Flight Plans

vdsteelman

Well-Known Member
Anyone know if you need your instrument rating to fly an IFR flight plan if conditions are VFR? I was asked this by a student and couldn't find it in the FAR.
 
Anyone know if you need your instrument rating to fly an IFR flight plan if conditions are VFR? I was asked this by a student and couldn't find it in the FAR.

61.3(e)
Instrument rating. No person may act as pilot in command of a civil aircraft
under IFR or in weather conditions less than the minimums prescribed
for VFR flight unless that person holds:
(1) The appropriate aircraft category, class, type (if required), and instrument rating on that person’s pilot certificate for any airplane, helicopter, or powered-lift being flown;
 
According to my CFII, yes. To be in the IFR system you have to be instrument rated. Never mind, got beat to it...
 
You do not need an instrument rating to file IFR if you are flying through the washington ADIZ since you have to file an IFR flight plan to enter.
 
You do not need an instrument rating to file IFR if you are flying through the washington ADIZ since you have to file an IFR flight plan to enter.

I don't believe these are considered to be IFR flight plans, even though you may mark IFR in the checkbox. According to AOPA, the altitude is as "VFR/XXXX".
 
You do not need an instrument rating to file IFR if you are flying through the washington ADIZ since you have to file an IFR flight plan to enter.

You need an instrument rating to file IFR, period.

While it's highly suggested to file IFR in the ADIZ, it's not required.
 
You do not need an instrument rating to file IFR if you are flying through the washington ADIZ since you have to file an IFR flight plan to enter.

You need either an IFR or ADIZ flight plan to enter. If youand your plane are not IFR rated and current, then you must use the ADIZ flight plan.
 
You need an instrument rating to file IFR, period.
You need an instrument rating to act as PIC under IFR. Anyone can file IFR.

There's a procedure that some pilot have used for a long time to file IFR to get into the system and then pick it up as VFR flight following. I have not needed to file for the ADIZ (Colorado is pretty far away from DV) but It may be that the ADIZ filing operates on a similar principle.
 
Anyone know if you need your instrument rating to fly an IFR flight plan if conditions are VFR? I was asked this by a student and couldn't find it in the FAR.

The student should just tell ground that he/she would like to do practice instrument approaches in VFR conditions. No need to file. Just keep in mind the cloud clearance.
 
The student should just tell ground that he/she would like to do practice instrument approaches in VFR conditions. No need to file. Just keep in mind the cloud clearance.
Just wondering -- Why do you think it was a practical question about how to ask for practice approaches rather than a question about what the rules say about pilot qualifications?
 
You need an instrument rating to act as PIC under IFR. Anyone can file IFR.

okay, you know what I'm talking about :p

It's been awhile since I took the online ADIZ course, but if you enter the ADIZ under VFR, isn't it technically a "DVFR" flight plan that you'd file?
 
Just wondering -- Why do you think it was a practical question about how to ask for practice approaches rather than a question about what the rules say about pilot qualifications?

Why else would you file an IFR flight plan if your not instrument rated?
If your going to cross an ADIZ you file a DVFR if your not IFR rated.
I do this all the time, I live on the Texas/Mexico border. KHRL
 
Why else would you file an IFR flight plan if your not instrument rated?
Practice.

I have seen the question asked a number of times in the past by people who wanted to do a cross country flight on an IFR flight plan on a CAVU day to practice real IFR communications and wanted to know whether it was legal to do so.

IFR doesn't mean IMC. So, if you don't look (a lot of people don't), the rule that you need to be rated to fly on an IFR clearance is not necessarily intuitive to everyone (there are, for example, aircraft, such as the Diamond Katana/Eclipse that are permitted to fly under IFR but not permitted to enter the clouds).

So I took the question as asking what the words of the question actually asked instead of figuring that it was actually asking something different.
 
Why else would you file an IFR flight plan if your not instrument rated?
If your going to cross an ADIZ you file a DVFR if your not IFR rated.
I do this all the time, I live on the Texas/Mexico border. KHRL

Whilst training for my IR, I would regularly file IFR plans for a number of reasons, firstly practice at actually planning and filing, secondly to practice flying under IFR when VMC and also IMC, and thirdly as my CFII preferred to fly under IFR for protection reasons.

note: the box on the flight plan form says Pilot's name and address (etc), it does not say anything about PIC.
 
If the student is with an instructor, fine file IFR , the responsibility falls on the instructor not the student if something goes wrong or if rules are broken.

What part of "appropriately rated" is not understood.:banghead:
 
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