PilotEdge Forums

Contact and visual approach in a nutshell. Great video! http://www.boldmethod.com/learn-to-fly/ ... ou-fly-it/

The weather does not have to be "worse than visual approach criteria" for this procedure to be used effectively. Out in West Lafayette, IN where I used to teach, the overlying approach control has an MVA of 3,000. I was IFR, in and out of an overcast layer at 3,000 feet. We were about 25 miles from the destination airport, so I did not have the field in sight. There was no way for me to legally descend to VFR conditions and cancel IFR, despite that VFR below the deck at 2,500 was possible. A contact approach would have been my easiest solution. Once cleared for a contact approach, I could have descended to 2,500 feet and canceled IFR, resuming the rest of the flight under VFR. The alternative solution was to be vectored onto an approach, which in this case was going to add a substantial amount of time to the flight.