Transitioning from IFR to VFR

If you are in controlled airspace (A-E), there is ATC service available by definition so you cancel IFR with ATC.

In case you are in uncontrolled airspace (F+G), I guess your procedure makes sense but being uncontrolled, it is up to you.

It really varies from country to country. The UK is the wild west where you can happily fly in IMC without flight plan, without ATC and just pray to your god of choice that you're the only one doing this at your present position.

Germany is the other extreme. IFR in G is prohibited (for now) and even in E, ATC will not let you descend below the MRVA (minimum radar vectoring altitude) unless you are on a published instrument approach. The MRVA can be very high. While a lot of countries don't have comprehensive radar coverage, Germany generally prohibits enroute IFR without guaranteed radar service.

So what you do in Germany is cancel IFR while above the MRVA or descend with the IAP of another aerodrome, cancel IFR once you are VMC and continue VFR to your destination. There are supposedly people in Germany that do it the UK way but that is so hard to believe because Germans are known for being law abiding people

I was mainly thinking of how to get out of IMC and land safely in VMC

Descend to MSA and hope you can see something, if not, you either need a procedure or a large hole. Should be fun when we get the EIR!

I think Tumbleweed has the essence of it

How you actually do it in other scenarios depends on the situation

A good procedure which works at a coastal airport is: when you come off the last enroute controller and you get handed over to the airport tower, and while you are still outside the airport's controlled airspace, you head out over the sea and descend over the sea until you are VMC, then call up the airport as normal. Because you have not spoken to anybody, you have not told any lies.

Obviously this needs a reasonable cloudbase, an ability to see the water surface very well (very hard to judge height above water) AND watching the altimeter AND having the right QNH set on it, and you don't really want to be doing it at night... Most of the time it works very well.

Inland, you really need to be very MSA-aware which means various things, one of which could be a really good GPS moving map that runs the actual "printed" VFR chart.

Some pilots have designed their own DIY instrument approaches but that needs special care, and if it involves GPS waypoints then you don't want to be sharing the plane with anybody else (in case they mess with them).

Whatever you do you have to be really careful. But with reasonable minima, say 1000ft (which actually is the definition of the MSA anyway), it is OK. The problem is that some people do crazy things like descend in OVC003 conditions...

Obviously you need to be fully instrument flight capable, which is difficult for non-UK pilots who have never had a legal option other than the full IR.

GNS430,530,G1000: DCT - Twiddle in the destination ICAO Code - Enter - Enter - CDI to GPS - OBS - twiddle to runway heading - intercept - descend.

Depending on taste, you can then

• descend to 1,000ft above the highest obstacle within 5NM [full scale deflection in ENR mode]

• claim you are landing in accordance with normal aviation practice and

  • descend to 1,000ft above airport level, assuming obstacles and ground permit this, perhaps carrying on until overhead. When nothing seen, climb away and divert
  • descend even lower, because you have designed your own GPS procedure and set your GPS precision to approach (0.3NM)

Obviously this needs a reasonable cloudbase, an ability to see the water surface very well ...

And no offshore windfarm anywhere close. The ones they are building now off the German coasts are over 600ft high. And they can appear literally overnight - if it wasn't there last time you visited dosen't mean it isn't there today. And it won't be marked on the chart until next year.

All pilots who died in accidents that I personally knew (apart from one who had a medical problem) were killed by "YFR" flying, not one by a technical problem! So if you don't have a good view of the ground at the lowest altitude the controller allows you to descend to, i.e. more holes than clouds, stay IFR and divert. You can still cancel IFR and proceed visually even when already on final approach at many airports.

I have been descending into grass strips with the cloud base being rather low. I would cancel IFR at MSA or whatever the lowest altitude they would throw me out of the system (in NL this is at 1500 feet) and continue my decent into G airspace. ATC would normally inform me at that time if they have any confirmed traffic and continue to give me information about traffic and I would still be on their radar screen and frequency as long as possible. I would be sure and positive about not meeting obstacles along the way or mountains/hills and run the traffic circuit at a higher altitude, while only on final I would decent into the landing runway (with my own approach created and a continuous decent) with the most recent approach chart with me confirming to me the absence of obstacles along the way down. I would sometimes be able to see the runway on my synthetic vision screen earlier and visually only a few hundred feet from the runway. I am aware this is not without risk, so stopped doing it as I have a family at home :-)

I am aware this is not without risk, so stopped doing it as I have a family at home :-)

Back in the days when I was was less scared of dying I used to to a lot of that s**t as well. Especially when the first affordable GPS receivers became available 1993 or so we went "wow, now we can get anywhere in any weather"! People started flying into mountain sides like never before... just like there were never so many car crashes as shortly after anti-skid braking was introduced and everybody thought "Wow! I can go twice as fast now on snow and ice..."