"Matthew S. Whiting" wrote

For the non-Naval aviators among us, what is a white card?

The Navy had two levels of instrument rating, white card and
green card. They both permitted pilots to operate to standard
approach minimums (100' and 1/4 mile for GCAs (PAR)). The main
difference was T.O. minimums. A white card pilot required at
least LDG minimums for T.O. and a release from either SQD OPS
(via the daily flight sked) or BASE OPS if away from home.
A green card pilot had no T.O. minimums and was authorized to
release himself anytime, anywhere. The Air Force had a problem
with this last item since (at that time) all of their pilots
required a release from Base OPS and a green card Naval Aviator
would just sign his own release and launch 0/0.
Bear in mind, that these were peacetime, non-combat operations.
I have forgotten just what the regulation required, but to be issued
a green card, one would normally have a thousand or so hours PIC.
It has been pointed out in this forum before that every Private
Pilot with an Instrument Rating can T.O. 0/0 with no restriction,
true, but not in a multimillion dollar plane owned by the U.S.
Government. :-)

Bob Moore
P-2V VP-21 1959-1962
P-3B VP-46 1965-1967