When are you "legally" established?
I caught my instructor dumb-founded the other day after searching through the far/aim on this subject.
Typically, atc will give you a clearance like "N1234 turn right heading 070, maintain 2000 until established, clear ILS 08"
but I've been unable to actually find a definition for what "being established" actually means, at least as the CFRs are concerned. I´m from sweden and when I trained there for my CPL/IR/ME we were considered to be established within 5 deg. of our inbound course. Now I´m flying in the U.S training to be an instructor.
I don't know if you guys have heard about the "10, 10 clear" phrase for it. That's what my instructor was taught and what he was teaching me here in the U.S.
Basically you need to be within 10 deg. of your final heading, within 10nm of the FAF and cleared for the approach (although that doesn't have anything to do with being established) But, under these conditions you are allowed to for example descend to you initial approach altitude, follow the step-down procedure for a non-precision approach and so on.
I don't buy this for 2 reasons. First of all, you're heading is not important. It is the position of the aircraft that must be taken into account, not the direction the nose is pointing. Secondly there's no information in the FAR/AIM about this that I've been able to find. I can accept the 10nm since this is generally the distance within which a procedure turn has to be completed, BUT I say accept, only because it's common sense. I have not found any regulation stipulating this.
What if you're vectored onto the final, needle is dead centered on the ILS and you've been cleared for the approach BUT you're 12 miles out? Can you descend to your initial approach altitude anyway? What if the plate doesn't have a procedure turn but a racetrack with 2 min. legs? Where do the 10nm come into play in that case? It seems odd to me with all the information regulating procedures down to the tiniest detail, there's no real definition for this stuff.
I heard a rumor that the 10, 10, clear came from some information in the instrument PTS but that sounds ludicrous to me. It should be in the FAR/AIM in that case.
So, what are the requirements for being established on an approach?