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Pilot guidelines - IFR
What's IFR?
IFR means Instrument Flight Rules. It's a type of flight in which the pilot must be able to fly the aircraft in reference with his instruments only. He must be able to navigate and know his position only by using instruments. It's the reason why aircraft flying through bad weather conditions are most likely to file an IFR flight plan. They can't see outside the window. This doesn't mean that an IFR flight cannot fly in good weather conditions. In fact, most commercial airplanes are flying IFR all the time, even in good weather. However, pilot must use instruments to navigate. Separation from other aircraft is managed by ATC, most of the time. For more details about rules applying to IFR flight, visit our classes of airspaces page.
Weather
An IFR flight can be flown in all weather conditions, in clouds with a visibility of 0. However, some minimums exist for specific flight phases, like takeoff and approach. See appropriate charts for minimums.
An IFR flight can also be flown when visibility is 50 miles with no clouds in sight.
Altitudes
IFR flights must be cruising at appropriate altitudes according to their direction of flight (westbound: even altitude, eastbound: odd altitudes), at a thousand feet interval, starting at 1 000 feet.
It is prohibited to fly above cities at less then 1 00 feet AGL. It is mandatory to always fly at 500 feet or above from ground. These rules don't apply for special flights (police, etc.) as well as during takeoff / landing phases of flight.
Flight plan
Filing a flight plan is a mandatory procedure on IVAO for all IFR flights, even when doing circuits. In the Route section, add IFR beacons with airways. That's the route you are planning to follow, however ATC might change it before your flight or even while in flight, for various reasons.
For IFR planning purposes, it is important to use the publication called CFS (Canada Flight Supplement). It contains all the information needed on all canadian airports, as well as all preferred routing for IFR flights. Also, you must use IFR enroute charts as well as the Canada Air Pilot (CAP) in order to get all charts required for the completion of the flight. These publications are available in Charts section of our website.
Weather conditions are getting bad... or better!...
If conditions are getting worse, it is possible to request vectors around from ATC. Even if an IFR aircraft is able to fly through all kind of conditions, it's always better to avoid entering a cumulonimbus..!
If conditions are getting better and are forecast to stay good, it is always possible to "cancel IFR". In that situation, the IFR clearance is cancelled, and flight plan becomes VFR. Sometimes, when IFR pilots are able to see destination airport, they will cancel IFR and continue VFR for landing in order to speed things up (avoiding delays, avoiding long IFR approaches..). Also, at departure, at uncontrolled airports, pilots are used to request a "VFR departure" from appropriate ATC. That means that they depart VFR (meaning no delay) and get their IFR clearance once airborne. These situations are rarely seen on IVAO: usually, pilots are going to stick to their original flight rules. VFR all the way, or IFR all the way.