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T-213 and T-215 provide non-vector guidance around
the west side of the Cincinnati Class B airspace.
in most GPS databases. Yet pilots often still file “direct” into busy airspace, adding to their workload later on.
That experience and a few others have taught me there are a number of “IFR oddities” that nonetheless we may be asked to perform with little notice at any time. Sometimes it’s easier to accept the greater responsibility, such as fil- ing a SID or STAR, because it helps you better prepare and therefore reduces your inflight workload. What for one pilot is an oddity may be a Standard Operating Procedure for another. The trick is to reduce the number of your oddities. Here are a few more I’ve experienced.
T Routes
Do you remember Victor airways? I’m joking, because for pilots in many areas, for example, the northeastern U.S., flying along airways defined by ground-based VORs is still the norm (even if we fly them using space-based GPS). However, if you earned your Instrument rating more than a decade or so ago, and have not taken an up-to-date Instrument Proficiency Check in that time, the introduction of T routes may have slipped by you. Yet, if you file using an IFR-approved GPS you may be assigned one at any time.
A Tango, or “T,” route is an enroute airway defined by GPS waypoints instead of ground-based navigation. Just like Vic- tor airways, if you have a GPS that has an airways database, then you can load T routes into your flight plan and include them in your filed flight plan if they make sense. T routes are low altitude airways (from 1,200 AGL to 18,000 feet, just like Victor airways) often used in the busy airspace around major airports, but are also established in locations where VOR stations have been decommissioned. They are depicted in blue on Low Altitude Enroutes. T routes have minimum altitudes similar to a Minimum Obstacle Clearance Altitude (MOCA) since there is no concern about signal reception that is part of the calculation of a Minimum Enroute Altitude (MEA). T routes sometimes have a maximum authorized
altitude MAA) also, to deconflict them from arrival and departure pathways into nearby commercial airports.
T routes are very easy to fly as long as you know they ex- ist. Look for them as you plan f lights that get close to Class B and busier Class C airports, and include them in your flight plan to avoid having to make an inflight adjustment.
Unexpected Holds
When was the last time you were unexpectedly assigned a holding pattern outside of a training environment? I’ve been instrument rated for over 30 years, and as best I can recall the answer for me is “three.” Once was an IFR arrival into Tullahoma, Tennessee for a fly-in and I had to wait my turn for the approach at the nontowered airport. Another was also a hold for traffic ahead of me for an approach. The third time was a radar outage, and the controller was shunting me and a bunch of others into holds until they could re-clear us all onto airways.
I’ve also done dozens of holds after instrument approaches that resulted in missed approaches because of real-world below minimums weather. But I don’t consider those holds to be “unexpected” because I reviewed them beforehand as part of my instrument approach brief.
Yet, you can be assigned a hold at any time and be ex- pected to carry it out flawlessly. It’s recommended that ATC provide at least three minutes notice of a hold based on your current ground speed, but even that is not abso- lute. If you’re assigned a published hold, that is, a holding pattern depicted on an instrument publication, it’s easy to visualize the pattern and from there how you will enter – if you know where to look. The hold may be “published” on a Low Altitude Enroute chart, or an approach chart, or a SID or STAR...but not necessarily on all of them.
If you can’t find the depiction right away, treat it like an unpublished hold. In that event I recommend a simple technique: draw the picture. On your kneeboard, electronic tablet or whatever you use for notes and clearances in the cockpit, draw a little triangle or dot representing the holding fix. Then draw the hold’s racetrack pattern remembering that you hold inbound on the direction you’re told to hold (i.e., if told to “hold southeast,” you’ll be heading northwest as you approach the holding fix). Remember also that stan- dard holding patterns have right-hand turns unless you are told otherwise (backward from traffic patterns and circling to land).
Find or draw the picture, then visualize (or draw) a line that represents the direction you’re headed toward the fix before holding. Then figure out your holding pattern entry. Of course, some GPS units give you the ability to draw an unpublished hold electronically and even let the autopilot fly your newly defined hold. No matter what technology you use, practice it a few times under the hood because you never know when you might be tasked to do this in actual IMC with little warning.
Filed vs. Expected
The last IFR oddity I’ll cover is not one of the basics you may have forgotten or even a new rule that has changed
Jet Journal July 2020 / TWIN & TURBINE • 21