IFR/VFR Conflicts in Magenta Areas

 

Magenta area with MVFR airport

West Texas loves low ceilings in the morning, an amazing fact when you consider that this is desert country. A notable exception is the Pecos airport, which evidently has a secret contract with the weather gods for unlimited ceiling and visibility year round.

We plan accordingly. When we go west from Dallas, we carefully monitor the ceiling of our preferred refueling stop, the uncontrolled airport Andrews in the Midland/Odessa area.

Andrews almost always has ceilings of less than 500 ft in the morning. If the ceiling lifts to at least 1,000 ft by the time we get there, we land and refuel. If that fails, we detour to Pecos, which invariably is VFR.

Andrews is surrounded by a magenta boundary. It means that within that area one may fly up to 700 ft AGL while staying clear of clouds, provided visibility is at least one mile. 

So why wouldn't we land at Andrews if the ceiling was at least 700 ft, instead of demanding at least 1,000 ft? We could simply fly at 700 ft as we approach the runway and land. That would satisfy the magenta condition, wouldn't it?

The Answer

Such flight may create a deadly conflict with IFR traffic.

When an IFR pilot arrives at the airport, air traffic control (ATC) releases the plane once radar coverage is no longer possible, and instructs the pilot to announce the arrival on the airport's UNICOM frequency. 

Suppose the ceiling is 700 ft. Then the IFR pilot breaks out of the clouds about 2.5 miles away from the runway and thus well within the magenta area. 

If the VFR pilot flying into the magenta area is also at 700 ft AGL and exactly at the point where the IFR pilot descends out of the clouds, the two planes collide.

A Flimsy Excuse

The VFR pilot may argue that they announced their position on UNICOM, so the IFR pilot should have known about the potential conflict. Let's see why this argument is plain wrong.

When the VFR pilot makes any call at all before entering the traffic pattern, it is typically 5 miles away from the airport. The IFR pilot may not yet be on the UNICOM frequency to hear that call. 

That call would not help the IFR pilot anyway because they have no idea how to evaluate that announcement relative to their own position as they break out of the clouds.

A Safe Choice

On the other hand, if the ceiling is at least 1,000 ft, the VFR pilot must still observe the magenta rule and doesn't fly higher than 700 ft. The IFR pilot breaks out of the cloud at 1,000 ft and has 300 ft altitude difference to look for conflicting VFR traffic. Not a big margin, but enough to take immediate evasive action if needed.

What happens if the ceiling is 900 ft? The IFR pilots still breaks out of the cloud within the magenta area and has just a 200 ft altitude margin to avoid the VFR traffic. That's not enough for evasive action.

The Garmin Pilot helps with the decision, by labeling any airport that lies within a magenta area and reports weather, as IFR or LIFR (= low IFR) if the ceiling is less than 1,000 ft or visibility is less than 3 miles. We omit here the details differentiating between the two types of IFR. Foreflight color-codes such an airport with red (IFR) or magenta (LIFR). VFR pilots should not attempt to enter the magenta area of any such airport.

Special Magenta Areas

Some magenta areas contain a smaller area defined by a dashed boundary.

Area defined by dashed boundary

Within that area, VFR flight must observe the rules for class E space, which means that visibility must be at least 3 miles and the pilot must stay at least 500 below, 1,000 ft above, and 2,000 ft horizontally away from clouds. As an aside, above 10,000 MSL the conditions increase to 5 mile visibility, 1,000 ft below, 1,000 ft above, and 1 mile horizontally from clouds.

The class E conditions enforce that the ceiling must be at least the altitude of the traffic pattern plus 500 ft. Typically, this means that the ceiling must be at least 1,500 ft.

Outside the special area but still within the magenta area, the class E condition applies above 700 ft. This implies that for any ceiling ranging from 700 ft to 1,200 ft, the pilot cannot be above 700 ft. The same applies to the entire magenta area if there is no special area.

Transit of Magenta Areas

The above arguments fully apply if a VFR pilot just transits a magenta area with less than a 1,000 ft ceiling. In fact, if the pilot doesn't announce that they are transiting the area, the chance of collision with IFR traffic increases.

Summary

If you are flying VFR, do not enter any magenta area with ceiling less than 1,000 ft. Do not enter any area outlined by dashed lines unless you can satisfy the class E conditions. All this applies whether you land or not.

When ceilings are low, announce on UNICOM with multiple calls what you are doing, whether landing or transiting.

If you are flying IFR and have a second radio, tune in the UNICOM frequency before entering the magenta area and listen for VFR announcements. 

If do not have it now, get ADS-B Out so you can see all traffic employing a transponder. 

All these rules help delay your departure from this world.

Acknowledgement: Discussions with friends Jack and John have been most helpful.

Have any questions or feedback? Please share your thoughts in the comments.