Special VFR!
 

Can somebody please explain to me what a special vfr is?

is it for day:

1 sm visibility and clear of clouds
plane instrument certified, and pilot instrument rated

for night:

3 sm visibility and clear of clouds
plane instrument certified, and pilot instrument rated

Day and night are both 1SM Clear of Clouds, however to have Special VFR at night the pilot must be Instrument rated (specifies nothing about currency) and in an IFR Certified Airplane.

The very best place to start with something that is dealt with the the FAR is to start with the FAR

Start with FAR 1.1. "Special VFR conditions mean meteorological conditions that are less than those required for basic VFR flight in controlled airspace and in which some aircraft are permitted flight under visual flight rules."

The read FAR 91.157.

What does it say to answer your questions? Do you have any questions after reading it? (You probably do)

The other guys explained what it is, but what is good for?

I would not recommend departing for any destination under SFVR, especially at night. It can be useful for situations where the low vis is due to haze only and is NOT likely to turn into clouds or hard IMC.

1. Pattern Work.
2. Approach/Landing in SOCAL in the late afternoon. Winds are westerly, and the sun sets in the west. Combined with haze/smog, this can a create a low-vis situation making it hard to return to your home base late in the day.

Theoretically, you could get clearance to go from one airport to another in a large metro area where both airports and the route are under B airspace, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you are VERY familiar with the local landmarks and are certain that the low vis is due to haze and will not turn into a cloud layer.

There are a few other places (like SLC) where persistent haze due to pollution/inversion layers might be present.

Fulton County airport in Atlanta is located next to a river, and they get fog from the river from time to time. I would use SVFR to get through a hole in it, and by the time I came back it was gone.

Another scenario I always give my students is this:

You are crusing along in good VFR conditions under an overcast. Conditions worsen, however and the descending clouds are pushing you closer to the ground than you would like. You pick an airport to divert to and listen to the weather, vis. 10SM and 800 ft. overcast. The airport is class E (or D, or C), which means you are required to be 500 ft below the clouds (300 ft AGL!). Time to call Flight Service or ATC to request a special VFR clearance into the airport. Now you can cruise just under the deck to your diversion point and not worry about winged missles emerging from the cloud layer.

Long Beach, CA occasionally will have the approach end of 30 and all of 25L socked in at zero visibility in fog off the ocean to the south, including the tower, and the field/ATIS is officially IFR. The north runway is clear, and visibility is 20 miles, CAVU.

One can come and go in the class D under Special VFR, when flight conditions are much BETTER than Special VFR minima, but the official WX is WOXOF.

Don't ever plan on having to use SVFR. Use it as a way to get in if needed, but ever expect to have to use it.

Have you ever tried to explain the weather theory behind the conditions worsening and the clouds descending forcing you to fly lower and lower, and by that I mean an approaching warm front for which you are now flying directly into?

If you can explain to your student that warm fronts can be decievingly deadly to a newly minted VFR only private pilot because the warm air slides on top of the cold air like an escalator thus causing high cirrus type cloud 100 miles out, then mid level alto-cumulus clouds 50 miles out and then low level stratus soup like clouds at the base of the warm front. Then the student can associate warm fronts with ever increasing deteorating conditions thus never fly head on with a warm front and thus never having to use Special VFR to fly to an airport reporting marginal VFR.

You might want to bring that up and get them involved with interpeting the Surface analysis charts.

There is an old adage for this: The superior pilot uses his superior judgment to keep him out of situations that require the use of his superior piloting skills.

That superior judgement come from also having superior knowledge, including weather theory. Good pilots are always learning and so am I.

And just to add another favorite quote of mine that I give to my students from time to time: Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.

"Never" is a tough word. Understanding the phenomenon doesn't necessarily mean avoiding it.

In this case, it might mean anticipating the need to divert before the destination and planning for it, but with the option to use a pilot tool (Special VFR) to get there.

Moving along, the single most misunderstood of the concepts of Special VFR I've seen is the concept that it ends at the border of the Class C, D or E surface areas ("the airspace contained by the upward extension of the lateral boundaries of the controlled airspace designated to the surface for an airport").

On a Sectional, that means inside the Class D, inside the broken magenta lines for Class E, and inside the inner area for Class C (the same for Class B where it's not labeled "No SVFR"). I think a lot of the admonition against using it to get out (as opposed to in) unless you know that conditions are better than in the immediate vicinity of the airport are based on this.

Depending on the airport you fly at and the wx conditions svfr can be very useful to get in or out of a controlled airport. A lot of pilots are reluctant to use it but it will expedite operations a lot compared to IFR in a terminal area.

Problem is some airports are not that used to dealing with it but if you know what to ask for it can be a time saver. In AK it's used a lot at the towered airports since u can't carry passengers in sel ac. Used to be common to have 4-5 or more ac keeping visual contact and getting cleared in or out as a group. Works great if you are comfortable with the area.

For most folks, I would recommend that you declare an emergency, not SVFR, in this situation. Or pick up an IFR clearance if you can.

Getting wedged at 300ft AGL is not an emergency, its pilot negligence.

Remember that airspace rules are generally designed to benefit IFR traffic. By setting up special VFR, VFR only pilots are afforded a way to safely land in the event of weather or other conditions that would prevent them from returning to their field. However, the effect is to make a controller aware of that traffic, so that IFR pilots don't pop out of an approach only to find some poor Cessna lined up on their final.

so, if you run out of fuel, cause you forgot to check the tanks, can you not declare an emergency?

Either way, I do remember one flight where we requested special VFR cause of some smoke on the airport that reduced visibility a bit, got up to the practice area and it was gone

What about using svfr if you are instrument rated but flying vfr? You could request svfr to avoid filing an ifr flight plan if conditions become below vfr mins. I think it can be a tool for the ifr pilot but if I were vfr only I would not depart on sfvr.

It is good for getting into, or out of, an airport in controlled airspace when the cloud heights and/or visibility is sufficient for maneuvering the aircraft visually but is insufficient for visually avoiding IFR traffic, i.e. below VFR minimums of 1000'/3mi in the surface area/CBA. The SVFR clearance gives you separation from any IFR traffic (technically, it gives any IFR traffic separation from you, I suppose).

I used SVFR to get into LAS when it was 2SM BLDU.

I live in the Salt Lake UT area, and sometimes it is only about 5 square miles that is soup, courtesy of the Greaty Stinky Salt Lake. (Karma seems to always put it smack-dab on an airport area) The rest is clear blue VFR skies. Lake effect can easily screw one airport over but have the next airport a few miles away be perfect. I'll admit that I've never used SVFR, but it's nothing other than another tool you can use to get on the ground safely and still maintain safety/legality.

That's also negligence, in both cases you should have never had to declare an emergency. That is if you did what you were supposed to on the ground and in planning.