but any time you are flying in IMC it MUST be IFR (legally).
…except Special VFR.
No, you cannot be SVFR in IMC!
For qualified VFR pilots, just the BFR. I suspect most FAA pilots do log every flight but they don’t need to
If you don’t log your flights, how then do you prove you’re legal for the carriage of pax? (three t/o and landings in preceding 90 days, to a full stop for night VFR).
No, you cannot be SVFR in IMC!
Yes, you can. By definition, SVFR is in IMC. Not “in cloud”, obviously, but IMC.
(I am not considering the UK speciality of VFR in class A, but what ICAO Annex 2 refers to as “Special VFR”.)
Ok, this sounds good to me.
Thanks for your help.
M
No, you cannot be SVFR in IMC!
If you can use SVFR to fly in conditions that are below VMC minima, surely by definition you are then IMC?
No, you have to have at least the VFR weather minima of airspace G to operate in other airspace under SVFR (i.e. 1500 meters visibility, clear sight of the ground and no flight into clouds). IMC would then be below that Minima.
Really, folks!
SERA, definitions:
‘Special VFR flight’ means a VFR flight cleared by air traffic control to operate within a control zone in meteorological conditions below VMC
‘instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)’ mean meteorological conditions expressed in terms of visibility, distance from cloud, and ceiling, less than the minima specified for visual meteorological conditions;
ICAO Annex 2, definitions:
Special VFR flight. A VFR flight cleared by air traffic control to operate within a control zone in meteorological conditions below VMC.
Instrument meteorological conditions. Meteorological conditions expressed in terms of visibility, distance from cloud, and ceiling, less than the minima specified for visual meteorological conditions.
Thus there is no doubt whatsoever, that Special VFR flights according to both SERA and Annex 2 are done in IMC.
Special VFR is VFR; it is Special because it allows flight under reduced VMC conditions however; that flight is still conducted in accordance with the Visual Flight Rules not the Instrument Flight Rules.
SVFR may be flown by a pilot with no instrument qualification wheras for flights in IMC
FCL.600 IR — General
Operations under IFR on an aeroplane, helicopter, airship or powered-lift aircraft shall only be conducted by holders of a PPL, CPL, MPL and ATPL with an IR appropriate to the category of aircraft or when undergoing skill testing or dual instruction.
With Airborne here.
Special VFR is VFR.
He didn’t doubt this. He said IMC. I never heard of the term “reduced VMC”.
A CTR which is below the weather minima for VFR (for that class of airspace, usually D) is technically IMC.
SERA and Annex 2 both say “meteorological conditions below VMC”, they don’t say “reduced VMC”. There are several other passages in both that make it very clear that Special VFR is conducted in IMC.
I know that people occasionally refer to low-level class G VMC minima as “low VMC minima”. Possibly the term “reduced VMC” is used in the UK? But none of these terms are used in any official context. There is VMC or there is not. If it is not, then you fly Special VFR – or IFR.
For Special VFR there are particular minima which are detailed in SERA.5010. (Note that the flight visibility minimum is not necessarily the same as for VMC in low-level class G!)
I think that the root of the confusion is that many pilots simply regard VMC as meaning “reasonable visibility and clear of clouds”. With that meaning of the term, then of course Special VFR is conducted in VMC…
