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2 Answers

Legal altitude for filing?

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Instrument Rating

If the OROCA for my area of flight is 2000, is this the lowest legal altitude that I could file if my course was an off-airway route?

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2 Answers



  1. John D Collins on Dec 10, 2015

    It is a legal altitude for filing, but that does not mean that you will be cleared at that altitude. ATC will use there own minimum IFR altitude for your route. The minimum altitude for IFR operation on a random route outside of the designated mountainous areas is 1000 feet above the highest obstacle within +/- 4 NM of the route center line. In most cases, the pilot does not have adequate information to determine what the route minimum is, so as a practical matter, ATC assigns an altitude that meets this requirement.

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  2. Vitaliy Krivoruk on Dec 11, 2015

    Just to add a quick story to this as an example.

    I was flying from KALW-KSZT and on my last leg I was cleared direct to SZT. I was level at 7,000ft and decided to glance at the sectional to see how high the terrain was since it is a mountainous area. I realized that our course was right over a peak that was about 5,100ft. So I got curious because I was aware of the requirement that IFR traffic needs to be at least 2,000ft AGL above obstacles within a 4nm radius in a mountainous area. Sure enough, less than a minute later Seattle Center (pretty sure it was center…) came on and asked us to climb and maintain 7,100ft. Just enough to keep us 2,000ft above the peak. It was a completely clear day by the way, but I thought it was an interesting example of what John D Collins mentioned.

    Thank you, and happy landings!

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