On Friday, June 26, 2020 at 9:54:07 PM UTC-7, Charles Longley wrote:
I am in Twisp, WA right now. Some of my friends got up into a wave and easily made it to 18,000’. There is no wave window right close by.
My question is can someone in a glider get an IFR clearance to go above 180? Assuming they have an Instrument rating and the glider is appropriately equipped.

Charles:
There are a couple of options.
The options are all dependent on the pilot choice and certificate, the equipment in the glider, recent experience and LOAs, or not.

For the simplest, if the pilot and machine are equipped and current, and you know for what you ask, with correct phraseology, ATC may give you lots of freedom.
Keyword - MAY. Or may not. It's their discretion.
And once you are "with them", you have to comply, or play the 'unable' card,
or communicate well and negotiate well, and succeed.
(Success in my book means no enforcement action.)


There is wave flying involving being mostly stationary and climbing.
That's the common view and use of "Wave Window" LOAs.
The LOA creates a chimney of airspace and all other IFR Class A traffic
is typically separated from that airspace. All users inside that chimney are VMC providing their own separation. The equipment, communications and protocol are all dependent on that particular LOA. Mode C or not, Radio or not, etc.

Then there is XC in wave in Class A.
This is a whole additional layer of complexity.
There are ATC geographic and radio handoff considerations, each ATC facility may have a different idea of what LOA they will create with you. It is hugely dependent on your topography and the neighborhood IFR traffic.

Henry Combs wanted to set the US straight distance record (and distance to Goal) by beginning in Sierra Wave and transitioning easterly with the front, AZ mountains, NM mountains, into central states and thermalling to an eventual landing. Despite LOAs, confirming by phone on ground to each ATC along the way, he got the door slammed on his flights several times, by a controller unwilling to cooperate with a legal user.
(You wanna do what? I don't have to give you that.)

We created segmented blocks up the Sierras, from Cal City to BIH, to have stepping stones that allow ATC to route that IFR traffic around the glider, without alienating the airliners. When the military is hot, we have a different LOA to allow joint use, accepting the risk of being inhaled by a jet, in a Restricted Area. Just north of BIH, the airspace is assigned to Oakland Center.

Based on the years of good history (read that as ZERO glider pilot screwups) with Joshua Approach, Tito had asked Oakland Center for an LOA for Class A access for record pursuits. That LOA was granted. The LOA permits
Mode C, radio equipped, Instrument rated pilots to fly VMC in Class A on a
block altitude assignment. ATC can see the traffic, keep IFR machinery from touching VMC gliders.

This procedure requires more education on the part of the typical recreational soaring pilot than they are sometimes willing to invest. I have helped with LOAs for different locations, and situations. I have trained many pilots for using the Joshua Approach letters I hold, and many other pilots have gone on to ask for a duplicate individual LOA based on that history.

https://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-3....049937#comment

I just hope that the glider pilots who seek this relationship with ATC help keep the record of flight safety and compliance just as clean. I want this privilege to continue for another 40 years. The views are magnificent. And really, there isn't that much traffic up there.....

Anybody watching 'AC' flying on the SSA tracker today? Another speed record falling to the Nixus (while flying on these Caracole LOAs I am mentioning).
It isn't really a Ventus doing that track today!

Can you do IFR clearances in a glider? Yes. Just do them correctly.
Sometimes lives depend on that.

Fly safely.

Cindy Brickner
SSA Airspace Committee

writercindyb at the G-really big mail .com