IFR Clearances On A Recorded Line

[KnockKnock]

A pilot calls over the public phone line and requests his clearance. Can you issue it or does it have to be over a recorded line? Even if their readback is simply "Roger", it still has to be recorded, does it not?

 

[Electricfence]

4-2-1. no where does it say it has to be recorded. I believe you can, make sure you give them a release time so you can protect for the departure. However, getting just a roger is an awful practice, not only do you not have it recorded to cover yourself, you don't even know if they got it right. ask if they can depart VFR, hope they say yes, give them their squawk and a frequency, maybe an altitude to maintain and say they will get their clearance in the air. Then once in the air deliver the rest and its recorded and you're all good. Im assuming they are coming off a satellite airport. Is that why they called on the phone?

 

[170tovocus]

Legally I’m not sure, but I won’t do it. On the few occasions I’ve had that happen, I’ve just asked the pilot to call back on the recorded line and they’ve never had an issue with it. If it was just a release time I might be more willing to consider it, but there’s so much important information in an IFR clearance that I wouldn’t want to risk it. Imagine if 3 hours later the pilot makes a turn that the controller isn’t expecting and causes a deal because his cleared route is different from what he thought it was - it would just be your word against his as to who messed up.

A local pilot friend of mine often jokes that he’s just gonna call my cell phone for a clearance when the frequency is too busy to get through. Fortunately he hasn’t tried it yet.

 

[Stinger]

I spent years at an up/down that didn't have any recorded phone lines.
I didn't see any reason why a clearance being recorded would be needed. Pilot is responsible to ensure that he can fly that IFR clearance. If he departs and then crashes before he shows up on radar, I'm going to be looking for him and making calls whether his clearance has voided out or not.

 

[KnockKnock]

4-2-1. no where does it say it has to be recorded. I believe you can, make sure you give them a release time so you can protect for the departure. However, getting just a roger is an awful practice, not only do you not have it recorded to cover yourself, you don't even know if they got it right. ask if they can depart VFR, hope they say yes, give them their squawk and a frequency, maybe an altitude to maintain and say they will get their clearance in the air. Then once in the air deliver the rest and its recorded and you're all good. Im assuming they are coming off a satellite airport. Is that why they called on the phone?

I'm at a VFR tower. We had a pilot call up requesting info on field conditions, and did a "while I've gotcha, can I get my clearance?" kind of thing. I won't do it, but another controller said he would've and I've worked with others in the past that have as well.

 

[thesoonerkid]

If I did that (and I wouldn’t) once they’re airborne, or say in a tower when they’re taxi’ing I would just say something along the lines I just want to double check your routing. I’m showing such and such.

 

[Maintainvfr]

I spent years at an up/down that didn't have any recorded phone lines.
I didn't see any reason why a clearance being recorded would be needed. Pilot is responsible to ensure that he can fly that IFR clearance. If he departs and then crashes before he shows up on radar, I'm going to be looking for him and making calls whether his clearance has voided out or not.

There's a tracon somewhere without any recorded phone lines?

 

[Stinger]

There's a tracon somewhere without any recorded phone lines?

Used to be. New facility that was opened in the mid 2000s. Or it may have been a phone forwarding issue where the tracon number wasn't recorded, but the tower was. We had two commercial phone numbers in the tower, one was the normal FAA desk phone, the other was a cordless phone. When I was there, they switched the lines for those phones, and I remember hearing the tech guys saying they still couldn't get the system to record because of some issue with how it was all wired. Since I've been gone, they may have finally rerouted enough wires to have one of the lines recorded.

Another facility I was at had too many things being recorded between frequencies and phones that they ran out of recording channels. Something like 35 frequencies and then a phone line. I was reading through the local documents, and we had a frequency that wasn't recorded just because there was no room for it.

 

[Southern]

This actually happened at my center the other day a pilot called up asking for a clearance from the Sup’s desk and we told him to call flight service or check in on frequency, not sure about the legality of it but imagine if word got out that aircraft could pick up a clearance by calling the enroute center? The lines would always be busy and emergency information would potentially be blocked or lagged because of this.

 

[N737ER]

Closest I've had to this situation: I received a call through the PABX line on position from a pilot requesting clearance (he was one of the regular box haulers). I figured since it was on the position (R-Side at a Center) it was recorded, I gave the clearance, and 5-7min later he was in the air talking to me on frequency. At the airport in question there is barely any radio coverage below 6000ft.