When Smoke Gets In Your Skies

Pilots must look for factors that could potentially turn VFR into IFR conditions.

Meg Godlewski

Tuesday, October 11, 2022 at 12:12 PM ET

Verified

The runway at Arlington Municipal Airport (KAWO) seen at about 3,000 MSL on a smoky day. [Courtesy: John Marzulli]

Key Takeaways:

Pilots must understand weather briefings and identify conditions like mist, fog, haze, smoke, and smog, all of which significantly reduce visibility and can transform VFR conditions into IFR.
These atmospheric phenomena each diminish visibility in distinct ways; for example, haze can particularly distort depth perception and make distances appear greater.
Automated weather reports may not always accurately reflect actual visibility, requiring pilots to use their own observations, pre-identified landmarks, and navigation tools like GPS for accurate in-flight assessment.

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During initial training, one of the first flight planning skills a pilot must learn is how to access a weather briefing, closely followed by how to interpret the weather briefing. Among the things pilots must look for are factors that could potentially turn VFR into IFR conditions. It takes many forms, from low clouds, fog, and mist in the winter to smoke and haze in the summer. Any of these things make it more difficult for pilots to see each other in the sky.

Mist and Fog and Haze, Oh My!

What do mist, fog, and haze all have in common? They all reduce visibility in their own special way. The FAA has provided us with definitions of each in Advisory Circular 00-6B.