VFR flight on-top

[2Donkeys]

This business of the international validity of the IMC rating for flight "on top" is something of a recurring theme.

The fact is that the rules are drawn up ambiguously.

Schedule 8 of the ANO (which defines the scope of the IMC) makes it quite clear that it does not apply outside the UK. No ifs or buts. In fact, the licence is not an ICAO-recognised licence, which means that nobody has to recognise it outside the UK. As it happens, in the pre-JAR past, some states did go some of the way. For example, in Germany, there is/was a thing called a Controlled VFR rating which allowed VFR pilots to fly in Controlled VFR Zones established around certain big airports. An IMC rating holder was treated as having the equivalent of a CVFR rating. This in no way recognised any of the UK privileges of the IMC rating, it simply recognised that a certain level of flying competence had been reached.

So that is Schedule 8, the rating's legal definition, which unambiguously ties the IMC rating to UK airspace only. However contradicting this, and also in Schedule 8, is the original restriction on flight out of sight of the surface. Here, the restriction exists unless the pilot has an IMC rating or an IR. No geographical bounds are mentioned.

Reading the two together, it is possible to draw either conclusion and have a reasonable argument on your side. When in doubt, I favour a more restrictive interpretation because I suspect that this is what an insurer might attempt to do, if you, your aircraft, or especially your litigious passengers ever came to harm during a flight conducted "on top", in France with nowt but an IMC rating.

What I think we can probably agree on is that whatever the legal wrongs or rights, you would need to be pretty dumb to put yourself in a position where in foreign airspace, you fly above significant and sustained cloud without the means legally to descend through it to land, should the need arise. This is not a legalistic point though, purely a practical airmanship one.

It is all very well picking holes in poor legal drafting, but for me, this misses the point. Airmanship first, legal sophistry and CYA open-ended letters from the CAA afterwards.


French non-IR PPLs are actively discouraged from using this "privilege", as are FAA PPLs at many flightschools. There is a reason for this.