kwimper
18th Oct 2002, 22:20
Can anyone please confirm what the minimum rate of descent should be in US airspace? Thanks.
mattpilot
18th Oct 2002, 23:11
the minimum "expected" descent rate is 500fpm. Rules governing IFR flight say that if a pilot can not maintain at least a 500fpm descent(or climb), ATC must be notified.
Scott Voigt
19th Oct 2002, 01:52
Kwimper;
As stated already, the AIM which is a guideline states that the "minimum" is 500 fpm. However, if we ask you to start down, we expect about 1000 fpm. If we ask you to expedite then we are expecting between 2000 and 3000 fpm.
If we ask you to start down and don't give you a pilot discression descent, there is normally a good reason for getting you down. It can be for traffic, or just trying to get you down so as to make you all the operate the same <G>. Then there is the old, make 250 KIAS actually mean something when we give the speed assignement...
regards