Airborne_Again wrote:
So, indeed, IFR is a state of mind.
Actually, in a deeper sense, IFR is a state of mind, as you would approach an IFR flight very differently compared to a VFR flight.
One cannot deal with this stuff with one-liner soundbites 
A lot depends on whether a post is made to contribute knowledge to the community, or made to just show that somebody is “clever” while incrementing one’s post count (I am not referring to anyone currently posting).
In UK Class G, as you drill holes in clouds, IFR/VFR is indeed undetectable by an outsider. But the overall situation, with clearances (in flight, or departure ones), flight plans, their distribution / non-distribution, ATC services, etc, is very much not just in one’s mind.
Peter wrote:
IFR/VFR is indeed undetectable by an outsider
There were some discussions about that at ENOP. ENOP is a glider and skydiving place. It’s G up to 13k feet. Gliders fly very close to clouds (legally or not ) The skydiving plane sometimes fly IFR (in IMC) on the way up and down. No problems with that, but then the skydiving plane pilot decided to fly a bit IFR on his own just for fun well outside the usual places. The glider pilots didn’t like that, thinking that the skydiving plane could pop out of the cloud from anywhere. I kind of agree, sort of, but…
However, what they didn’t think about was helicopters. Helicopters have IFR routes, low level all over the place in G mostly, and one route goes directly over ENOP. I have been called up from time to time on the radio by helicopters. They are asking about where the gliders are, so they wont fly into one.
The helicopter routes in that area:
The basic principle in Norway is to always talk on the radio, blind or with local ATC or Polaris (changed name to Polaris from Norway Control some months ago, still difficult to remember ), because you can always expect IFR in G. The practice varies however. People from far out, like ENOP, not used to ATC, usually don’t care, or have no clue whatsoever. People who are used to fly in controlled airspace, also treat G as it was a kind of “controlled” airspace. Many commercial airports for scheduled flight are in TIA/TIZ. This is G airspace, and scheduled flight almost always fly IFR.
LeSving wrote:
Many commercial airports for scheduled flight are in TIA/TIZ. This is G airspace, and scheduled flight almost always fly IFR.
For the benefit of non-scandinavians: TIA/TIZ are also RMZ.
