By Jeff Pardo

If you’ve had your Instrument rating for a few years, filing IFR has probably become second nature for you. Before launching on a cross-country, you naturally pick up the phone to file, even when the weather is CAVU. The idea of not filing an IFR flight plan doesn’t really occur to you. Until, that is, you’re at mid-point on a published departure procedure, wondering why you’re doing all this knob-twisting—and you’re probably not even headed toward your destination. Wouldn’t it be nice to have the privileges of the Instrument rating and the freedoms of flying VFR? Well, you often can. …