Hi all,
I'm trying to better understand the compliance of IFR departures for CAT operations, where no published SID or omnidirectional departure exists in the aerodrome's AIP (i.e. there is no notified IFR departure).
CAT.OP.MPA.125(a) states - The operator shall ensure that instrument departure and approach procedures established by the State of the aerodrome are used.
CAT.OP.MPA.125(c) goes on to state - Notwithstanding (a), the operator may use procedures other than those referred to in (a) provided they have been approved by the State in which the aerodrome is located and are specified in the operations manual.
CAA CAP 778 Chapter 1 Section 3.2 (IFR Departure Procedures) states - At many aerodromes, a prescribed departure route is
not required for ATC purposes...
CAA CAP 778 Chapter 1 Section 3.3 (IFR Departure Procedures) states - PANS-OPS criteria for omnidirectional departures are not currently applied in the UK. Consequently, omnidirectional departure procedures are not published in the UK Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP).
CAA CAP 778 Chapter 2 Section 3.1 then goes on to contradict this and state - Omnidirectional departures shall be promulgated in the UK IAIP Part 3 AERODROMES (AD) AD 2.22 in accordance with the following example:
I may be overcomplicating this, but my question is, if there is no SID, and no omnidirectional departure (or minimum climb gradient) notified in the AIP for a given aerodrome regularly used for CAT IFR departures, such as Cambridge or Gloucester, is it sufficient to simply have received an ATC clearance? And what of a departure from an unlicenced aerodrome such as Dunsfold? In such cases, where compliance with CAT.OP.MPA.125(a) cannot be met (no instrument departures are established by the state of the aerodrome), are operators required to have a section in their OM for IFR departures from aerodromes without a notified instument departure?
In nearly all cases the helicopters we are flying would easily outclimb any published climb criteria at most UK locations, but where no SID/omnidirectional procedure is published I'm not sure what must be in place for an IFR departure to be compliant.
Any ideas?