VFR/IFR And Dragons

Joseph E. (Jeb) Burnside

Wednesday, December 22, 2021 at 02:42 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Pilots can use a "short IFR clearance" to penetrate local IFR conditions at busy airports, then cancel and proceed VFR, later picking up a full IFR flight plan, as an efficient departure strategy.
While the standard method is to establish best glide and then trim, using maximum nose-up trim can be a quick, simple way to approach best glide in an emergency for some aircraft, and pilots are encouraged to test it.
AOPA's Nall Reports indicate that over 60% of non-commercial fixed-wing accidents are "pilot-related," a category that includes decision-making, action/inaction, and an owner/pilot's maintenance management.
Type-specific training offered by pilot groups (e.g., Mooney PPP, ABS BPPP) provides highly effective instruction from experienced pilots, significantly improving skills, particularly in IMC, and is strongly recommended.

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I enjoyed your article “VFR on an IFR Clearance” in the November 2021 issue. I owned and operated a King Air E90 for about 15 years and frequently flew into Watsonville Municipal (KWVI) near Monterey, California. Unless it was a short hop, I almost always flew on a full IFR flight plan and was almost always above 18,000. Watsonville frequently had its marine layer for most of the morning starting at about 500 feet and rarely over a thousand feet thick, but definitely IFR. Filing a plan and getting a clearance and release out of Watsonville given the busy Bay Area airspace was frequently problematic to the point where I would bring a handheld radio and sit on the stairwell talking to NorCal through the remote outlet.

Then one day I heard a local guy in some twin call up asking for a quick IFR release to NALLS intersection, the final approach fix for the Localizer Runway 02 approach. He got it immediately and took off. Never heard from him again since I was still on ground remote, but presumably he canceled with NorCal at or near NALLS and headed VFR on his way.