Definition
Air traffic control towers that manage traffic at airports under visual flight rules but do not provide radar approach or departure control services. VFR towers sequence and separate arriving and departing aircraft visually within their airspace, and hand off IFR aircraft to or from a separate radar facility (such as a TRACON or ARTCC) that handles the instrument portion of the flight.
Plain English
A control tower at an airport that handles traffic by looking out the window rather than by working radar. It runs the runway and the airspace right around the airport, but the radar work for instrument flights is done by another facility.
Context Anchor
Seen when the Instrument Flying Handbook explains how a TRACON works with airport control towers in the terminal area.
Derivation
VFR stands for visual flight rules, meaning rules for flight mainly based on outside visual reference. In this term, “tower” means the airport control facility, not just the physical building.
Why Pilots Care
VFR pilots must know when they will receive services based on visual procedures rather than radar vectors or IFR clearances.
Intuition Check
Do not read “VFR tower” as “a tower that only talks to VFR aircraft.” An aircraft on an instrument clearance may still use the tower; the difference is that another ATC facility handles the instrument control services.
Example Sentence 1
Because the field has a VFR tower, the pilot received the IFR clearance from the overlying TRACON before contacting tower for taxi.
Example Sentence 2
VFR towers sequence arriving traffic by having pilots report positions visually over known landmarks.