What are your personal minimums for a no approach airport?

MauleSkinner said:
You only need 500’ below clouds, right?

of course, if you get down into the Good airspace, close to the Ground, you only need to be clear of clouds.
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duh. Some how my mind exchanged 500 below clouds with 500 below you.
 
Funny thing is it turns out we won’t be doing any no approach airports after all, but still got me thinking. Thanks all.
 
EdFred said:
With no approach, it's probably class G, so hundred foot overcast / 1 mile / clear of clouds....In a Mooney. Hmmmmmmm.
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Hmmmm.... not sure where you get that. I think of general Marginal VFR minimums as 1000 to 3000 and 3 to 5. For the purpose of getting into an airport with no approaches of any kinks available About 1500 and 3 is what I would like to see.
 
MBDiagMan said:
Hmmmm.... not sure where you get that. I think of general Marginal VFR minimums as 1000 to 3000 and 3 to 5. For the purpose of getting into an airport with no approaches of any kinks available About 1500 and 3 is what I would like to see.
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Because class G is 1 mile and clear of clouds and a airport with no approach will be G. I've done 400 OVC 35 nm or so airport to airport. VFR legal.
 
MBDiagMan said:
Hmmmm.... not sure where you get that. I think of general Marginal VFR minimums as 1000 to 3000 and 3 to 5. For the purpose of getting into an airport with no approaches of any kinks available About 1500 and 3 is what I would like to see.
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In the FAR's there is only VFR and not-VFR. MVFR is something that is used in weather reports and in the AIM.
Class G VFR below 1200 ft AGL is 1 mile (3 miles at night). That doesn't mean it is perfectly safe to fly in those conditions. I agree with you that 3 miles and 1500 ft ceiling should be the safe limit for VFR.
 
EdFred said:
Because class G is 1 mile and clear of clouds and a airport with no approach will be G. I've done 400 OVC 35 nm or so airport to airport. VFR legal.
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I prefer 600' ceilings, as there's less worry about the 500-ft from stuff rules.
 
Salty said:
Haven't flown much IFR yet so I never thought about this scenario. You're cruising along above the clouds and METARS are showing ceilings at, let's say greater than 2000, which is let's also assume for the sake of conversation is above your personal minimums.

How do you perform your descent in that situation? Are you going to do a 500 fpm descent and slow down to approach speeds? Now let's say you get to 2000 and you're still in the clouds, what next?

I'm thinking I level off and start talking to ATC about my alternate.

I know I meandered quite a bit there, but thinking out loud. I just never thought about the scenario before, but with my personal minimums right now, it's probably more likely than actually shooting an approach is. Any constructive thoughts on the topic are welcome.
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ATC can't take you below their minimum IFR altitude (which may or may not be lower than the one on the chart). If you're not able to cancel and fly VFR at that point, there's not much else you can do outside of an emergency.

My airport didn't have IAPs until 2018. Before that, we'd fly the approach for an airport across the river, and if we broke out by the FAF, we'd cancel (and request SVFR if necessary) and scud run south a few miles to join our own circuit. ATC was well familiar with the procedure, but you wouldn't want to try it if you didn't know every obstruction along the way.

I was never scared doing it, but I don't miss it now that we have proper RNAV approaches of our own.
 
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