Minimum Approach commencement alt
In New Zealand, before an aircraft can be cleared for an approach it has to be issued with descent to minimum approach commencement alt or appropriate MSA. Which ever is higher.
eg
"Descend to 050' Cleared VOR/DME approach RWY36."
Pilots often confuse this with an instruction to maintain 050' and will challenge the controller for further descent.
Is this standard ICAO practice? Perhaps spliting the phraseology into two transmissions would be less ambiguous.
"Descend to 050'"...."Cleared VOR/DME approach RWY36"
Does anyone have any thoughts on this?