I'm trying to get some second opinions on VFR-On-Top ops. This is a big grey area for me. I've gone over the 7110.65 and I feel like its wording leaves things unclear.
From my research, I've gathered the following:
- The pilot is on an IFR flight plan.
- The book says we clear a pilot as follows: "N123, climb to and report reaching VFR-On-Top. If not on top by [altitude], maintain [altitude] and advise."
- The book also says: "1. When an aircraft has been cleared to maintain 'VFR-on-top,' the pilot is responsible to fly at an appropriate VFR altitude, comply with VFR visibility and distance from cloud criteria, and to be vigilant so as to see and avoid other aircraft. The pilot is also responsible to comply with instrument flight rules applicable to the flight (e.g., adherence to ATC clearances)."
- Lastly, it states: "2. Although standard IFR separation is not applied, controllers shall continue to provide traffic advisories and safety alerts, and apply merging target procedures to aircraft operating VFR-on-top."
Reference:
http://www.faa.gov/AIRPORTS_AIRTRAFF...7/atc0703.html
We do get a fair amount of VFR/OTP traffic here, but 99.999% of the time they're Navy trainers. We have our own specific procedures for them. I'm trying to understand how VFR/OTP is used in a normal civilian environment.
My questions:
1) In practice, I am to treat the airplane as a standard IFR aircraft until he reports on top, so 3 miles/1000 feet are required? That's what I do, but I just want to confirm that's the case.
2) Just so I'm clear, once the pilot reports reaching VFR/OTP, I'm not required to continue providing 3 miles/1000 feet -
even if the pilot has not cancelled IFR? After all, that's what VFR is supposed to be and what I understand Paragraph 1 to mean.
3) Are pilots required to cancel their IFR clearance once they reach VFR/OTP?
4) If an aircraft is A) cleared only to a local fix, B) has reported VFR-On-Top, c) has not cancelled IFR, and D) wants to leave my airspace, can I simply terminate radar services as if he was a regular VFR flight following aircraft? I don't think I can, since he's technically an IFR flight plan, but just wanted to hear someone else's thoughts on this.
5) How do you guys handle VFR/OTP overflights, and what separation do you apply with them? I don't think I've ever seen one.