"Jay Honeck" wrote in news:1176556394.244027.92260
@l77g2000hsb.googlegroups.com:

One thing Collins recommends to help counter the dangers of instrument
flight is to file on every single flight, and to end every single
flight with an instrument approach.

Do you guys do that?

Yes. However, there are certain exceptions.

1) I am on the maintenance committee of my flying club. We fly planes on
short hops to neighboring airports for certain service. I don't file for
those flights unless the weather legitimately requires me to. I often fly
the approaches even if I flew VFR. In thinking about it, there is probably
no reason not to file every one of these flights, too...

2) Although it's been a while, if I take a friend or family member for a
sightseeing flight, we go VFR. I don't think a request to "Circle the
Lady" would be appreciated by NY Approach at 2000'.

3) I had been flying into and out of BWI a bunch. Flying IFR from HPN to
BWI they send you quite the long way around (they add about 20% on a 175
mile trip). A couple of times I flew VFR (or cancelled IFR after getting
outside the ADIZ) because I didn't want to spend the extra time or money
taking the long way around. In some cases, I asked for VFR on Top and a
direct clearance to avoid some of the delay. But in at least 1 case they
wouldn't give it to me so I canceled.

4) There have been a few other occassions where filing IFR would have put
me into situations that I prefered to avoid, so I went VFR. On one
memorable occassion, there was a significant wind change at the cloud bases
about 5000'. I wanted to stay underneath it at 3000', and filing IFR would
have put me up into the unfavorable winds. So I didn't file and flew
underneath it at 3000'. This type of situation also holds true for icing. I
have flown VFR underneath weather because the typical/minimum IFR altitude
would have put me into clouds with known icing. In this area, even though
the MEA is 4000', there are some handoff agreements with NY approach that
everyone comes in at 6000'. I would guess if there were real issues at
6000', they would break their agreement and let me fly lower, but I have
not ever been bold enough to try to find out.



Other than that, I file. It certainly doesn't hurt having an extra set of
eyes watching you..