Special VFR Techniques and Operational Considerations 

AIM 4-4-6, Special VFR Clearances provides the principal pilot guidance for requesting and operating under special VFR: 

• Request the clearance from the tower when an operating tower serves the Class B, C, or D surface area. 
• For a Class E surface area, obtain the clearance through the nearest tower, Flight Service, TRACON, or Center. 
• A complete flight plan is not required but state your intentions with enough detail for ATC to integrate the operation into the traffic flow. 
• An SVFR clearance normally does not assign a fixed altitude because the pilot must maneuver as necessary to remain clear of clouds. 
• ATC may impose an “at or below” altitude for traffic separation. 
• Radar vectors may be provided, but the pilot remains responsible for terrain and obstacle clearance. 
• At a non-towered airport with ASOS or AWOS, monitor the broadcast, advise ATC that you have the one-minute weather, and clearly state your intentions. 
• ATC separation ends when the aircraft exits the surface area covered by the clearance. 

A good request tells ATC who you are, where you are, what weather you have, and what you intend to do. 

For example: 

“Paine Tower, NXXXAB, Propeller Aero Services ramp, information Alpha, request special VFR departure to the west.” 

For a Class E surface area without an operating tower: 

“Seattle Center, NXXXAB, on the ground at Astoria with the one-minute weather, request special VFR departure to the west.” 

If you can offer an altitude, route, holding location, or other capability that helps ATC accommodate the request, include it: 

“Portland Tower, Rescue Helicopter XXXX requests special VFR transition southbound along the north shore at or below three hundred feet.” 

The altitude or route remains a request until ATC includes it in the clearance. 

At non-towered airports—and at some towered airports without the radar capability or local procedures needed to support simultaneous operations—protecting the airspace can effectively result in one aircraft entering or departing at a time. When traffic accumulates, the resulting delays can be significant. 

If you are waiting on the ground, the delay is inconvenient. If you are airborne, it can become a fuel problem. 

For many years, I conducted extensive hoist training near the mouth of the Columbia River. Coast Guard crews came from around the country to train in the heavy seas regularly found there. We frequently operated in Class G airspace when the weather was below basic VFR minimums within the adjacent Astoria Class E surface area (the field where our helicopters were based). 

Fortunately, a helicopter pad was located near the training grounds and a few miles outside the Class E surface area. When conditions and the applicable VFR weather minimums allowed, we could land there and wait on the ground for an SVFR clearance rather than orbit while IFR traffic arrived or departed Astoria. 

That option substantially reduced our required airborne fuel reserve. On several occasions, without a place to wait on the ground, an extended airborne delay could have pushed our fuel state toward an emergency and forced ATC to prioritize us over the IFR traffic recovering to the airport. 

The larger lesson was to plan for the delay rather than assume the SVFR clearance would be immediately available. 

However, SVFR does not always require isolating the surface area for one aircraft at a time. Radar separation, visual separation, local procedures, and letters of agreement can give controllers additional options. 

Many years ago, I was tasked with transporting a senior government official around New York City during a summit with international leaders. The weather was miserable. As far as I could tell, we were the only helicopter flying in the area. 

We probably should have been on the ground as well. We ended the day by going missed on an ILS and barely breaking out at minimums during a second attempt in significant windshear—but that is a story for another post. 

Our passenger needed to be picked up and returned to Teterboro Airport, a busy Class D airport in northern New Jersey across the Hudson River from New York City. During mission planning, we recognized that we might need to enter and depart Teterboro in less than VFR conditions. We discussed the contingency with the tower supervisor the day before the mission. 

At the time, Teterboro had a letter of agreement that participating helicopter operators could sign. The agreement established specific rules and ground tracks that allowed qualified helicopters to operate SVFR while the airport continued launching and recovering IFR traffic. 

The weather was IFR that day. It was also the day before the New York Giants were playing in the Super Bowl, and it seemed as if every private jet on the East Coast was trying to move its passengers out of New York and down to the game. 

Without advanced coordination and participation in that letter of agreement, there was little chance our government passenger would have received the required transportation. 

These two experiences represent opposite ends of SVFR operations. At Astoria, the practical solution was to land outside the surface area and wait. At Teterboro, advance coordination and a local agreement allowed helicopter SVFR and fixed-wing IFR operations to occur within an exceptionally busy airspace system. 

The common lesson is understanding the SVFR environment you are operating in and preparing for it.