Report Leaving

In the case of the departure, and from a certain perspective, I could call that report a requirement. The respective approach/center controller is required to verify your altitude anyway to make sure it is what they are seeing on their screens, just like the Tower controller is required to make sure you are squawking the right code before they switch you. As you continue your climb, and as annoying as it can be, the verification requests could continue on every new frequency, and certainly with each new facility. While your initial departure and the climb is where you will report leaving an altitude the most, what about when youre at cruise or even up in the flight levels?

Elim Hawkins

Monday, January 21, 2019 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

The FAA will likely be kept busy responding to an executive order that requires federal agencies to eliminate two regulations for every new regulation. Wikimedia Commons/MBisanz

Key Takeaways:

The strict requirement for pilots to report "leaving an altitude" to Air Traffic Control (ATC) varies, often depending on the flight phase and the specific ATC instruction received, despite a common interpretation of AIM guidelines.
While reports are generally considered helpful and often expected during initial climbs, pilot's discretion descents, or when ATC is coordinating traffic, they are typically superfluous and not required during instrument approach clearances where descent is implicit.
Despite inconsistent enforcement or perceived utility by some controllers, the author (a pilot and controller) recommends consistently making these brief reports as a "better safe than sorry" practice to enhance overall safety and situational awareness for both pilots and ATC.

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W hat if you were somewhere, say a party, and the host asks you to let him know before you leave. Do you do it? Do good manners and social protocol require you to do so? What about when you are on an IFR decent and the Controller asks you to report leaving an altitude. What then?

Climb / Descend

You are cruising along and ATC assigns you a new altitude. You respond with the appropriate phraseology for the climb/descent and on the end, you say “leaving XXX for YYY” per your interpretation of AIM 5-3-3.a, “When vacating any previously assigned altitude or flight level for a newly assigned altitude or flight level.”