"John Clonts" wrote in message
...

Actually, they were originally expecting me to fly a visual approach.
They vectored me to the field from the south, and called "TPL 3 'oclock 1
mile" but that broken cloud layer kept me from seeing the field almost
just below me. So he vectored me in the direction of a downwind
"outbound" for ILS-15. But as I got a mile or two north of the airport I
the layer suddenly ended, and I could see the field and that I could
easily maintain it visually... Thus the request for the contact, because I
didn't think it was VFR conditions at the time...


OK, that makes sense. I just never thought of asking for a contact
approach. Under the same circumstances, I would typically just cancel IFR
and duck down under the clouds as long as the vis was good enough below.
That would free up the airspace for another IFR and possibly prevent someone
from having to hold.