Post by RicI've been doing quite a few delivery flights delivering Diamonds from the
factory to various buyers around Europe and North Africa over the past few
months. None of them could have been done VFR - all have been SIDs in IMC,
then VMC on top for most of journey, then IMC procedure on arrival. |On the
other hand, a friend who was trying to deliver a VFR DA40 to Denmark waited
for two weeks before weather was possibly suitable, then ended up diverting
and scud-running for the entire flight. Also, flying VFR, he felt obliged to
take a second pilot.
That's true also.
When I say "could have been done under VFR" I am saying that either a
scud run, or VMC on top with a hole at the destination, would have
been possible on the day, in the conditions actually found during the
IFR flight.
In practice, one would not bother to do the flight under VFR because
the weather forecasts are usually nowhere near good enough to assure
these things even a day or two ahead, and few people are able to just
sit around every day for weeks, bags packed, and jump in the aeroplane
on the morning of the day when the METARs are just right. There is a
very small band of retired travellers who do that.
I've done long legs across Europe under VFR back when I could fly IFR
only in UK airspace; the Crete one was the longest. I won't comment
whether all (or indeed any) of these flights were 100% clear of cloud
:) Paradoxically, one can do much more under VFR if one is instrument
capable. But it still works only in southern Europe. North of the Alps
one can just manage short hops here and there.
One simply cannot beat IFR. It's a shame that it is so much work
getting the privileges.