What is it often called when a pilot pushes the aircraft’s limits by trying to maintain visual contact with the terrain in low visibility and ceiling?

• A. Instrument meteorology running
• B. Scud running
• C. Visual flight rule overreach
• D. Terrain tracing

Answer: (B)

Scud running is the practice of trying to keep visual contact with the ground while the weather is poor—low visibility and a low ceiling. The term comes from those ragged, low clouds that hug terrain and can hide obstacles. When you’re close to the ground, your eyes rely on ground reference and perspective cues, but in poor visibility those cues are unreliable. Horizon reference is often lost, depth perception is diminished, and you can misjudge altitude or distance to terrain. Even if you think you can see the terrain clearly, a small miscalculation can bring you into hills, trees, or power lines. That’s why this behavior is so dangerous: it depends on visual cues in conditions where those cues are not trustworthy, and it can lead to a controlled flight into terrain. The safer choice in such conditions is to switch to instrument reference or climb to safer weather, rather than attempting to fly visually at low altitude.