing that confused a lot of students and CFIs alike is the expected altitude in your CRAFT clearance.

With this example CRAFT clearance, let’s examine these two scenarios:

(This also highlights why it’s so important to accurately time your flight with the required clock in your IFR equipment. I remember one time I heard a CFI say that the reason we start our timer on departure was so we knew roughly how far we are from the airport and if we could turn around and make the landing in case of an engine failure… Not quite true in an IFR environment!)

If you answered the first bullet point with, “I will stay at 9,000’ until minute 3 and then I will commence my climb to 12,000” and answered bullet two with, “12,000 is no longer a valid expected altitude because the it’s after minute 3 of the flight. I will instead climb to the minimum enroute altitude or assigned altitude, whichever is higher,” you are correct.

The FAR/AIM has the easiest way to understand this regulation. This is how I taught it to my students and how I would fly it in a real world scenario.

What do you think? Were you also taught this way?