I was back in the classroom for another ground lesson with the topic of the day being Clearances. What about clearances you ask? We talked about the Elements of an IFR Clearance, IFR Departure Clearances and how to get them, VFR on Top, Clearance Readback, Clearance Shorthand, and Departure Restrictions.
Today’s lesson was very interesting and a lot was covered, but I think the most significant thing I learned was the acronym CRAFT. CRAFT is simply a tool which can be utilized to assist pilots in the copying (or writing) of clearances as they are given by ATC, with the letters of the acronym representing the major components of an IFR cleareance…
Clearance Limit - Commonly the destination airport
Route - The route of flight to the clearance limit
Altitude - Initial and final climb altitudes
Frequency - The frequency of the radar facility handling departures
Transponder - The transponder code assigned for your flight
CRAFT is a useful tool to assist you in remembering the sequence in which a clearance is given to you and when used in combination with Clearance Shorthand, it is a way for you to quickly write down the clearance as it is given. Remember the other day when I said I couldn’t keep up when trying to write my clearance down, well I wasn’t expected to that day, but knowing the CRAFT acronym and the appropriate shorthand sure would have helped. For example, suppose my clearance was given to me as…
Cessna 1234, cleared to the Stockton airport, via Livermore One Departure, Altam, Victor-244, Manteca, Direct, climb and maintain 4000, expect 5000 10 minutes after departure, departure frequency is 123.85, SQUAWK 2246.
Using the CRAFT acronym, written vertically down the page on your kneeboard, you would use Clearance Shorthand and copy the clearance down as…
C SCK
R LVK1/Altam/V244/ECA/D->
A 4K 5K/10
F 123.85
T 2246
While the example I give is fairly simple, you see how these methods make the act of copying down a clearance much easier than just trying to write down what the controller says (which is what I had attempted). While I obviously need a lot of practice before I can perfect the skill, at least I feel like I have set of tools that will help make the process more manageable next time.
If you are interested, you can read a bit more about Clearances and Clearance Shorthand in the FAA’s Instrument Flying Handbook (8.39 MB). The section on Clearances starts on page 10-3 (pg 51 of the PDF), and Appendix A on page A-1 (page 99 of the PDF) contains a list of recommended shorthand.
Haha wow. CRAFT seems like such a clever technique!