Clearance delivery may issue the following “abbreviated clearance” which includes a departure procedure (DP): “Cessna 1230 Alpha, cleared to La Guardia as filed, RINGOES 8 departure Phillipsburg transition, maintain 8,000. Departure control frequency will be 120.4, Squawk 0700.”

This clearance may be readily copied in shorthand as follows: “CAF RNGO8 PSB M80 DPC 120.4 SQ 0700.”

The information contained in this DP clearance is abbreviated using clearance shorthand (see appendix 1). The pilot should know the locations of the specified navigation facilities, together with the route and point-to-point time, before accepting the clearance.

The DP enables a pilot to study and understand the details of a departure before filing an IFR flight plan. It provides the information necessary to set up communication and navigation equipment and be ready for departure before requesting an IFR clearance.

Once the clearance is accepted, a pilot is required to comply with ATC instructions. A clearance different from that issued may be requested if the pilot considers another course of action more practicable or if aircraft equipment limitations or other considerations make acceptance of the clearance inadvisable.

A pilot should also request clarification or amendment, as appropriate, any time a clearance is not fully understood or considered unacceptable for safety of flight. The pilot is responsible for requesting an amended clearance if ATC issues a clearance that would cause a pilot to deviate from a rule or regulation or would place the aircraft in jeopardy.

ATC provides the pilot on an IFR clearance with separation from other IFR traffic. This separation is provided:

ATC does not provide separation for an aircraft operating:

In addition to heading and altitude assignments, ATC occasionally issues speed adjustments to maintain the required separations. For example: “Cessna 30 Alpha, slow to 100 knots.”

A pilot who receives speed adjustments is expected to maintain that speed plus or minus 10 knots. If for any reason the pilot is not able to accept a speed restriction, the pilot should advise ATC.

At times, ATC may also employ visual separation techniques to keep aircraft safely separated. A pilot who obtains visual contact with another aircraft may be asked to maintain visual separation or to follow the aircraft. For example: “Cessna 30 Alpha, maintain visual separation with that traffic, climb and maintain 7,000.”

The pilot’s acceptance of instructions to maintain visual separation or to follow another aircraft is an acknowledgment that the aircraft is maneuvered as necessary to maintain safe separation. It is also an acknowledgment that the pilot accepts the responsibility for wake turbulence avoidance.

In the absence of radar contact, ATC relies on position reports to assist in maintaining proper separation. Using the data transmitted by the pilot, the controller follows the progress of each flight. ATC must correlate the pilots’ reports to provide separation; therefore, the accuracy of each pilot’s report can affect the progress and safety of every other aircraft operating in the area on an IFR flight plan.

Instrument departure procedures are preplanned IFR procedures that provide obstruction clearance from the terminal area to the appropriate en route structure and provide the pilot with a way to depart the airport and transition to the en route structure safely. Pilots operating under 14 CFR part 91 are strongly encouraged to file and fly a DP when one is available. [Figure 10-2]

There are two types of DPs: Obstacle Departure Procedures (ODP), printed either textually or graphically, and Standard Instrument Departures (SID), always printed graphically. All DPs, either textual or graphic, may be designed using either conventional or area navigation (RNAV) criteria. RNAV procedures have RNAV printed in the title (e.g., SHEAD TWO DEPARTURE (RNAV)).