Airborne_Again wrote:
E.g. you can’t be cleared IFR below the minimum vector altitude unless you’re on an official approach.
In Spain you can as long as you are in sight of the terrain and assume your own terrain separation.
It’s fairly typical to hear something like:
- IBE123, when passing 6000 ft turn right direct TFN (where 6000 ft is an MRVA in that area)
- We are visual with the terrain, IBE123
- IBE123, roger, in sight of terrain turn right direct TFN
The same during a descent below the MRVA if the pilot is in sight of terrain. This is used in the Canarian airports a lot because there are MRVAs of 7000’ or higher, over the water, their only reason being the proximity of high mountains. But if you’re visual with terrain and water it’s safe to descend and this allows for big shortcuts.
Alpha_Floor wrote:
In Spain you can as long as you are in sight of the terrain and assume your own terrain separation.
That’s very reasonable (although a deviation from ICAO standards), but it doesn’t help for cloud breaks.
It’s pretty common where I am based in the UK to for ATC to say that a VFR clearance is not available due to xyz but they can do SVFR if we want. Don’t know if that is in contravention of some rules, but it works well.
I have received SVFR clearance into CTR many times without requesting it. I just mention the intention to enter the CTR for landing.
Airborne_Again wrote:
By not giving you the IFR clearance you need. Sometimes this is forced on ATC by regulations. E.g. you can’t be cleared IFR below the minimum vector altitude unless you’re on an official approach. That’s pain if you need to do a cloud break to an airport without an IAP and the MVA is higher than the minimum IFR altitude.
In that case the intention was to cancel IFR at some point in the flight anyways and the question is only when you cancel. And if we are honest this is typically the case when we file a flight plan that we do not intend to fly because the flight plan we intend to fly would not be accepted in the first place. (e.g. we intend to descend before we cancel IFR but in the flight plan we file flying on cruise flightlevel into the VFR leg). For that case we have (or at least we should have) a plan b on how to continue legally IFR (e.g. by shuttling down the hold of a nearby approach) anyways.
The situations where ATC really directs you into a corner from which you can not continue IFR seems to be a mainly British thing – and there mainly related to “IFR in airspace Golf”.
