IFR Clearance / CRAFT Trainer
Realistic clearances: identify clearance limit, route, altitude, frequency and transponder code, with practice and checking.
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Choose a departure and listen to the clearance (hide the text to copy it by ear, as you would from clearance delivery) or read it. Copy it on the CRAFT pad: C the clearance limit, R the route, A the altitude to maintain — and whether it is "climb via SID except maintain" — with any "expect … minutes after departure", F the departure frequency, T the transponder code; at a field without a control tower also the void time and the time to advise ATC, the release time, or "hold for release". Check copy marks every element right or wrong and says what it means and where the rule is.
Then type your read back. The check scores what the AIM asks you to read back — the altitudes in the order given, any heading and your call sign — and the other numbers of the clearance (the departure frequency, the code, a void or release time), because pilots should read back the "numbers"; the limit, the route and "hold for release" are shown as recommended, since no FAA text requires them. Show a read back gives a complete one. Identify asks which words of the clearance are each element. Practice scores three clearances.
Three departures, each with a lesson: at Palm Springs the YUCCA ONE SID, whose top altitude is "assigned by ATC" (so "climb via SID except maintain") and whose chart prints the departure frequency and "expect filed altitude 10 minutes after departure" (so the controller may leave them out); Palm Springs again without a SID, departing under the diverse vector area — the published "radar vectors" option — with "fly runway heading" and an expected altitude; and Sedona, which has no control tower, with the BYTER ONE obstacle departure procedure and a void time, a release time or a hold for release.
Assumption and limits: educational use only. The departure procedures are FAA training copies of cycle 2610 (1 to 29 October 2026) — not current after that and not for navigation. Call signs are the AIM's example call signs, destinations are real airports, and the altitudes, codes, times, delays and the facility to advise at Sedona (named after the departure control on the chart) are made up for the exercise. The phrases are those printed in the controllers' order JO 7110.65 and in the AIM; the common pilot shorthand "radar vectors (fix), then as filed" is not printed there and is not used. The read-back check reads digits and spoken numbers; it cannot hear you.
Clearance items and their order: FAA Order JO 7110.65BB (effective 9 July 2026) 4-2-1 (aircraft identification, clearance limit with the word "airport", SID or vectors, route, altitude data in the order flown, frequency and beacon code) and the AIM 4-4-3. Departure clearances: JO 7110.65 4-3-2 (initial heading and diverse vector areas, "Depart via the (graphic ODP name) obstacle departure procedure", SID and transition, "Climb via SID" and "Climb via SID except maintain (altitude)" when a top altitude is not published, its example "Climb and maintain five thousand. Expect niner thousand one zero minutes after departure.") and 4-3-3 ("Cleared to (destination) airport, ([SIDname and number] and SID transition, as appropriate); then, as filed."; "CLEARED TO (destination) AIRPORT AS FILED. MAINTAIN (altitude)"); the AIM 5-2-6 and 5-2-9. Departure frequency and code: JO 7110.65 3-9-3 ("Departure frequency (frequency), squawk (code)"; the frequency may be left out when it is published on an assigned SID) and AIM 4-1-20.
Airports without an operating control tower: JO 7110.65 4-3-4 (a departure release, a hold for release with the expected delay, or a release time; "CLEARANCE VOID IF NOT OFF BY (clearance void time), and if required, IF NOT OFF BY (clearance void time), ADVISE (facility) NOT LATER THAN (time) OF INTENTIONS", no later than 30 minutes after the void time; a time check to the nearest quarter minute), the AIM 5-2-7 and the Pilot/Controller Glossary ("clearance void if not off by", "hold for release"). Numbers are said as JO 7110.65 2-4-17 prints them (separate digits, altitudes in thousands and hundreds, frequencies without the third decimal: 126.375 is "one two six point three seven").
Read back: the AIM 4-4-7 (read back altitudes, altitude restrictions and vectors in the order given, with the aircraft identification; altitudes printed on a charted procedure need not be read back unless the controller states them) and JO 7110.65 2-4-3 with its NOTE quoting the AIM ("pilots should read back the numbers": the frequency, the code and a void or release time are scored as numbers); JO 7110.65 4-3-2 NOTE (controllers or pilots may initiate read backs of a clearance: reading back the limit and the route is recommended, not required); the expected altitude matters for two-way radio failure (14 CFR 91.185 (c) (2)). The ability tested is the Instrument Rating ACS (FAA-S-ACS-8C) task IR.III.A: copy, read back, interpret and comply with ATC clearances, including clearance void times.
- FAA Order JO 7110.65BB, Air Traffic Control (effective 9 July 2026) 4-2-1 (clearance items and their order), 4-3-2 (departure clearances: initial heading and diverse vector areas, obstacle departure procedures, SID and transition, "Climb via SID", "Climb via SID except maintain", "climb and maintain ... expect ... minutes after departure"), 4-3-3 (abbreviated clearances: "then, as filed"), 4-3-4 (departure release, hold for release, release times, clearance void times, time checks), 3-9-3 (departure frequency and code), 2-4-3 (read back), 2-4-17 (numbers usage)
- Aeronautical Information Manual (effective 9 July 2026) 4-4-3 (clearance items), 4-4-7 (pilot responsibility upon clearance issuance: record the clearance, read back), 4-1-20 (transponder codes), 5-2-6 (abbreviated departure clearance, cleared as filed), 5-2-7 (departure restrictions, clearance void times, hold for release, release times), 5-2-9 (departure procedures and diverse vector areas)
- Pilot/Controller Glossary (effective 9 July 2026): clearance limit, clearance void if not off by (time), climb via, hold for release, expect further clearance; 14 CFR 91.185 (c) (2) (the expected altitude in two-way radio communications failure)
- FAA d-TPP cycle 2610 (1 to 29 October 2026), training copies already in the platform: YUCCA ONE DEPARTURE (RNAV) at Palm Springs (top altitude assigned by ATC, SOCAL departure 126.7, Palmdale transition), BYTER ONE DEPARTURE (OBSTACLE) (RNAV) at Sedona (Phoenix departure 126.375), the Palm Springs diverse vector area (radar vectors, climb to 7000)
- Instrument Rating Airman Certification Standards FAA-S-ACS-8C (November 2023) IR.III.A (compliance with ATC clearances: copy, read back, interpret, comply; clearance void times)
- Model choices of this tool (stated on the page): the AIM's example call signs, real destination airports, generated altitudes, codes (four digits 0-7 starting 2 to 6), times and delays, the facility to advise at Sedona named after the chart's departure control, scoring