Greetings,I haven't flown for years. But, when I did, I was never released for takeoff by the tower without confirmation of both my assigned heading and altitude. The tower would say something like this: "United 223 maintain runway heading, maintain 6000, cleared for takeoff".I suggested this in another forum where it is believed the tower just confirms the heading without any mention of the assigned altitude. I was wondering if things have changed. Thanks in advance,Bill Worth:-hmmm

You get an IFR clearance from ATC before you taxi, it will have your route and initial altitude. Sometimes you get an assigned heading from the tower with your takeoff clearance, and sometimes you are cleared on course, depends on the field, but you always are assigned an altitude, either directly from a controller or by a SID.

In a terminal area,Even with a SID and Cleared as Filed Clearence, you are given an Initial heading, and an altitiude and Expect altitude in 10 min.It is..Maintain Rwy heading or 190, climb to 2000, 6000 in 10. no matter your filed altitude (say 10000)then they will vector you to your SID or whatever your initial fix is.

The tower normally doesn't read your initial altitude back to you on your takeoff clearance, it is usually something like "***123 fly runway heading cleared for takeoff runway **"

Oh yeah.. Sorry.What I posted is your initial climb out as part of your clearence.Not what the Tower says...Yup..

Thanks. I appreciate your help.Best regards,Bill Worth

<>To qualify my reply, I have only flown within the United States and the Bahamas.I have never once received an "expect" clearance from the tower. Only in the ATC Clearance.Regards,Jim

Good thread. The only time I have had an altitude assignment from Tower on IFR is if the initial altitude is different from that on clearance. This had happened only once to me.Also- if assigned a DP, often the departure frequency is not given in the clearance as it's on the chart. And- unlike the FS9 ATC, I have never heard a hand-off to departures with a frequency- since you have that from the clearance or the DP, it's always just "contact departures".Bruce.

Bill:Whether you are IFR OR VFR the tower clearance is the same:"United 223 winds 220@3 cleared for takeoff RWY 04L"or"Cessna 87JA winds 220@3 cleared for takeoff RWY 04L"On an IFR flightplan clearance delivery will give your initial altitude AND your initial direction."United 223, cleared to Los Angeles via White Depature-Robbinsville transition and then as filed, climb and maintain 6000, expect FL350 10 min after departure, squak 4545, dep freq 119.4"If you were flying VFR clearance then you'd contact ground when ready to taxi and let THEM know YOUR intentions (as opposed to IFR where THEY will let you know what THEY want YOU to do):"Cessna 87JA, ready to taxi, hangar 1, departure to the Northeast".and then when contacting tower VFR:"Cessna 87JA, ready to go runway 04L, departure to the Northeast".In either instance tower will give you the same response as outlined in the top of this post, winds and runway and once you are airborne will give you higher altitudes. On an IFR clearance YOU are expected to fly the clearance as given and know the clearnace as given...tower will NOT repeat it to you.The only exception is if you are IFR and got a "fly runway heading" clearance which means you will get vectors from tower and then departure to your departure fix. Again, here, tower will not give you heading or altitude instructions until you are airborne.Hope this helps.Mike T.