Sat May 11, 2019 11:32 am
#1692852
Related to the thread on safety pilots, but not related closely enough to ask the question in there...
If I'm flying to one of the Channel Islands (let's say Guernsey) from the UK in CAVOK conditions and I would like to do an ILS there for the sake of practice, do I need to:
Or is it acceptable to rock up on a VFR flight plan and under a VFR clearance and tell Guernsey Approach when handed over to them that I'd like a practice ILS?
Does the answer change if the forecast conditions are, say, FEW020, so I have a reasonable expectation before I even take off that I will not be able to maintain the 1,000ft/1500m VMC cloud separation requirements when being vectored/performing the procedure, and thus will very likely need an IFR clearance at some stage?
Obviously if you arrive expecting CAVOK and the actual conditions are OVC010 then I have no doubt that ATC would be very accommodating regardless of what sort of flight plan you've filed. My question is more about if the conditions are good enough for a visual approach (under VFR or SVFR), but you want to do an instrument approach for practice.
For clarity, let's say this is a non-airways flight, arriving at ORTAC from OCAS, with an IR(R).
If I'm flying to one of the Channel Islands (let's say Guernsey) from the UK in CAVOK conditions and I would like to do an ILS there for the sake of practice, do I need to:
- 1. File an IFR (or Z) flight plan?
- 2. Inform Jersey Control on first contact that I would like an IFR clearance to enter the CI CTR?
Or is it acceptable to rock up on a VFR flight plan and under a VFR clearance and tell Guernsey Approach when handed over to them that I'd like a practice ILS?
Does the answer change if the forecast conditions are, say, FEW020, so I have a reasonable expectation before I even take off that I will not be able to maintain the 1,000ft/1500m VMC cloud separation requirements when being vectored/performing the procedure, and thus will very likely need an IFR clearance at some stage?
Obviously if you arrive expecting CAVOK and the actual conditions are OVC010 then I have no doubt that ATC would be very accommodating regardless of what sort of flight plan you've filed. My question is more about if the conditions are good enough for a visual approach (under VFR or SVFR), but you want to do an instrument approach for practice.
For clarity, let's say this is a non-airways flight, arriving at ORTAC from OCAS, with an IR(R).