Dan wrote:
Since a contact approach requires the airport to have an IFR approach,
I fail to see the advantage of a contact approach. If visibility is at
1 mile, I think I would rather just fly the approach than pick around
for the airport in those conditions - too risky. Where is the
advantage? Following other traffic visually?

--Dan

The way I see it, its the IFR equivalent of Special VFR. So you can
sneak under a cloud layer and not wait 20 minutes to get the instrument
approach (which is clogged by traffic at a nearby airport).

There are always uses, and, yes, it can by risky. That's why pilots
have to request contact approaches (they can't be assigned by ATC
otherwise).