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9 Answers

Decline “Cleared for the Visual”

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Instrument Rating

If you're on an IFR flight plan at night & ATC says cleared for the visual, what is the correct verbiage to decline & continue with a specific approach?

9 Answers



  1. RobA61 on Jul 23, 2020

    You can simply say “N1234 would actually like XYZ approach, if able”. And they should give you the approach. You can avoid the extra radio comms if you tell the controller which approach you want when you check in with them for the first time.

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  2. EAD on Jul 23, 2020

    You should only be getting the phrase “Cleared for the visual” if you have reported the airport (or preceding traffic) in sight. I see 2 easy ways to handle this.

    1. The way RobA61 described, or

    2. Just tell them you will be following the approach course anyway during your “visual”. It’s a little more wordy but it releases ATC from managing IFR separation for you while still keeping them informed of your plan so they aren’t surprised.
    E.G.
    ATC: N1234, cleared visual approach KXYZ
    N1234: Cleared visual approach KXYZ, be advised, we will be following the (Approach Name Here) course, N1234.

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  3. Ray Svobodny on Jul 24, 2020

    RobA61 & EAD, thank you for your replies. My night concern is losing the missed procedure when cleared for the visual. By staying with the approach, there’s a missed procedure to follow.

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  4. Mark Kolber on Jul 25, 2020

    Ray, I wouldn’t be *too* worried about a real world missed approach if the conditions are suitable for a visual approach. Although it can be authorized when conditions as little as 1000 and 3, with only the aircraft ahead of you in sight, a visual approach to a towered airport is unlikely in those minimal conditions. At a nontowered airport, ATC will typically ask you which approach you want.

    But if I have any concern whatsiever that a missed approach would bring me back into the clouds, I would refuse it.

    If you want to decline the visual when told to expect it or, for that matter, you want the GPS approach when they are advertising the ILS, it is really just as easy as telling them. I wouldn’t even add the “if able” Rob did, unless I wanted a different runway at a towered airport.

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  5. Ray Svobodny on Jul 25, 2020

    RobA61, EAD & Mark, Thank you.

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  6. Gary S. on Aug 11, 2020

    If cleared for the visual is given, marginal VFR will probably not be given. So I would just acknowledge cleared for the visual and go ahead and fly the established approach. Don’t let the controller fly your aircraft.

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  7. Ray Svobodny on Aug 12, 2020

    Gary S., thank you. To clarify, does ATC expect a direct approach or is continuing on to the IAF an issue?

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  8. AviatorTrevor88 on Nov 23, 2020

    “Unable to accept the visual approach. We’d like to continue on the XXX approach”. This assumes you were previously assigned something like an RNAV/ILS/LOC/VOR approach before.

    ATC will only “clear” you for a visual approach if you reported the field in site or the preceding traffic in sight. Don’t volunteer that you have the airport in sight, because ATC often interprets an unsolicited sighting of the airport to mean the pilot is requesting the visual approach so that they can descend below the minimum altitude for that segment they are on or deviate from course for some reason (maybe S-turns to lose altitude to make the runway because they are high)

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  9. Ray Svobodny on Nov 25, 2020

    AviatorTrevor88, thank you for the suggestion.

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