First time solo IMC - What was it like

WannFly

WannFly

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after you got your ticket to bust clouds... what was your experience like flying in IMC the very first time solo / without CFI

I am not rated, but have some IMC experience with a CFII on the right seat.. so wasnt much different and did not do anything that could have killed us. I do remember the very first time, i handed the control to him and took pictures of big white stuff...
 
WannFly said:
after you got your ticket to bust clouds... what was your experience like flying in IMC the very first time solo / without CFI

I am not rated, but have some IMC experience with a CFII on the right seat.. so wasnt much different and did not do anything that could have killed us. I do remember the very first time, i handed the control to him and took pictures of big white stuff...
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Sort of nerve racking. I remember thinking, well I better be careful and get this right or it will be easy to kill myself. A huge sense of relief when down out of the clouds safely on the ground. Gradually got more used to it.

Be sure to be on the dials before going into the clouds.
 
Was on the way home from passing actually since I was in NE with @jesse teaching.

Got lucky with a layer starting in NE that lasted until past KS with plenty of room above and below. Filed for dead in the middle of it.

Landed at 1K1 for lunch and fuel (love that place) and it was slowly turning convective so I filed above it and played a little dodgecloud to get on top and then got that first photo of being on top in the sunshine with a hundred miles of clouds below and a couple of towering CU to avoid.

Pretty fun way to start it off since flyable IMC here is hard to come by.

Other memorable stuff was when a true multi hour heavy rain band wandered through the city and I went and washed the airplane flying multiple approaches.

Nothing has been as low as during training though. Jesse got me schooled in approaches to real minimums with ground fog in LNK while Omaha was severe clear as our out. That stuff was so thick the tower couldn’t see us after we landed and gave us progressives back to Silverhawk...

Which was also great experience. It’s often harder to taxi than shoot the approach and land.

Love it, but very hard to stay proficient here in actual when I was flying.

Simulated is great to keep skills up but it’s not the same as real weather. Hearing the rain, watching the streams of snow, fog so thick you only meet the “runway environment” rules to continue another 100 feet... really shows why you did the proficiency work.

And that view on top when the world was grey on the ramp... :)
 
Similar to above, despite the ticket. My first solo IFR launched into 3mi vis at the surface, overcast @1100; stayed solid to 4000. Broke out 22NM later at 2000/3NM from the field. Parked, went in to relieve myself, de-stress for a minute, and congratulate myself.

I had quite a bit of actual during the upgrade, too.
 
My first time was about 45 minutes after I got signed off by the DPE. Just finished my instrument and commercial single engine add on in a Piper Arrow. It was now night time and there was a layer of clouds building at around 2000' for my flight back home. Flight was to be 45 minutes so I went ahead and filed just to be safe.

Conducted the DP and leveled off at 3000' and saw the layer from the glow of the nearby city. Punched in and wound up shooting the approach to 800' at the destination. VERY glad I had autopilot.

Now, I do not like to go IMC in my plane. I have poked in and out of some stuff but it's just not worth it for the most part. I do enough real work at my day job to keep me happy.

As the saying goes night, mountains or IMC. Pick one.
 
there wasn't a single cloud in the sky for a solid month after I got my IR. the first day with clouds I went and played in them. I was in and out of 'em, which was nice, I was able to make sure I was right side up.

 
While not "solo", it was with my Mom (not a pilot).

I had passed the checkride two weeks before, and had not flown anything as PIC since then.
I had just purchased the airplane, a PA-28-151, it was the "delivery" flight back from the seller's airport 1.2 hours away.
I had only been on a quick demo flight with the seller.
I had no time in type (but at least did have recent time in a PA-28-200R).
It was my first time flying it from the left seat.
It had a radio I wasn't used to.
No autopilot.
Did I mention I had my mom on board?
I logged about 0.6, but fortunately ceilings were 1500-2000 overcast if I remember right.

It was not the zenith of my aeronautical decision making... I like to think I am smarter now.
 
RussR said:
While not "solo", it was with my Mom (not a pilot).

I had passed the checkride two weeks before, and had not flown anything as PIC since then.
I had just purchased the airplane, a PA-28-151, it was the "delivery" flight back from the seller's airport 1.2 hours away.
I had only been on a quick demo flight with the seller.
I had no time in type (but at least did have recent time in a PA-28-200R).
It was my first time flying it from the left seat.
It had a radio I wasn't used to.
No autopilot.
Did I mention I had my mom on board?
I logged about 0.6, but fortunately ceilings were 1500-2000 overcast if I remember right.

It was not the zenith of my aeronautical decision making... I like to think I am smarter now.
Click to expand...

Soooo. We're all waiting to hear what did your Mom say once you were back on the ground? :D
 
PeterNSteinmetz said:
Sounds terrifying. Care to share more ? Or rather not think about it.
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No problem. I wrote the whole thing down to help me understand what happened.

I came to the conclusion I was not prepared to accept the risks of single pilot IFR. While I was doing my private pilot training I experienced a statistical anomaly. Seven people I knew died in five separate accidents over a period of a year and a half.

The reality that you can get killed flying an airplane became very real to me. It was not just something your flight instructor said. Normal, kind and caring people died every day in GA. It made me a very cautious, and risk adverse, pilot.

Thirty-two years after getting my PPL I'm still the same way...

Here's the story:
https://garysflyingadventures.blogspot.com/2012/03/my-first-and-nearly-last-solo-imc.html

Since I expect there will be a lot of negative comments over this post I won't be checking back in to this to read the comments. Don't bother posting any questions for me. I won't see them and won't answer them.
 
Tantalum said:
For me the freaky part is always the first few seconds you go IMC.. once you're "in it" it is generally fine. You do have to stay very far ahead of the plane though
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This, it was like hyper alert. A few imc flights later I was in and out of ice, in long enough to start thinking about alternates, then I would pop out again, then repeat cycle. Fortunately I was in a FIKI plane and the system had no problem keeping up.
 
Being IMC the first time solo wasn’t a big deal, as a lot of my instrument training had been in IMC. I distinctly remember, however, learning that you're supposed to acknowledge the controller’s acknowledgement of your IFR cancellation. ;)
 
MauleSkinner said:
I distinctly remember, however, learning that you're supposed to acknowledge the controller’s acknowledgement of your IFR cancellation. ;)
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??? All they need is the usual tail number. ???

Nothing special about a cancellation.
 
Lndwarrior said:
No problem. I wrote the whole thing down to help me understand what happened.

I came to the conclusion I was not prepared to accept the risks of single pilot IFR. While I was doing my private pilot training I experienced a statistical anomaly. Seven people I knew died in five separate accidents over a period of a year and a half.

The reality that you can get killed flying an airplane became very real to me. It was not just something your flight instructor said. Normal, kind and caring people died every day in GA. It made me a very cautious, and risk adverse, pilot.

Thirty-two years after getting my PPL I'm still the same way...

Here's the story:
https://garysflyingadventures.blogspot.com/2012/03/my-first-and-nearly-last-solo-imc.html

Since I expect there will be a lot of negative comments over this post I won't be checking back in to this to read the comments. Don't bother posting any questions for me. I won't see them and won't answer them.
Click to expand...

No negative comments here Gary, just a few observations on my "minimums" for single pilot ifr.


I won't fly single pilot IFR with out a working autopilot. There's a reason most airline crews are 2 pilot, workload at critical times IFR is a big one. The autopilot lessens that workload if used correctly. Plain and simple. People fly ifr with out an autopilot all the time, which is fine, more power to them, but this is my minimums. The autopilot also allows you to focus more brain power to those unexpected things that occasionally happen. Now for the naysayers, does this mean I'm unable to fly instruments without the autopilot? Nope, practice that all the time. But when a runway gets changed close to the airport and I have to reconfigure and rebrief, that autopilot is definitely worth it.

The next, and this was drummed into my head by my CFII, is not to do anything while IMC, or VMC for that matter, until I am ready for it. If I need more time I ask for a delay vector, no qualms, don't care if the controller doesn't like it, and I haven't had one complain yet, but if I need time, I get it. Works every time.

I have more, but probably the same stuff as you, but my most important personal minimum is that if I ever scare myself like you did, I'll get on the phone with my CFII, schedule a flight and work it through with him. Haven't had to do this yet IFR, but I'm sure it will happen. The place I rent from requires IFR checkout every year, which turn into IPCs, even if I get my own airplane, I plan to continue doing this. Sorry you don't fly IFR any more, I love it, really makes trips less stressful.
 
Lndwarrior said:
No problem. I wrote the whole thing down to help me understand what happened.

I came to the conclusion I was not prepared to accept the risks of single pilot IFR. While I was doing my private pilot training I experienced a statistical anomaly. Seven people I knew died in five separate accidents over a period of a year and a half.

The reality that you can get killed flying an airplane became very real to me. It was not just something your flight instructor said. Normal, kind and caring people died every day in GA. It made me a very cautious, and risk adverse, pilot.

Thirty-two years after getting my PPL I'm still the same way...

Here's the story:
https://garysflyingadventures.blogspot.com/2012/03/my-first-and-nearly-last-solo-imc.html

Since I expect there will be a lot of negative comments over this post I won't be checking back in to this to read the comments. Don't bother posting any questions for me. I won't see them and won't answer them.
Click to expand...

It's a shame you won't be checking back in, because I don't have any negative comments, only positive ones. Although it's now 8 years ago, and you are clearly determined to never fly IFR again, I'd like to offer the following, if not to you then at least to others who may read them.

It sounds like a flight on which some things went wrong that you couldn't figure out. This happens all the time. But you did what you should have done - noticed that you were having some kind of problem, told ATC, found clear air to regroup and changed your plan based on that. The things you did "wrong" were, in my opinion, pretty normal for new IFR pilots. You recognized the danger and took action to eliminate it. What more could I ask for? I've flown with many pilots who have some unusual indication in the cockpit (such as flags on the CDI) but they either don't notice it, or actively ignore it because it doesn't make sense, and then I have to intervene.

It sounds like you did all right to me.
 
@Lndwarrior I dont even have a rating and i am fairly new VFR pilot myself and I have already managed to perform a few incredibly dumb moves on my part. I think you did exactly what you were trained to do and came back safely. last fall, i did something really dumb, well, i didnt plan for it, it just happened and i didnt even realize it happened until i was on the ground. on a night flight, i fell victim of spatial disorientation right after entering the pattern and looking away into black hole and created a mess in the pattern. I have shared that experience here before, think in the lessons learned section. anyway, I had all the gizmos in the world to NOT get into that situation, but the pilot was not trained enough to transition to instruments... the only thing kept me from hitting something is the controller in the tower, once they started assigning vectors and instructions, my training kicked in and i followed instructions to the T and landed.

You have made a decision and i am sure we all respect that. no criticism from me, i think you did exactly what you were trained to do. Yeah you didnt go to MAP... who cares, you executed the missed approach when you needed to and kept yourself safe.
 
As was said above, the freaky part really happens shortly after entering the clouds. Just be aware that you're about to go IMC and start your scan BEFORE you get in the soup. I've only had one scare in IMC and I've only had one because I haven't done a ton of flying with less than 1,000ft ceilings. (My personal mins)

It was a warm February night, KLWC sits in a valley and is prone to fog and low clouds. Oddly it was also very windy yet the fog persisted. I was cleared on the RNAV 15 approach and my AP put me on course with a 30-degree corrections to the left. I KNEW there were very strong winds aloft but for some reason, my brain just fogged up and I got very behind the airplane for probably just a few seconds but it felt like minutes.

Thankfully, I had a GFC700 AP in the plane but I often think what had happened what would happen if I didn't have a very capable AP on that flight. I'll fly IMC without an AP but only if I'm busting clouds at altitude.
 
I completed my IFR check ride on a Tuesday in July, 2018. That Friday I was flying from NJ to OSH with a stop in Frederick MD. I had a couple of passengers but no autopilot. Also no GPS. I flew several legs over two days in IFR. The longest was three hours in the clouds from Mansfield, OH to KLOT (south of Chicago. Well worth it because it was followed by a week in Oshkosh.
 
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It was awesome. A week after getting my ticket. Flew from Northern Connecticut to Long Island. Left early evening. Entered the clouds. Next saw anything other than the inside of the clouds when I broke out at night 300-400' above mins on the ILS at my destination, at night.

It helped that I had a significant amount of actual, including two real missed approaches, during training.
 
Not really too different. Lyle Flick (Flick's Foggy Flying") only instructed in the winter, at night, IMC, and particularly when the front was moving in.

His favorite saying when the wings began to ice up....."God hates cowards!"
 
My first actual was about a week after my rating. RYY to FIN. Barely IMC in ATL area, got to go over the top of Hartsfield. Above the clouds the whole way down. Get to the RNAV approach and top of clouds are maybe 500 feet above the crossing altitude of the IAF. Asked for the procedure turn to slow things down a bit. Got to drop into IMC in the turn. The next 30 seconds were the most disoriented I'd ever been in a plane. ( I had about 4 hours of actual in training ). Once I got through the turn, all was fine. Broke out at 1000 agl with runway where it was supposed to be. I still don't feel rock solid and now look for overcast weather to get more IMC time. I'm not scared, but I am at a heightened level of tense dropping into actual.
 
First time solo IMC was during a 13 hour flight (Wyoming to Virginia), 2 hours of which was IMC. I just bought a 430W equipped 172P and loving life and couldn't wait to bring it home and show it off to the girlfriend.

This was about a year after my primary ticket and 11 or 12 years before my IFR ticket. :( (TBD - expecting to earn it this year, pending a resumption of flight training in VA)

The flight was a rather serene experience. With the benefit of hindsight, my luck could have easily run out. Foolish youth. :rolleyes:
 
kgruber said:
Not really too different. Lyle Flick (Flick's Foggy Flying") only instructed in the winter, at night, IMC, and particularly when the front was moving in.

His favorite saying when the wings began to ice up....."God hates cowards!"
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Sounds like a real charmer. Bet those who trained under him were well prepared though.
 
Lyle flew water bombers in the summer in Alaska.

Was Sunstrands "Chief Pilot."

Another favorite saying "Simulator time will be subtracted from your logbook!"
 
I got my my instrument done last November with 1.2 of actual. Wasn’t too much longer until clouds came with served with a side of ice so I stayed VMC until it warmed up. I finally got some solo IMC right before we went into corona lockdown. It was awesome! I doubled my actual IMC time in one flight. My only regret was that ceilings were too high to log any approaches. Now it looks like I’ll probably need a safety pilot.
 
Pretty routine. Train like you are going to fly, and it's a non-event. My first IFR flight was a max range XC and included rapidly changing weather conditions, and some challenging decision making about 50 miles out from my destination. I ultimately got queued up as #3 for the ILS and flew in just like all those practice flights. I remember after the flight how well "the system" worked, and how helpful ATC was with the incoming weather. (This was pre-inflight weather displays.) A real confidence boost. No real risks were taken, and things worked as intended. It's even better now with ADSB-in and XM weather.
 
Flew to Santa Rosa, CA. Mostly VFR on an IFR flight plan. Wife with me - a little "actual" along the way.

Next morning, it was fogged in really bad.
Flt Service said it burns off superquick. By 9am, will be severe clear.

Launched at 7:30 AM to fly an ILS to minimums - for real.

Was exhilarating!!

Broke out as I was pushing throttle.
 
About 3 months after my ticket I was on my way back from our farm in KY to Gaithersburg. Waited until all the had stuff passed and flew through the stuff on the backside. 2.5 hours of IFR to go with the 1.5 I got during getting my ticket (winter in the mid-Atlantic is not the time to get actual in small planes)

So cool to be on my own in and out then in solid IFR. Flew the RNAV approach at KGAI and broke out at 1,000 just like like it was an everyday thing. So cool I had to take a picture going in the first time.

Since then it's mostly been layers.

Breaking quarantine today to go with another club member and get some approaches in to stay current.

KGqRrTe.jpg
 
Day I got my rating for IFR my buddy told me I now have a license to scare myself and that I need to get up there. So I waited about two weeks for what I thought was good IMC to get my beak wet. Plan was to take off and fly to local class D and do two approaches and head back home and do one and land. Ceilings were overcast 1000’. I thought it was going to be smooth IMC and was going to get on top of it for a bit-both wrong. I fly a C182 with 430w standard autopilot with altitude hold. No coupler.
I blasted off and entered the clag at around 1000AGL and knew I was in for it. Fought the leans as I was making climbing turn to first waypoint talking on the radio. Quickly realized that I have automation- use it. Pop on the autopilot for heading and trim for airspeed to climb. level out at 4000 and still in IMC but now I’m in some turbulence and realize that the autopilot is fighting the turb too much. Off autopilot. Looking at my GS I realize it’s going to take forever to get to the first approach segment. But the turbulence relents a moment and I toss autopilot on again. I spend the next 30 min slogging to the IAF in bumpy IMC.
in my training i spent most of time flying plane and rarely putting autopilot on and I remember my instructor saying that when I finish my training he wanted to really review how to use the automation. That lesson I taught myself that day! I shoot the approach. Break out and do a low approach. I was getting pretty beat up and didn’t have it in for another hour in that bump. But now going missed I decide to go back home instead of circling around for another approach. Nice thing was now winds got me back home quickly. landed the plane. Successfully scared myself. Never felt unsafe though. But I will say when I first Entered that IMC climbing I felt pretty alone.
I was fortunate enough to do a lot
In my training in IMC and my instructor would call me on random mornings “what are you doing today- it’s going to be real crappy-we should fly”.
I have had my rating for over a year. Mostly used to pound through a layer but I try to go up when crappy. I have learned that there are no metals for stick flying the whole time. Use of autopilot during higher demand times is excellent cockpit management. Use when you get most disoriented is good management as well-climbing out/climbing turns.
 
Many years ago when I was young and foolish I was trying to get home in my no-electrical T-Craft, scud running under a lowering sea fog. Visibility was getting worse and worse and ceilings were getting lower, I was following the highway. I was down to about 500' when I passed a radio tower extending up into the clouds. Did a 180 and it didn't look any better behind me. The plane had a venturi driven turn and bank but no other gyro instruments. With nothing but needle, ball, and airspeed I figured I could climb through the overcast into clear air above (I knew the tops were around 1500' and there was severe clear farther inland). Obviously I made it because I'm here typing this, but I had a good case of the leans going by the time I broke out. The kid with me (I had offered a ride to the line boy) was terrified and crossing himself. Landed at another airport farther inland, got a ride home, and came back for the plane the next day. When I walked into the FBO upon getting home, he just said, "You haven't lived on the shore long, have you?"

Never repeated that mistake. I credit my survival to an excellent primary instructor (Thanks, Harry Burris!) who emphasized partial panel during that 5 hour instrument requirement for PP.
 
WannFly said:
after you got your ticket to bust clouds... what was your experience like flying in IMC the very first time solo / without CFI

I am not rated, but have some IMC experience with a CFII on the right seat.. so wasnt much different and did not do anything that could have killed us. I do remember the very first time, i handed the control to him and took pictures of big white stuff...
Click to expand...

Mine was definitely a pucker-factor experience. It was hard IFR conditions, in the clag by 100 ft above the MDA back into home base, and it was January in Michigan with a cold front coming a few hours away. I discovered only after launching that there was a shallow cold (as in, just below freezing) layer, unforecast and not showing on the Skew-T, at about 2000 MSL. My route was KVLL- KPTK, a very short flight and I was concerned about icing the whole time. I was offered the LOC BC 27 into KPTK. Conditions were low enough that I feared (rightly) that I would have to go missed, so I requested and was granted the RNAV, with LPV minimums. Piece of cake, but after landing I was very nervous about taking off again into the cold layer even though I had not picked up any ice the first time. I did decide to chance it, and got in easily back at KVLL with no ice. But it was definitely a nerve-racking experience, and one after which I made the decision to never again launch into IMC unless I was 100% certain that I would not encounter ice.
 
We get a IMC departures and approaches a lot here in Southern California, so my first solo IMC flight was pretty soon after my checkride. I remember being sort of nervous before departure, but totally relaxed once in the air and didn't even bother with the AP.

I agree with the person who said they won't do solo en route IMC without an AP.
 
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