Opinion ID: 1264810
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Mr. Prokop's Qualifications as a Pilot

Text: Gary Prokop was certified to fly in Visual Flight Rules (VFR) conditions only. In other words, he was not trained to fly simply by reading the instruments (also called Instrument Flight Rules or IFR) and, therefore, could only fly when visibility was fairly good. A VFR pilot is only permitted to fly if visibility is at least three miles and cloud ceilings are at least 1,000 feet above ground. [1] See Webb v. United States, 840 F.Supp. 1484, 1490 (D.Utah 1994). Additionally, when flying at night, a VFR pilot flying in the sort of airspace Mr. Prokop flew in that morningClass E and Class G airspacemust maintain a minimum distance of 500 feet below any clouds, 1,000 feet above any clouds, and 2,000 feet horizontally from any clouds. See 14 C.F.R. § 91.155(a). The sun did not rise that morning until 7:54 a.m., so it was still nighttime when the crash occurred. Mr. Prokop had logged a total of 248.0 hours of flight time, only 18.9 of which were in an SR-22, the type of plane he flew the morning of the crash. To ensure that he only flew in conditions he was prepared to handle, Mr. Prokop and his flight instructor developed a set of personal minimums. Personal minimums set forth guidelines for the weather conditions in which a pilot will fly that are more restrictive than the legal weather minimums for VFR flight. Mr. Shipek, Mr. Prokop's Cirrus flight instructor, advised Mr. Prokop to maintain personal weather minimums of 3,000-4,000 foot ceilings and visibility of at least 4-5 miles. Further, Mr. Shipek advised Mr. Prokop not to fly at night when there was snow on the ground because it is difficult in those conditions to distinguish between clouds and the snow-covered ground. The parties agree that the weather reports that morning called for at least some ceilings below 3,000 feet, some areas of visibility below four miles, and that it was still dark with snow on the ground when Mr. Prokop crashed.