Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

3 Answers

Cancel IFR and forced to go missed

Asked by: 1963 views FAA Regulations, Instrument Rating

Hi. Let's say you are flying a non-precision approach into a towered airport, and you meet a clear sky well above the MDA. You know from the radios there's another guy waiting for his turn in holding behind you so you cancel your IFR flight plan and obtain a visual landing clearance from the tower. But as you continue to descend for landing, you suddenly get back into clouds and want to go missed.

In this scenario, can you go missed given that you've already cancelled your flight plan? If so, what are the appropriate procedures for that? Go missed first and then notify the tower of what happened and open a new flight plan? 

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.

3 Answers



  1. John D Collins on Feb 02, 2017

    You shouldn’t have put yourself in this situation in the first instance. The tower will close your IFR flightplan when you land anyway, why do it prematurely.

    But based on your scenario, you need to go missed and fess up with ATC.

    +2 Votes Thumb up 2 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  2. M. B. Ingersoll on Feb 02, 2017

    I believe this pilot cancelled so that Tower could clear the next arrival in.

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  3. Mark Kolber on Feb 03, 2017

    To M. B. Ingersoll: So what?

    If there was any chance, any chance at all of having to re-enter the clouds, there is no good reason to put yourself in that situation. Tower or no tower.

    Think he was being a nice guy by creating a situation that was a potential danger to himself (and his passengers) and the pilot following (and her passengers)?

    I’ll add a little to John’s remark:
    But based on your scenario, you need to go missed and immediatelyfess up with ATC and hope you didn’t create a traffic conflict that can’t be remedied.”

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 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.