AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - March 2025 - 95

bluntly, flying VFR may well be legal-but
it can be unsafe at the same time. Special
VFR's clear-and-one sounds a lot like instrument
meteorological conditions, with plenty
of opportunities to inadvertently fly into
the soup and lose orientation. Yes, moving
maps and FIS-B/SiriusXM Aviation
Weather can be a great help with obstacle
and weather avoidance. But if you're not
instrument-rated, -current, and -proficient
(and autopilot-equipped), your workload,
stress, and risk can easily take over.
Milling around in rotten conditions
near the surface is one thing. Other challenges
can crop up at altitude. It may have
occurred to you just how you'd be able to
judge your distance from those 1,000-above,
500-below, and 2,000-horizontal cloud
separation minimums. There won't be
any signposts or official observations up in
cruise flight; you're the meteorologist now.
Of course, metars, automated observations,
terminal aerodrome forecasts, airmets, sigmets,
and other sources can fill you in, but
these can be moving targets when fastmoving
weather systems and other sudden
changes are at hand. This means you'll have
to eyeball your distance from clouds. Which
can leave you trapped on top of a cloud layer,
or running a squeeze play between layers.
Cruising in clear skies on top of a cloud
layer can give you a great feeling, but at some
point you'll have to descend to your destination.
That means you'll face instrument
conditions on your way down. That, or start
diverting to suitably large gaps in the clouds
that will let you descend in VFR conditions.
A 180-degree turn can be another option.
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Airspace
Flight visibility Distance from clouds
Class A
Class B
Class C and D
Class E
Less than 10,000 feet msl
At or above 10,000 feet msl
Class G:
1,200 feet or less above the surface
(regardless of msl altitude)
For aircraft other than helicopters:
Day, except as provided in § 91.155 (b)
1 statute mile
Night, except as provided in § 91.155(b) 3 staute miles
For helicopters
Day
More than 1,200 feet above the surface
but less than 10,000 feet msl
Day
Night
More than 1,200 feet above the surface
and at or above 10,000 feet msl
Then there's the chance that cloud tops
rise, forcing you to try to outclimb them.
Outclimb a young thunderstorm's towering
cumulus? Not likely. It can be difficult
to judge the growth rate of a climbing cloud
layer or storm cell, but yes, there's an app
for that. It's called Cloud Topper. It converts
your camera into a sight level, letting you
know if your flight path will let you clear
any buildups, or not.
To sum up, VFR minimums are the
lowest limits for legal VFR flying and can
be useful in negotiating around familiar
airports. But don't think of them as carte
blanche to come up with home-grown
instrument approaches or departures.
That said, the regulations do recognize
that things can turn dire. FAR 91.3(b)
gives pilots facing an inflight emergency
the authority to " deviate from any rule of
this part to the extent required to meet
1/2 statute mile
Night, except as provided in § 91.155(b) 1 statute mile
1 statute mile
3 statute miles
5 statute miles
Clear of clouds
500 feet below
1,000 feet above
2,000 feet horizontal
Clear of clouds
Clear of clouds
500 feet below
1,000 feet above
2,000 feet horizontal
500 feet below
1,000 feet above
2,000 feet horizontal
1,000 feet below
1,000 feet above
1 statute mile horizontal
that emergency. " Just be ready to file a
written report if one is requested.
In the event of two-way radio communications
failures, AIM 6-4-1 also
supports pilots in trouble by saying, in
part: " It is virtually impossible to provide
regulations and procedures applicable
to all possible situations associated with
two-way communications failure...When
confronted by a situation not covered in
the regulation, pilots are expected to exercise
good judgment in whatever action
they elect to take. Should the situation so
dictate they should not be reluctant to use
the emergency action contained in 14 CFR
Section 91.3(b). "
So, while the regulations may mean
well, traps await the unwary. Thomas
A. Horne is a former editor at large for
AOPA media and the author of Flying
America's Weather.
AOPA PILOT / March 2025
95
Not applicable
3 statute miles
3 statute miles
Not applicable
Clear of clouds
500 feet below
1,000 feet above
2,000 feet horizontal
3 statute miles
5 statute miles
500 feet below
1,000 feet above
2,000 feet horizontal
1,000 feet below
1,000 feet above
1 statute mile horizontal
http://www.siriusxm.com/aviation
AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - March 2025

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