Flight visibility at the cruising altitude must be at least five miles.

The number of short bars the pilot can see can be used to determine flight visibility.

Thus, cloud ceiling and flight visibility are the most important variables for safe operations during all phases of flight.

In flight visibility 5 kilometres + Accelerated Freefall (AFF) Minimum cloudbase: The same applied as for tandems.

In helicopters, there is no minimum flight visibility requirement, or a requirement for an IFR-equipped aircraft or an IFR-rated pilot in command.

In relation to the weather conditions in the area at the time of this accident, emphasises compliance with applicable VFR minima regarding flight visibility and clearance from cloud (086/98).

The pilot must advise ATC immediately if unable to continue the contact approach or if s/he encounters less than 1-mile flight visibility; new instructions will then be provided by ATC.

A contact approach will only be issued if the aircraft is operating clear of clouds with at least 1-mile of flight visibility, with a reasonable expectation of continuing to the destination airport under those conditions.

If the procedure calls for at least half a statute mile flight visibility (roughly 2600 feet), spotting the Decision Bar at the marker would indicate enough flight visibility to continue the procedure.

Provisions must be made for prohibiting the location of garbage dumps, food waste landfill sites, coastal commercial fish processing plants, and/or the planting of crops, that may either attract birds or adversely affect flight visibility, within 8 KM of an aerodrome reference point.

A contact approach that may be asked for by the pilot (but not offered by ATC) in which the pilot has 1 mile flight visibility and is clear of clouds and is expected to be able to maintain those conditions all the way to the airport.

Although the rules pertaining to visual meteorological conditions take into account the effect of night on human visual ability by requiring greater flight visibility at night in uncontrolled airspace than is required during daylight hours, night VFR flights have been identified by the TSB as particularly of concern with respect to commercial passenger-carrying operations.