Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

3 Answers

VFR on top…..where are the tops?

Asked by: 3810 views , ,
General Aviation, Instrument Rating

I understand the VFR On Top clearance, requirements, and how it works, but my question is how to determine the height of the cloud tops. I know they are occasionaly reported in PIREPs, but is there any other way to find this information?

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. Jonathan Silva on Jul 12, 2012

    Off the top of my head, I don’t believe so. I would only consider VFR on top as an option for someone with an instrument rating, just because the probability of being able to get back down VFR is sometimes slim to nil.

    +1 Votes Thumb up 1 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  2. Bob Watson on Jul 18, 2012

    I get these confused all the time (and I had to look them up, again, before commenting).
    “VFR on top” is an IFR clearance where you climb through a cloud layer to a VFR altitude above the clould deck.
    “VFR over the top” is the VFR operation (not a clearance) that Jonathan described (and is of questionable judgement…How can you navigate by visual reference when your only visual reference is the blue sky and a cloud deck that may or may not be parallel with the horizon?)
    In practice, you’d probably get the tops from recent flights (e.g. airliners) that have already punched through the cloud deck and reported the tops back to ATC. Here in the Seattle area, however, they are pretty predictable. We tend to have: a) clear skies (occassionally. really, we do 🙂 ), b) high tops (20,000+ when we get an on-shore flow), and c) low tops (3-5000 MSL, when we have our usual marine layer). PIREPS will confirm or correct those assumptions, but after you’ve watched the clouds for a while, you start to see some patterns.

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  3. Bobby Roe on Dec 16, 2012

    One reasonable source of cloud tops data is the RUC Soundings tool and looking for the split between the temperature and dew point lines as the altitude increases. There’s a tutorial link on the page listed.

    One other thing about the RUC Soundings tool that I find extremely helpful is that you can use it to find a relatively turbulence-free layer on an otherwise uncomfortable day. There have been several days I was able to climb through a couple thousand feet of bumps to get a glass-smooth ride that I wouldn’t have known was there without the RUC Soundings.

    – Bobby

    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.