Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

1 Answers

Reported ceiling

Asked by: 5792 views , ,
Airspace, FAA Regulations, Instrument Rating

The ceiling can be reported as broken, overcast, or vertical visibility. My question is what is the difference between OVC007 and VV007? I know what OVC007 means; it is the lowest overcast layer but vv007 is confusing...when I go to an airport that is reporting vv700 what I am expecting to see.

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer


    Dmitriy on Dec 15, 2014

    Vertical Visibility is defined as the vertical distance that an observer or some remote sensing device can see into a cloud.

    Let’s say, for example, there is fog over an airport. Fog is basically a surface cloud, and therefore knowing where the ceiling is above that cloud may not be possible. So instead they publish a vertical visibility through the fog (cloud) to an indefinite ceiling.

    Vertical visibility is generally interpreted as an indefinite ceiling up to whatever altitude VV is specified. Indefinite ceiling basically means that “we can only see this high, but we have no idea how high the ceiling actually goes, or if there’s any other layer above that.”

    Hope that helps,
    ~ Dmitriy

    +2 Votes Thumb up 2 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.