Originally Posted by
B2N2
1. You request clearance
2. You deviate
3. You receive clearance
4. You are denied
2-3-4 are fully interchangeable as it’s known as PIC decision making.
The one thing you don't do is fly through the weather because you're trying to get clearance. It's happened. As Safelife mentioned you use the contingency procedures while awaiting clearance or if the clearance is denied. I've never had to use the contingency procedure on the NATS. One time the deviation clearance came about 2 miles prior to the buffer limit as we were deviating on a heading that would exceed the buffer limit. For some reason the controller wasn't answering the CPDLC request even though we requested the deviation with at least 10 minutes prior notice. Approaching the weather we tried via SATCOM and the phone is answered in an office not co-located with the controller. So the person answering the phone said he'd walk over the control room and advise the controller that we were trying to contact him. In the meantime we needed to start deviating. Just prior to reaching the offset limit the clearance came through on CPDLC. New FO with maybe 1-2 months line experience asked how many times I've had to do this - no CPDLC reply from the controller, use the SATCOM to try and talk with the controller directly, start a deviation without clearance, etc, etc, all in an attempt to deviate on the NATS? "Never. It's YOU." New people are jinxed!