ctc,
Originally Posted by clearedtocross
[PBL] do we know definitively that they were still IFR?
No, we do not. But does it really matter? .... I think you would rather follow the IFR procedure anyway .......
Well, *I* would, but then I wouldn't think I'd get 45° off course on what is after all a relatively straightforward VOR approach (sorry, VOR DME but then I always regarded a DME as cheating
). I think when explaining mysteries one cannot infer things from what people would "normally" do, for it ain't normal when you hit a mountain 45° off course.
repulo,
I am probably not using the right terminology. For me, a contact approach is an IFR procedure and a visual approach a VFR procedure. Ipso facto you can't do a visual without cancelling IFR, and as a commercial scheduled operation you couldn't do that.
And for the rest of us, if hetfield's agreeing with Rainboe we know we're doing OK
PBL