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Today I want to show you something that I think is pretty cool. I want to show you something
that is, to my knowledge, a new way of figuring out VFR weather minimums for a particular
type of airspace.
We're going to do this using a flowchart. There are four questions that you have to
ask yourself (secretly five), and we're going to start out by writing those on the left.
The questions are:
Are you above 10,000 feet?
Are you in Class G airspace?
Is it the daytime?
Are you below 1200 feet AGL?
Those are the four questions you have to ask. If you know the answers to those, you can
do quite a lot. What we're going to do here is put in some visibilities. 5, 3, 3, 1 and
1 visibility. With the 5 we're going to put in 1,1,1, because whenever we use 5 miles,
we use 1,1,1.
For 3 and 1 we'll add statue miles, because visibility is always measured in statute miles.
There's one other question that we have to ask:
Are you in Class B?
With these five questions and a little bit of thinking, you can figure out some pretty
cool stuff. Let's add some detail in here: 1,5,2 and clear of clouds. Now we can start
drawing lines. Green arrows here, red arrows here, here, and here. A green arrow here,
here
and here.
And we'll get a green arrow here, red arrow here, and gray arrows as well.
Here we go. I realize that I did a bunch of drawing without too much explanation, but
what we've got here is a really cool VFR weather minimimus flowchart. Let's see how it works.
Suppose you happen to be flying and you're in class... - let's pick an easy one to start
with - let's say you're in Class C at 4000 feet. So you begin at the top left corner
and you ask "Am I above 10,000?" Well no, obviously not. Am I in Class G airspace? Well
no, I'm not. So, visibility is going to be 3 miles. And am I in Class B airspace? Well,
no, so your cloud clearance is going to be 1000,500,and 2000.
Pretty simple! It's not terribly difficult. Let's try again and do a harder one this time.
Let's say you're in Class E at 3000 AGL and it's night.
Are you above 10,000? No. Are you in Class G? No. So your visibility is going to be 3
miles. And are you in Class B? Well, no, so 1,5,2 again. That one wasn't as hard as I
thought it would be.
Let's pick a harder one. Let's say you're in Class G and you happen to be at 7000 AGL
and it's nighttime.
Are you above 10,000? No. Are you in Class G? Yes. Is it the daytime? No. All right...3
miles, and 1,5,2 again. All right. That was pretty easy.
Let's do it one more time. What if you're in Class G, during the day, at 700 AGL? Are
you above 10,000? No. Are you in Class G? Yes. During the day? Yes. Below 1200 AGL?
Yes.
1 mile, clear of clouds. Hey cool, it works!
And for pretty much every airspace I've tested, this flowchart has worked every time. If there
is a way that I've missed, if there's any particular type of airspace I've missed, that
this flowchart does not work with, I haven't found it yet. If you do find one, let me know,
but otherwise, this is as far as I can tell a pretty good flowchart for determining what
your visibility and cloud clearance requirements are for any given type of airspace.
I may make this up as a PDF and publish it somewhere. If so, there should be a link in
the video somewhere. That's about it.