The only time I’ve used Special VFR “in anger” goes back some 20 years, to a less-than-perfect day at a towered airport. I was set to depart the following day, on a mission to ferry a familiar airplane from one coast to the other. At the time, I hadn’t flown the airplane in a couple of years, however, and I wanted to knock out some bangs-and-goes in it to refresh my memory. But the weather wasn’t cooperating: visibility was just over two miles in haze, with maybe a 2000-foot overcast and calm winds. A bunch of VFR-only pilots wanting to go flying that day were in the lounge grumbling.
Checking in on the ground frequency with the current ATIS, the controller advised me the field was IFR and they didn’t have a clearance for me. “Say intentions.” I responded with a request for Special VFR (SVFR) to do some pattern work and was immediately cleared to taxi, request approved. As something of a “Poor Man’s IFR,” my sort of mission one of the challenges Special VFR was created to meet, and there are many others. But Special VFR also offers us the opportunity to fly ourselves into a corner.
