Report Leaving Assigned Altitude?

Something that has been missed in the responses to your post is that when
given a cruise clearance you can bob up and down between the assigned cruise
altitude and the MEA without any report at all UNTIL you report leaving the
assigned cruise altitude...at that point, ATC can assign 7000 (in your
example) to another aircraft. Don't report leaving until you know for sure
that you won't be going back up. The most practical use of a cruise
clearance is when you suspect that the ride or the weather would be better
at a lower altitude, so you descend without saying a word to ATC and take a
look...if conditions are better, you say "Cessna blah blah requests 5000 (or
whatever) as a hard altitude" and stay there. If they are not, you go back
up or choose an intermediate altitude. Bottom line is that you own the block
of airspace between the assigned cruise altitude and the MEA and can do
whatever you want to do within that block without report UNTIL you make the
report...then you have given up the cruise altitude. Read the "Cruise"
definition in the Pilot/Controller Glossary.

Bob Gardner

"John Clonts" wrote in message
...
1) "N7NZ, cleared direct BMQ cruise 7000". Do I report subsequent
descents?
E.g. "leaving 7000 descending 5000"? Then later "leaving 5000 descending
2000"?

2) Its VMC and I'm IFR to Temple, level at 5000. At 25 miles out I report
Temple in sight. "N7NZ cleared visual approach to Temple, remain this
frequency til you're closer in". At this point I may descend at will,
right? When I do decide to descend, do I report leaving 5000?

3) I'm level at 7000. "N7NZ, descend 3000 pilots discretion". Do I
report
my descent? Can I level off at an intermediate altitude, and if so, do I
eventually report leaving that altitude?E.g. "leaving 7000 descending
5000"?
Then later "leaving 5000 descending 3000"?

Please read the above "do I" as "am I required to". In my (small) IFR
experience to this point I have made the reports in many/all the above
cases, so I'm now trying to confirm which of them are unnecessary...

Thanks!
John Clonts
Temple, Texas
N7NZ