How is your flight plan closed when your destination airport has IFR conditions and there is no control tower?

There are two sets of rules for flying any aircraft: VFR and IFR. VFR stands for Visual Flight Rules. IFR stands for Instrument Flight Rules.

Depending on the weather conditions a pilot may opt for one set of rules or the other. Mostly, it’s the weather that makes the pilot fly VFR or IFR. What is the difference between VFR and IFR flying?

1- Aviating under VFR

VFR normally means “see and avoid”. Under VFR, an aircraft is flown just like driving a car with eye movement and the pilot can see where he is going.

VFR pilots maintain a ‘see and avoid’ principle when the visual meteorological conditions (VMC) are favorable. VFR is the usual way to fly a small craft. Under VRF, a pilot cannot fly through clouds, which means they must go under, around, or divert if the clouds form a block en route.

To fly VFR, Visual Meteorological Conditions have to be maintained. It means you cannot fly through clouds and need to keep a safe distance. In some types of airspace, you also have to see the ground. As VFR flights rule, pilots are responsible for seeing other aircraft and avoiding a collision.

They have to maintain vertical and horizontal separation. As per the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal rules, an 8 kilometers horizontal separation is required for a flight under the VFR rules at and above 3,050 meters [10,000 feet] above mean sea level and 5 kilometers below 3,050 meters above mean sea level.

There must be no cloud within 1,500 meters [5,000 feet] horizontally or 300 meters [1,000 feet] vertically from the aircraft. Similarly, an aircraft must maintain an altitude of 300 meters [1,000 feet] over any congested area of a city, town, or settlement. In hills, the aircraft should maintain 600 meters [2,000 feet] altitude from the ground.

Flying VFR is beneficial in busy airspace. In Nepal for example, there can be long delays for IFR departures because there are so many requests.

2- Aviating under IFR

Under IFR rules, a pilot is authorized to fly into clouds in what is called zero visibility. It’s called instrument flight because the pilot navigates only by reference to the instruments in the aircraft cockpit.

Unlike VFR flights, IFR happens usually within controlled airspace and requires filing a flight plan, usually, ahead of time. The flying is not completely at the pilot’s discretion. Established waypoints and airways have to be used and the altitude for the flight is determined.

IFR requires a ceiling less than 300 meters [1,000 feet] above ground level and visibility of fewer than three miles. During flight under IFR, there are no visibility requirements, so flying through clouds or other conditions where there is zero visibility outside the aircraft is legal and safe.

According to air traffic controller Bhatta, additional time is required for the preparation of the IFR flight plan.

In controlled en-route airspace, the horizontal separation standard between the same types of aircraft flying at the same altitude is 5 minutes. If a smaller aircraft is ahead, for the bigger aircraft, the horizontal separation standard should be 10 minutes.

And if a bigger aircraft is ahead to land, for smaller aircraft, the horizontal separation standard should be 2 minutes. Therefore, for smaller planes, which are normally flown in VFR conditions, flights are delayed sometimes if the weather deteriorates to prepare for an IFR flight.

Filing VFR Flight Plans

Although position reports are not required for VFR flight plans, periodic reports to FSSs along the route are good practice.

Such contacts permit significant information to be passed to the transiting aircraft and also serve to check the progress of the flight should it be necessary for any reason to locate the aircraft, Pilot: “[Callsign], [Route], at [Time], VFR flight plan, [Departure Airport] to [Destination Airport]”

Closing VFR Flight Plans

A pilot is responsible for ensuring the VFR/DVFR flight plan is closed. Close the flight plan with the nearest FSS, or if not available, any ATC can relay your cancellation to an FSS. Towers do not normally close VFR/DVFR flight plans because they don’t know if a particular aircraft is on a flight plan or not.

Filing IFR Flight Plans

Pilots should file IFR flight plans at least 30 minutes before the estimated time of departure to preclude possible delays in receiving a departure clearance from ATC. When IFR weather conditions exist or are forecast at that airport, an IFR flight plan should be filed before departure.

Otherwise, a 30-minute delay is not unusual in receiving an ATC clearance because of the time spent processing flight plan data.

Traffic saturation frequently prevents control personnel from accepting flight plans via radio In such cases, the pilot is advised to contact a flight plan filing service to file the flight plan Additionally, mistakes can be easily made over the radio.

Flying on IFR Flight Plans

In addition to altitude or flight level, destination, and/or route changes, increasing or decreasing the airspeed by plus or minus 5% or 10 knots (whichever is greater) constitutes a change in a flight plan.

Closing IFR Flight Plans:

IFR flight plans may be closed at any time with either ARTCC, approach control, tower, or if unable, with FSS. When landing at an airport with a functioning control tower.

What is an IFR clearance, and what are the components?

The FAA defines TEC service as “the control of IFR en-route traffic within delegated airspace between two or more adjacent approach control facilities.” The service was created to increase the efficiency of ATC services. TEC routes are generally more direct and have less stringent separation minimums. Availability is dependent on ATC workload.

TEC flights are intended to be relatively short – generally two hours or less, and are conducted below 10,000 feet. Throughout the route, communications are managed through tower controllers and departure and approach controllers at a TRACON facility.

The Airport/Facility Directory publishes the available TEC routes for each airport in the system. Several airports can be grouped for the same route, with the only difference being the initial departure instructions, which you receive along with the clearance.

In addition to the airport published in the TEC section of the A/FD, tower en-route procedures can be used at airports in the vicinity of the major, published airports. You need to study the published route (or routes) from the A/FD in detail before getting into the airplane.

Make sure the airplane is equipped to handle the route and that the route applies to the correct aircraft classification (jet – J, turboprop – M, non-jet 190 knots or greater – P, and non-jet 189 knots or less – Q). No IFR flight planning needs to be filed with the flight service station or DUATS.

You can simply call clearance delivery or, if clearance delivery is not available, ground control, and request a “tower en-route” or “tower-to-tower” to your destination airport. Remember to give the controller your airplane type and suffix on the initial call. The controller will then issue your IFR clearance, and you’re good to go.

Can you fly IFR without a flight plan?

Flying IFR into new environments can be a serious challenge, particularly in busy airspace where controllers are talking nonstop, and it’s more important than ever to listen up and follow their instructions precisely.

For flights in congested areas, pre-published, low-level IFR routes make both pre-flight planning and actual flying much more straightforward and enjoyable.

No IFR flight plan needs to be filed with the flight service station or DUATS. You can simply call clearance delivery or, if clearance delivery is not available, ground control, and request a “tower en route” or “tower-to-tower” to your destination airport.

Remember to give the controller your airplane type and suffix on the initial call. The controller will then issue your IFR clearance, and you’re good to go.

Can you fly without a flight plan?

No person may operate an aircraft in controlled airspace under IFR unless that person has filed an IFR flight plan. Flight plans may be submitted to the nearest FSS or air traffic control tower (ATCT) either in person, by telephone, by computer, or by radio if no other means are available.

Pilots should file IFR flight plans at least 30 minutes before the estimated time of departure to preclude possible delays in receiving a departure clearance from ATC.

Have you ever filed IFR to a destination with no instrument approach? Here's what you need to do before you take off...

Filing IFR To VFR Airports

You're planning to fly your single-engine Cirrus SR22 from Denver's Centennial Airport (KAPA) to the Hoxie-Sheridan County Airport (1F5), Kansas, under IFR. Snow showers along your route prevent you from flying VFR and you see that many airports between KAPA and 1F5 are reporting IFR or MVFR conditions. There's another problem. Your destination doesn't have an instrument approach and clouds in the area are overcast at 2,000 to 3,000 feet above the airport. Can you still attempt a flight to 1F5? Of course!

While you're almost never taught in training how to file IFR to an airport with no instrument approach, pilots do it all the time. If you fly to non-towered airports in rural areas, you'll face this problem all the time. And if you're flying to an unmarked airstrip, did you know you can even file IFR to a lat/long position?

There are a few extra planning steps you'll need to make before you take off, considering you likely won't have a useable TAF/METAR for weather or an approach procedure for arrival.

What's The Weather?

First things first, you'll need to know if the weather is good enough to land under VFR at your destination. Because there's not an instrument approach, you'll need the clouds to be higher than the MIA, or the Minimum IFR Altitude for the area.

If there's an airport reporting weather nearby, use the METAR/TAF to analyze local conditions. Unfortunately for 1F5, the closest weather stations are 24 and 28 miles away, at KOEL and KHLC. That's a little too far away to accurately analyze weather conditions.

So what's next? The FAA recently ended publishing textual Area Forecasts. Instead, use the Aviation Weather Center's Graphical Forecast for Aviation (GFA). Using this tool, you can type in your route from KAPA to 1F5 as "KAPA.1F5"

The GFA allows you to analyze current and forecasted precipitation, cloud top/base reports, ceiling, visibility, and more around the entire United States. Below, you'll see that the current forecast visibility is between 2-3 miles around 1F5.

Ceilings appear to be just over 2,000 feet above the airport, so let's say 2,500 feet. That's about 5,300 feet MSL (2,500' cloud bases + 2,733' airport elevation = 5,233' MSL, rounded to 5,300' MSL).

Keep in mind, the weather seems to be just outside of the airport and on-field conditions could be vastly different. While the GFA is a great planning tool, you shouldn't rely on every numerical value it provides because the forecasts cover huge areas of weather and land. Use the GFA as a planning tool for broad weather interpretations.

Now, Let's Find The "Minimum Instrument Altitude"

In order to land at 1F5, you'll need the clouds to be higher than the Minimum Instrument Altitude (MIA) for the area. Once you break out of the clouds and have the field in-sight, you can cancel IFR and proceed with a visual approach.

Let's start with the easiest minimum instrument altitude for your area, the "Off-Route Obstruction Clearance Altitude" (OROCA). Take a look at your Low, IFR Enroute Chart. Over 1F5, the OROCA is 4,900 feet MSL. That's great news for your flight! You've already predicted that the clouds will be somewhere around 5,300 feet MSL. If the current conditions hold, you should be able to break out of the clouds under IFR, spot 1F5, and land.

In this case, the OROCA for the area was low enough for you to break out of the clouds. But what if the OROCA isn't low enough? Keep in mind, OROCAs take into account obstructions across an entire quadrant on your IFR enroute chart, so an obstacle 25 miles away could skyrocket the minimum altitude by thousands of feet.

You have another option, called the Minimum Vectoring Altitude (MVA). An MVA is the lowest altitude that ATC can vector you around a particular section of airspace. Approach and Center controllers can divide their scopes into small sections of airspace, separating obstacles and terrain from areas with lower vectoring altitudes. When radar coverage is available from an approach or center facility, MVAs are a great way to get as low as possible over a VFR airport. But unfortunately, MVAs aren't published on your IFR charts.

You can, however, find MVAs published online. Click here for FAA MVAs and MIAs. Keep in mind, these drawings aren't easy to decipher and unless you're an ATC controller, and figuring out where an airport is located on an MVA chart might be tough.

Having Trouble With Planning? Ask ATC

If you can't figure out the MVA over an airport, the easiest way is by asking ATC "What's the MVA over XXX?" You could do this on the radio with approach or center control, or call the ATC facility on the phone as you plan your flight.

The Catch: You Must File An Alternate

If you file an IFR flight plan to an airport with no instrument approach, you must have an alternate filed, even if the weather is completely clear. (FAR 91.169) In addition, your alternate must either have an instrument approach (use your standard alternate minimum requirements) or have weather allowing descent from the MIA to a landing under VFR.

If you're flying to an airport with no instrument approach and the clouds are low, check to see what instrument approaches are available at nearby airports. You can descend below the clouds while approaching another airport, break out of the clouds, land, and cancel IFR.

Then take off, maintaining VFR under the clouds to your nearby destination if conditions are safe and you feel comfortable. Alternatively, use a lower MVA nearby to break out of the clouds, descend, cancel IFR, and make visual contact with your destination.

What Would You Do

Have you ever flown IFR into an airport with no instrument approach? What did you do? Tell us in the comments below.

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