One sunny weekend day this spring, I flew some friends on a three-leg trip. The mission was a simple one: to meet up with some other friends at their respective airports. Both of my passengers hold at least a private pilot certificate, as did the friends with whom we were meeting. Two of the three legs were in excess of 150 nm apiece. The optimal routing for the first two legs was north and south in the gap between the Tampa and Orlando Class B airspace. The third and final leg was a short, 20-minute hop back to home base.
I flew the first two legs IFR. At the beginning of the first leg, one of my pilot-rated passengers expressed surprise that I went to the trouble to plan and file IFR, especially because the weather was so good. But by the end of the day, he seemed convinced I made the right decision to file IFR, not because the weather caved but because it simplified dealing with relatively complex airspace and lots of VFR traffic. It made sense to me, but some pilots might think it wasteful or overcomplicated to file IFR for a daytime trip in solid-gold VMC. They’re wrong.
