Contact Approach -- WX reporting

Jim Macklin wrote:

Commercial flights are
required to be "on a flight plan" and canceling IFR even for
the last few minutes of a charter flight puts you in
violation.

Rubbish. Many commercial flights go VFR. What matters is how their ops
specs are written. Some allow VFR, some don't.




Flight visibility is solely judged by the pilot on an IFR
approach, once the first step is passed.

And the first step on a contact approach is reported ground viz of a mile.


ATC will clear any
airplane to make any approach the pilot requests.

Uh, maybe. What's the traffic picture? Go into ORD and request a VOR
approach with a procedure turn and see where that gets you.



The pilot
is not supposed to request or begin an approach if the
weather is below visibility minimums. But any pilot, Part
91,121, 125, or 135 is the only person who can judge flight
visibility and that is the controlling visibility on an IFR
approach.

Wrong. 121 and 135 pilots are not allowed to even start the approach
when the reported ground viz is below the airlines minimums. Flight viz
isn't even a question that's asked.