Special VFR

From the beginning of their flight training, pilots learn about the effects of weather on all aspects of aviation. Beyond the safety concerns associated with "bad" weather, student pilots quickly learn that there are also legal privileges, obligations, and limitations that federal aviation regulations (FARs) mandate concerning weather.

Aviation weather is divided into two clearly defined categories, each with associated regulations - visual meteorological conditions (VMC), when pilots fly under visual flight rules (VFR); and instrument meteorological conditions (IMC), when pilots must operate under instrument flight rules (IFR). A range of weather conditions lurk somewhere between the bright, clear weather of ideal VMC and the murky gloom of serious IMC. And hovering right down at legal VFR weather minimums is a sort of no man's land of weather - not absolutely prohibitive but legally restrictive - called special VFR (SVFR).

SVFR may be used to bring pilots home or to send them on their way. But be cautious. Just because there is a provision to "beat the system" doesn't mean that you should always use the SVFR option.

Before a pilot can decide which procedure or flight plan is appropriate based on the reported and forecast weather, he or she must understand what constitutes IFR and VFR weather.

If, for example, you tune in the automatic terminal information service (ATIS) at your destination airport and you hear, "Ceiling niner-hundred broken, visibility four miles, haze all quadrants," do you know whether the airport is IFR or VFR?

At airports, the weather is IFR when the ceiling is below 1,000 feet agl or the ground visibility is less than three statute miles. As with other visibility-based weather restrictions, flight visibility can be substituted for ground visibility if the airport you are operating at does not report ground visibility. When the ceiling is higher than 1,000 feet and visibility is better than three miles, airports operate under VFR.

So, if you receive an ATIS report of a 900-foot ceiling and four miles visibility on the way into your home airport, you know that the field is below basic VFR minimums. Under strict IFR conditions, you would have to file an IFR flight plan and fly an instrument approach procedure (IAP) to legally enter the airport's airspace and land. If you are an instrument-rated pilot in an instrument-equipped airplane with the appropriate instrument approach plates on board, you can request an IFR approach clearance from the approach or tower controller or from a flight service station (FSS) specialist, receive the clearance, and be on your way. If you do not possess an instrument rating, what should you do? The weather is deteriorating, and you have neither the training nor the legal authority to fly under IFR.