"Ron Rosenfeld" wrote in message
...

For me, it enables me to take short cuts in familiar areas where I do NOT
have the field (or preceding traffic) in sight.


You don't have to have the field in sight for a contact approach but you do
have to be separated from other IFR traffic. If you have preceding traffic
in sight visual separation can be used, but preceding traffic that you don't
have in sight will require denial of the contact approach.