On Mon, 07 Aug 2006 00:10:54 GMT, Larry Dighera
wrote:

On Sun, 06 Aug 2006 16:55:12 -0600, Newps wrote
in :



Larry Dighera wrote:

Yes, but our resident fighter pilot asserts:

On Fri, 04 Aug 2006 16:34:22 GMT, Ed Rasimus
wrote in
:


Regardless, the flight plan type for the military is IFR.


If that were true, it prompts my questioning the need for VFR MTRs.

Oh heavens no. It's not uncommon for the F16's around here to show up
VFR unannounced, do a few approaches and then a few patterns and then
disappear VFR. And of course the helicopters are always flitting around
VFR. They may stop, they may just get flight following for awhile as
long as we can see them.

So it would seem, that in your experience with F-16s (not helos with
which Mr. Rasimus was uncertain), Mr. Rasimus' assertion "the flight
plan type for the military is IFR" is not always the case.

Let's establish some things with Newp. Where is "here" and who is
"we"? Where did the F-16s come from? Does he work at an ATC facility?
At a military or joint-use airport?

The Vipers departed their home station on an IFR flight plan--they
most likely conduct most of their mission in visual conditions and
under visual flight rules--but they depart the home station and
recover on an IFR flight plan. The departed on an instrument
departure, whether to a training area or a range or another airport.
The will recover on an instrument penetration which may terminate in
an instrument approach or a VFR hand-off to tower.

It is still an IFR flight plan.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
www.thunderchief.org
www.thundertales.blogspot.com