A word of warning about picking up clearances in the air. There have
been some accidents where a plane was circling low while waiting for
his clearance. There have also been some violations for penetrating
the clouds before the clearance is received. You need to have an "out"
in case you cannot pick up your clearance quickly. Like the ability to
fly under the ceiling safely, or return to the airport. ATC is under
no obligation to clear you immediately upon request. I myself have
gotten into some funky situations trying to pick up an IFR clearance,
under a low cloud deck. ATC doesn't always do it "right" or convenient
to you. If it is working for you, fine, but you need to think about
these things. Most scheduled service have op specs against picking up
IFR cleanance in the air for the above reasons (and probably others I
haven't thought of). Don't get casual about it. I for one won't do it
unless I can proceed VFR to the next airport on my route. I choose to
get void time. I"ll admit, sometimes I have had to wait, but it is
rare and at least I am waiting on the ground, not in the air.

Andrew Gideon wrote in message gonline.com...
Teacherjh wrote:

My first flight (I think it was my first) after getting my rating was a
CAVU day out of TEB, but I filed IFR for practice in the system(which my
instructor
encouraged me to do). We waited ONE HOUR at the hold line in an Arrow.

Lesson learned.

Well, that's TEB. I did the same thing out of CDW when I first got my
rating, and was out in not completely unreasonable time.

I've had no luck IFRing out of Linden, though. The one time I tried, I was
calling and calling and calling for Newark from the ramp. When they'd
finally answered, we'd passed the time by which we'd have had to depart to
make our schedule. So we simply took off and picked up a new clearance in
the air to a closer destination.

My friend ended up late to work anyway, but I only feel 50% guilty because
he wasn't exactly rushing to depart for our return to Linden grin.

- Andrew