Definition
The standard climb requirements that apply to an IFR departure when the airport has no published Obstacle Departure Procedure (ODP), Standard Instrument Departure (SID), or diverse vector area: climb runway heading to 400 feet above the departure end of the runway before turning, and continue climbing at a minimum of 200 feet per nautical mile until reaching the assigned altitude.
Plain English
When the airport has no specific instrument departure published, this is the basic climb plan you are expected to fly: stay on the runway heading until you are at least 400 feet above the runway, then start any turn, and keep climbing at 200 feet per nautical mile or better.
Context Anchor
Seen during IFR departure planning, especially when checking whether a runway has a published obstacle departure procedure or whether the standard departure assumptions apply.
Derivation
"Default" here means the option that applies automatically when nothing else is specified. So a default IFR departure procedure is the climb plan that applies by default — when no tailored procedure has been designed for the airport.
Why Pilots Care
Provides a safe, predictable way to depart under instrument conditions when no tailored obstacle-avoidance path exists; following it prevents terrain conflicts during the initial climb.
Grounding Statement
This procedure is the baseline climb-and-turn plan used to keep an IFR departure safely above obstacles when no more specific published instructions apply.
Intuition Check
Default does not mean optional, casual, or automatically safe for every aircraft. It means the standard fallback procedure, and the aircraft still must be able to meet the climb requirement.
Example Sentence 1
Since the airport had no published ODP or SID, the crew flew the default IFR departure procedure: runway heading to 400 feet, then a climbing turn on course at better than 200 feet per nautical mile.
Example Sentence 2
The default IFR departure procedure kept the aircraft over the runway centerline until it reached a safe altitude for the first turn.