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The Part 135 way: adopting some Part 135 rules can mean a safer, more organized way to think about the go/no-go decision under Part 91.

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On a recent foggy morning in Hagerstown, Md., I sat waiting for the visibility to improve enough for me to depart on a Part 135 passenger flight. Every airport in the region was socked in with less than a quarter mile visibility, when a somewhat agitated passenger came up to me and asked what we were waiting for. I explained that the visibility had to improve before we would be legal to depart.

In an incredibly ill-timed coincidence, we heard the sound of a single-engine piston departing from somewhere in the cloud outside the door, and my passenger snidely inquired why that plane could leave, but we couldn't. I felt like I had been asked to explain Bernoulli's principle to a five-year-old. It was a deceptively complicated question, and one that should be of interest to pilots flying in their own aircraft under FAR Part 91.

PART 135

While the thought of even opening the FARs can be enough to put most pilots to sleep, there are some occasional bits of knowledge to be found in surprising places. One such example is Part 135--a portion of the FARs most pilots have probably never looked at--which governs air carriers providing on-demand passenger or freight service in typical general aviation aircraft. Before the air carrier pilots out there question my sanity for recommending a leisurely reading of Part 135, I'll admit that it really is as boring and as dense as it looks.

Yet, Part 135 supplements rather than replaces the regulations of Part 91, with which all pilots are familiar. Because it is just more specific, Part 135 is more restrictive than Part 91 in some instances and more flexible in other instances. However, if a topic is not addressed under Part 135, the regulations found in Part 91 still apply. For the purposes of this article I will consider the OpSpecs issued for a standard non-jet on-demand IFR operation to be part of Part 135.

If you can get past the legalese in it, you'll find that Part 135 contains a pretty good model for structuring IFR decision making when it comes to planning departures and arrivals. Considering...