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3 Answers

Instrument training no flight plan into IMC with ATC

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Instrument Rating

A current CFII with an instrument student depart VFR.  They contact ATC and are given a squeak code and request practice approaches.  In radar contact and talking to ATC, may they now fly through clouds?  

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3 Answers



  1. Russ Roslewski on Jan 07, 2016

    Given the information you have provided, no they may not enter clouds.

    You imply that they are simply requesting VFR flight following and practice approaches. In that scenario, they are VFR and still responsible for cloud clearance, visibility, traffic separation and all the other normal VFR stuff.

    However, if they request (and obtain) an IFR clearance in the air, then yes they may fly through clouds as with any other IFR flight. They are no different at that point. A “pop-up” IFR clearance like this is a fairly common procedure. I’ve done this numerous times, such as when flying VFR but weather moves in at my destination. I didn’t file an IFR flight plan, but can still get an IFR clearance from ATC.

    However, the trick is that they are not required to give you an IFR clearance, and if they can’t, you have to be able to stay VFR (or declare an emergency if warranted).

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  2. jsanderson10 on Jan 15, 2016

    You will most likely hear the phrase “maintain VFR at all times”, or something along those lines, while practicing approaches.

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  3. terry ginelli on Jan 22, 2016

    Related a bit… Recently while up with a student we requested a practice approach with a specific request to fly the approach under VFR conditions. Lots of ATC training (and IFR training) goes on at this airport; our controller was obviously a trainee and gave us a clearance for the approach. Long story short, we thought we were VFR, ATC thought we were IFR. I was awarded a free phone number to call ATC with. It was obvious that they had reviewed the tapes where (thankfully) our specific VFR request was heard. The upshot was that unless you hear the magic words \”maintain VFR\” you should assume that you are IFR with ATC.

    Even more recently we were up on a day with variable weather and we decided to get an IFR clearance for the approach. We made our initial call and request; after getting the squawk and so on, the (trainee) controller said only: \”cleared for the approach\” (no airport, no altitude, no vector, no nothing). I felt this was ambiguous and asked plainly \”are we IFR or VFR ?\” The answer again was, if you don\’t hear the words \”maintain VFR\”, you are IFR and should proceed accordingly.

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