Procedural Notes  DP Responsibilities  Departures From Tower-Controlled Airports  Departures From Airports Without an  Operating Control Tower  An important consideration to make during your flight  planning is whether or not you are able to fly your chosen  departure procedure as charted.  Responsibility for the safe execution of DPs rests on the  shoulders of both ATC and the pilot. Without the interest  and attention of both parties, the IFR system cannot work  in harmony, and achievement of safety is impossible.  ATC, in all forms, is responsible for issuing clearances  appropriate to the operations being conducted, assigning  altitudes for IFR flight above the minimum IFR altitudes for  a specific area of controlled airspace, ensuring the pilot has  acknowledged the clearance or instructions, and ensuring  the correct read back of instructions. Specifically related to  departures, ATC is responsible for specifying the direction  of takeoff or initial heading when necessary, obtaining pilot  concurrence that the procedure complies with local traffic  patterns, terrain, and obstruction clearance, and including  DP as part of the ATC clearance when pilot compliance for  separation is necessary.  The pilot has a number of responsibilities when simply  operating in conjunction with ATC or when using DPs under  an IFR clearance:  When planning for a departure, pilots should:  t f l i There are hundreds of airports across the United States  hat operate successfully every day without the benefit of  a control tower. While a tower is certainly beneficial when  departing IFR, most other departures can be made with  ew challenges. As usual, you must file your flight plan at  east 30 minutes in advance. During your planning phase,  nvestigate the departure airport’s method for receiving an  instrument clearance. You can contact the Flight Service  Station (FSS) on the ground by telephone, and they will  request your clearance from ATC. Typically, when a clearance  is given in this manner, the clearance includes a void time.  You must depart the airport before the clearance void time;  if you fail to depart, you must contact ATC by a specified  i f i c c Departing from a tower-controlled airport is relatively  simple in comparison to departing from non-towered  airport. Normally you request your IFR clearance through  ground control or clearance delivery. Communication  frequencies for the various controllers are listed on  departure, approach, and airport charts, as well as the  Chart Supplement (CS). At some airports, you may have  the option of receiving a pre-taxi clearance. This program  allows you to call ground control or clearance delivery no  more than 10 minutes prior to beginning taxi operations  and receive your IFR clearance. A pre-departure clearance  (PDC) program that allows pilots to receive a clearance via  data link from a dispatcher or a data link communications  service provider, e.g. ARINC, is available for Part 121 and  135 operators. A clearance is given to the dispatcher, who  n turn, relays it to the crew, enabling the crew to bypass  communication with clearance delivery, thus reducing  requency congestion. Once you have received your  clearance, it is your responsibility to comply with the  nstructions as given, and notify ATC if you are unable to  omply with the clearance. If you do not understand the  learance, or if you think that you have missed a portion  of the clearance, contact ATC immediately for clarification.  By simply complying with DPs in their entirety as published,  obstacle clearance is guaranteed. Depending on the type  of departure used, responsibility for terrain clearance  and traffic separation may be shared between pilots and  controllers.  • Determine if an ODP or SID is available for the  departure airport.  • Determine what actions allow for a safe departure  out of an airport that does not have any type of  affiliated DPs.  • Acknowledge receipt and understanding of an ATC  clearance.  • Read back any part of a clearance that contains “hold short” instructions.  •  Request clarification of clearances.  •  Request an amendment to a clearance if it is unacceptable from a safety perspective.  •  Promptly comply with ATC requests. Advise ATC immediately if unable to comply with a clearance.  • You are required to contact ATC if you are unable to comply with all-engines-operating climb gradients and climb rates. It is also expected that you are capable of maintaining the climb gradient outlined in either a standard or non-standard DP. If you cannot maintain a standard climb gradient or the climb gradient specified in an ODP, you must wait until you can depart under VMC.  • Consider the type of terrain and other obstructions in  the vicinity of the airport.  • Determine if obstacle clearance can be maintained  visually, or if they need to make use of a DP.  1-43 