Fliteidol
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2005
- Posts
- 267
Got a question for the ATC folks. I'm doing more domestic flying these days and with the recent introduction of "climb via the SID" in virtually every clearance, are departure controllers aware of what that means to me as a pilot? I have departed recently a number of times from a Southern California airport on a SID with a climb via clearance. There is a speed and altitude constraint at 8000ft however when switched to SOCAL by tower the controller each time has said "climb and maintain 1-5 thousand feet." Each time I have asked if that is an unrestricted climb with varying results. The last guy actually said "well duh......yeahhhhh climb to 1-5 thousand." In the rest of the world where the climb/descend via concept has been in effect for a very long time, the controller will almost always specify if you need to comply with a constraint if he issues a clearance above it. In the US they seem to get the concept for a STAR but I have very mixed and mostly opposite results for a SID. Any thoughts?