| Visual Flight Rules (VFR) | Instrument Flight Rules (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 to 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 aircraft 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. But again, it all depends of the class of airspace the aircraft is in. For more details about rules applying to IFR flight, visit our airspace classification page.
An IFR flight can be flown in all weather conditions, in clouds with a visibility of 0 or in a cloud free sky with unlimited visibility. However, some minimums exist for specific flight phases, like takeoff and approach. See appropriate IFR charts for minimums.
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.
Filing a flight plan is a mandatory procedure on IVAO for all IFR flights, even when doing circuits. In the Route section, add IFR NAVAIDs 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 Resources > Charts section of our website.