Flying Thru Congested Areas

"O. Sami Saydjari" wrote in message ...
So, would it be poor form to get an ifr clearance to get above whatever
cloud layer at your departure airport....fly VFR when you are on
top....then pickup an on-the-fly IFR again 100 miles or so before your
destinatation airport if you needed to descend back down through a cloud
layer? I am not saying this is a particularly good idea, or
particularly "polite"...I am just asking a question here.

Sami,

As long as you file the IFR flight plans with flight service
before requesting 'em, it's no problem at all nor is it
impolite AFAIK -- it's your right to use the system as
best suits you.

Another alternative can be to request the IFR clearance
"VFR on top" once you're above the clouds at your departure
airport. This keeps you in the IFR system but, since ATC
no longer has to separate you, they may be able to allow
more direct routing.

We used to fly from the midwest to Buffalo NY regularly.
Direct routing is right through the Cleveland Class B and
IFR would result in the wide-around to the south. We used
both the above techniques. In general my pref. would be
try VFR-on-top first, cancel if I can't get direct routing
I want. One time after we canceled IFR I flew into an
unforecast cloud layer. It wasn't a big deal but it would
have been easier and more straightforward to just say
"unable to maintain VFR-on-top, request IFR altitude" than
to have to file and obtain a new IFR clearance.

FWIW,
Sydney