Roy wrote: * The key here is to not put oneself in the position of having
to attempt this last ditch maneuver. * If the aircraft and/or pilot are not IFR certified and current then one should not put oneself in this position. I know this sounds simple and self-evident, but the accident statistics prove otherwise. * If conditions change from when the flight is planned then turn around or find a place to land in plenty of time to avoid IMC. * There is no such thing, IMHO, as accidently flying into a cloud. John wrote: > Efforts to learn unproven procedures to keep the belly > down would better be spent learning to stay VFR > basic training applies forever. Roy and John, I agree with you with intensity. More important than just basic training is having good judgment and pre-decided rules and stick with them. The best ways to avoid entering those clouds, IMHO, includes (and is not limited to): 1. Resolve to never go take a look in marginal conditions. Go by the rule that its got to be solid VFR where you are before youll look at any weather and youll never leave the solid VFR zone to see how it looks. By solid VFR, Im thinking 3 miles visibility and conditions where clouds cannot be obscured in the haze. 2. Dont fly in even legal hazy conditions if there is any chance puffy clouds are embedded in the haze. 3. For night flying, my rule is: I dont fly at night if there are any clouds in the state of __________ (wherever I am). Other suggested rules? Observations: In my younger days, 1. I flew from Illinois to Locke Haven, PA, for the EOC National Convention in 5 mile haze with a clear blue sky above. There were no clouds anywhere along the route and no convective activity. But, due to the haze, there was no horizon at 7,500 and the only ground we could see was angled about 20°-30° down from the theoretical horizon. We were flying in a legal VFR manner with good visibility of nothingness. It was scary and I did a lot of cross-referencing to the instruments and checking the appearance of the sliver of ground I could see between my wing and the nose. That was about five hours of IFR flying in legal VFR conditions. That was a low-attendance National Convention due to the haze. Would I make that trip in those conditions now? Well, probably not. If I didnt cancel out, Id probably stay down at 1,000 at least and be hyper-eyeballs between the charts obstructions markers and out the front window. 2. Once on a short semi-local flight, returning home in the haze, I found those white puffy clouds embedded in the haze. I knew the weather front was up ahead of me, around that specific area, and I was just going to go take a look. Bad idea! That time I made a successful 180° turn in my Coupe on the instruments. 3. On another trip, it was severe clear most of the way to my destination but there was a low cloud layer 20 miles or so from the target field. I dropped down through a big hole to just take a look and found the clouds were down to nearly the ground. Then I found I couldnt climb through a hole that I could descend through not without going through the clouds on the edge of the hole. Level the wings, hold attitude via the artificial horizon and hope. Going down through a hole in the clouds to take a look thats another bad idea! This business of just going to go take a look has been scared right out of my repertoire. Stopping short or going back has proved to be a way happier experience than those flights. Ed
