When To Go Visual

I had flown a full day with the new owner of a turbocharged Beech Bonanza, a recently retired airline pilot who also had been a U.S. Air Force tanker pilot. He was IFR proficient from the airline and wanted to focus on visual and hand-flying skills while orienting to his airplanes autopilot and avionics. He did a great job and got markedly more comfortable with the airplane as the day progressed. At the end of the day, I recommended he get more experience with the airplane before going IFR in it. We shook hands and I went to my office to complete my paperwork.

Tom Turner

Sunday, September 30, 2018 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Pilots can expedite IFR departures by taking off VFR and obtaining their clearance airborne, or by utilizing procedures like a Visual Climb Over Airport (VCOA) to assume responsibility for obstacle clearance in visual conditions.
An IFR "VFR-on-Top" clearance allows pilots to fly visually above or between cloud layers, offering flexibility to avoid turbulence/icing or for instruction, while ATC maintains separation.
Arrivals can be expedited through visual or contact approaches; visual approaches require VMC, while contact approaches allow lower visibility but demand pilot initiative and acceptance of higher risk.
These visual maneuvers within an IFR clearance provide advantages in expediting various flight phases but require pilots to maintain VFR minimums and assume increased responsibility for obstacle avoidance and traffic separation.

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I had flown a full day with the new owner of a turbocharged Beech Bonanza, a recently retired airline pilot who also had been a U.S. Air Force tanker pilot. He was IFR proficient from the airline and wanted to focus on visual and hand-flying skills while orienting to his airplane’s autopilot and avionics. He did a great job and got markedly more comfortable with the airplane as the day progressed. At the end of the day, I recommended he get more experience with the airplane before going IFR in it. We shook hands and I went to my office to complete my paperwork.

That evening I checked online to see if he got home okay. I noticed he had delayed quite some time before leaving, and that he had filed and flown IFR. Knowing his airplane was notorious for difficult hot starts, I emailed asking if he had trouble getting the airplane started. No, he had no trouble starting it the way we’d practiced, he replied. He had to wait a long time for his IFR release. That got me thinking about all the ways it can be advantageous to fly visually while on an IFR flight plan.