Special VFR departure

[Guilden]

If you are departing a MF aerodrome with an active FSS...with the visibility at say 2 SM... If you request special VFR for departure.. Can you pickup your filed IFR clearance airborne to save time on the ground?

[ahramin]

You are unlikely to get your special VFR clearance any faster than your IFR clearance. Plus it's not a great idea to depart in marginal VFR conditions hoping that you can stay VFR and get high enough to get your IFR clearance. A good tidbit of advice I got early in my career: "It's an IFR airplane. Go IFR"

But yes, what you describe is perfectly legal, as long as you can climb to a safe IFR altitude VFR.

[Hooj]

At some FSS they do have local agreements with the regions centre controllers letting them approve SVFR. At those units it would be fast to depart. I do agree with the above post about IFR flight. You may depart faster but there's no telling when you'll be able to get your IFR clearance.