VFR above clouds?
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Euroland
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... in my experience, if you can see a blade of grass, you are probably flying at about 10' and are at the correct height for the flare
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First of all why don't we separate once and for all the following totally separate issues;
1. Visual Flight Rules (VFR)
2. Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC); and
3. Licence privileges on personal licenses.
In the case of 1 they are simply a set of rules that are to be followed when making a VFR flight.
In the case of 3, they are to a certain extent individual and hopefully soon to be axed by EASA.
In the case of VMC, there are a number of issues;
First, after the requirement for a non-instrument pilot to have outside visual references the idea is to protect aircraft in flight and provide some assistance to flights that rely on the see and be seen principle for separation. Have a look at Class B where everyone is separated....and then compare that to the lower classes where less and less aircraft are separated by ATC..........note that the VMC requirements in many cases increase going faster as for example one can do above FL100 also requires further visibity to give time to aquire aircraft at the higher closing speeds.
The 1500m minimum is only permitted where according to ICAO the posibility of encountering another aircraft is low.........how the UK can apply this below the London TMA is any one's guess and probably a liability case waiting to happen.
To answer the question posed regarding the 140Kt limit in controlled airspace.........The UK are different from ICAO in that if you are 140Kt or less, you have the option of operating below 3000ft in 5Km clear of cloud rather than the 5Km, 1000ft verticaly and 1500m horizontally that applies in controlled airspace C,D,E below FL100.
I and other operators think that this is wrong because it removes the requirement for VFR flights to keep well away from could where IFR flights are descending and also encourages scud running in controlled airspace.
Regards,
DFC
