When can you cancel IFR?

• A. When weather is VFR
• B. After landing
• C. When in B, C, or D airspace or within 10 miles of the airport
• D. Only after leaving controlled airspace

Answer: (C)

Canceling IFR means you’re ending ATC’s instrument flight separation and continuing under VFR rules. The best time to do this is when you know you can safely operate visually and ATC can still manage you as a VFR aircraft in the area you’re in.

You can cancel IFR while you’re in controlled airspace around an airport—Class B, C, or D—or when you’re within about 10 miles of the airport. In those zones ATC is already coordinating traffic for approaches, departures, and transitions, so switching to VFR here allows you to continue under local control and traffic awareness without abandoning ATC oversight. Outside those areas, canceling IFR would drop you into airspace where you might not have the same level of ATC separation, which isn’t recommended until you’re in appropriate weather conditions and able to maintain separation visually.

Once you cancel, you must stay in VFR weather and cloud clearance conditions, maintain your own separation from other aircraft, and follow the applicable VFR rules. You’ll then be handed off to the local control facility as a VFR aircraft.