VFR into IMC - nothing like training

Chrisgoesflying

Chrisgoesflying

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Chrisgoesflying
I had my first VFR into IMC encounter today. I'm writing so obviously the outcome wasn't too bad. Hopefully my experience and me writing about it can help others.

I planned a roughly 400 mile x-country, originally yesterday but that didn't happen due to weather. Last night, I spoke with the weather briefer, checked all available forecasts and everything looked like we're good to go today anytime after noon.

Noon rolls along, plane is packed, one last look at the forecast and METARs. The METAR at the departure showed a ceiling of 7,000 ft. The nearest METAR en route (about 100 miles west) showed ceiling at 12,000. All METARs after that en route, including the destination showed clear skies. Quick look at the radar and sure enough there was some return just west of the airport. No big deal, the weather briefer mentioned that there might be some light snow for a brief stretch but visibility should still be above 5 miles with VFR conditions and it's a really narrow band, after which it's all good.

12.30, we take off, head west and I decided to follow the highway instead of going direct, to have a visual reference I can keep. I told myself, if I ever lose visual contact to that highway, I'll turn around. ATC asked me to climb to 4,500 initially so I did. Visibility became worse and after about 15 minutes, I lost the highway and nothing but white in front my windshield. SCARY.

Okay, don't panic - I practiced this a lot, I was thinking. The plane was pretty stable, wings level, cruise power, airspeed, all good so I initiated a left turn to get back to VMC. Here is the thing: Much harder in real life than with that hood on while chatting with your instructor, knowing he'll intervene if I f*** up. The turn was all over the place. Over-banked, speed increases, weird g-forces on the body, feeling like "oh, I'm level now" but the AI said something else. I caught every single f*** up in time to correct it before it became dangerous but honestly, I was sweating bullets. As I saw ground reference again, I called up ATC and told them I'd come back. They asked if I'd like to try a different altitude, saying they can get me down as low as 3,000. At that time, another pilot who was instrument rated and in an instrument rated aircraft and who took off a few minutes prior must have heard our conversation and said "don't bother trying", he entered the soup right about where I did at 2,000 feet and didn't pop out of it until he was at 10,000 feet.

Went in for a landing at the departure airport, waited two hours at the airport, watching that system pass right over the airport, blanketing it in a white sugar like coating. After it went through, off we went again, brilliant sunshine and a gorgeous sunset right before landing at the destination airport.

My takeaway: Don't rely too much on weather briefings or forecasts. If what you see in the air doesn't seem to correspond with what you were told or saw on paper, turn around while you still have visual reference. Flying with just the instruments as a PPL holder without an instrument rating is really damn hard - much harder than the simulated instrument training you go through.
 
Glad you made it back safe…. So I assume Instrument training is next on the list? You did the right thing some pilots were not that lucky to have the ability’s or smarts to turn around and paid the price.
 
Good job. Schedule your IR yet? :)

Chrisgoesflying said:
Noon rolls along, plane is packed, one last look at the forecast and METARs. The METAR at the departure showed a ceiling of 7,000 ft. The nearest METAR en route (about 100 miles west) showed ceiling at 12,000. All METARs after that en route, including the destination showed clear skies.
Click to expand...

Be careful, your brain may happily connect those green dots in ForeFlight and make a line where there isn't one... BTDT.
 
congrats on a successful outcome!

The FAA needs to revise Private Pilot emergency instrument training so it’s not “nothing like training”.
 
You can see snow in the distance usually. If I can see through it and conditions are pretty calm I'll fly through. If not I'll fly around. If you can't see a way around then you shouldn't be flying vfr.

You should get your instrument ticket. I've run in to way too many vfr pilots who are over confident in their "emergency" imc skills and push the limits. Sooner or later something bad will happen.
 
I think a lot of pilots want to go up and only worry about doing touch and go. But every now and then a VFR pilot should go up with someone and do some basic hood work. At least twice a year to stay somewhat proficient will be a life saver.
 
I flew 20 years without an instrument rating and never inadvertently flew into ifr conditions. Then one day I did, and it scared me so bad I started my instrument rating training that same month.
Glad you did ok, but get started on that rating.
 
I agree, IR is certainly next. I do have more instrument training than what you would normally need for the PPL. I'm in Canada where you need extra instrument time for your night rating and VFR over the top, so I have 10 hours of instrument time right now due to my night rating, and most of it very recent as in a few weeks ago. But, 100% agree, I will definitely go for my instrument rating next. I think one thing that makes this a lot harder in real life vs. simulated during training is the element of surprise. In training and during the check ride, the CFI or examiner calmly asks you to put on the hood while he has control. You can mentally prepare for it while in real life, it happens much quicker. One second you look outside and the next you have to fully rely on the instruments. That transition doesn't go as fast especially if you don't have a ton of reps doing it. Emergency procedures are practiced with an element of surprise. Many times, my instructor was just casually chatting with me and suddenly pulled the throttle saying "ooops, engine failure"... But it's hard to surprise a student with unexpected IMC. Maybe it should be mandatory for every PPL student to do an actual flight into IMC with a qualified instructor, even if it's just to scare the sh** out of the student so they don't even consider going up if the weather is anything less than ideal. Yesterday was literally the first time I even experienced IMC. My training flights never went even remotely close to clouds.
 
The recency of that training saved you.

I had 40hrs including maybe 5 of actual most of that at night training for the IR I never earned (got laid off).

I was under the hood in CAVU but bumpy conditions a few weeks ago for my FR (after 12 years away). Eye opening.

If you don’t use it, you lose it.

So glad you are safe and had that recent experience.

Thanks for the reminder.
 
Thanks for sharing, and nice work not panicking and getting back safe
 
Agree, thanks and nice job. I've been postponing working on my IR, and need to get back at that.
 
Nice work, what was the conditions at the airport you landed at? VFR, marginal or IFR?

I ended up in the clouds twice at night recently, one time did a 180 and the other descended under, both times turned on the pitot heat right away. Flying at night is scary and I’m surprised I’m legal to fly at night, I have issues finding the airport. But with some practice I’ve been getting better. I still consider myself a new pilot even though I’m PPL & IR.
 
My first experience with unexpected IMC was when I was trying to get back into my airport after scattered clouds were starting to close in and thicken up faster than I expected. While seeing if I could poke into my home field, I found my visibility rapidly decreasing. I turned away and returned to good visibility pretty quickly, but it surprised me. I then called up TRACON, got cleared to fly the GPS approach back into my home airport, and thanked myself for getting my instrument rating! That was the first and only time I shot an approach through clouds solo, and I found myself circling at minimums just below the ceiling.

Had I been slower to react to the worsening conditions, getting back to VMC would have certainly been tougher, and this is shortly after earning my IR!
 
Glad you're safe!

A huge part of aviation isn't the act of flying but decision making. The hardest part of IMC for me is resisting the urge to "see" a horizon when you're in the soup.

If you do go for your IR, try to have a few lessons in actual IMC towards the end.
 
Very glad for the safe outcome. I have my IR but snow in the area would have been a no-go for me. Rain? Sure. Snow? Nope.
 
My mechanic who is also a CFI has a sign in his shop. It reads "It takes about 45 hours to learn how to fly, but it takes a lifetime to learn when not to fly." In hindsight, I think it should have been a no-go to start with. I saw the radar return. But I saw light green radar returns many times before and when I was right in it, there was nothing. Happened on the flight just a few weeks prior. En route, I saw light green radar returns but when I supposedly reached that area of precipitation, there was nothing. A few weeks before that, I saw light green right at my home airport as I was getting ready for a training flight with my instructor. I showed him the radar as we were standing outside and he just looked at me saying that he doesn't see any precipitation and off we went. Plus, I talked to the briefer the night before who said it should be all good. Maybe some light snow for a brief moment en route but visibility should not be an issue. I guess all of that combined lead to the "go" decision.

Anyway, one thing I noticed that really messed up the turn for me and I think could be the cause for situations like this to really ruin the day is the fact that I was searching for that horizon, instead of fully committing to the instruments. I scanned the instruments and then looked outside, trying to find ground or a horizon but saw only white. By the time I scanned the instruments again, I was out of whack, catching up with the airplane. Once stable, I again looked outside trying to find something. I think that was the biggest mistake in flight. I should have just fully committed to the instruments. The plane was stable when I entered IMC, I knew there was VMC the opposite way so I should have just do the turn, slow and steady, then stabilize the plane in cruise still only referencing the instruments and then peek outside and see if we're back in VMC.

But, as many of you said, the outcome was positive. We landed safely, waited it out and ended up getting to our destination the same day. I'll probably be even more conservative with weather going forward and start my IFR training ASAP instead of later. I will also ask my CFI to go flying in real IMC with me. Being under the hood is one thing, being in an actual cloud is a whole different story.
 
Nice work!

I had a similar situation, I think maybe one one of my cross countries for my commercial. Like you, I had already started IR training concurrently, but I wasn't that far along. Was on my last leg, think it was MFR to EUG. There is some decently rugged (though not particularly high) terrain on that route up from southwest OR. As I cruised along at a few thousand feet, I slowly realized the overcast was getting lower, and beginning to obscure the hilltops. I didn't actually go IMC, but I'm down to like 1000 feet in all these valleys, trying to pick my way out with a sectional and no navaid reception. IIRC I got far enough north to get EUG app control/cascade on the horn and they reeled me in using my transponder. Sometimes being lucky is more important than being good :)
 
Good Job,

My encounter involved a return trip from NY to FL with my wife and daughter on board our C182. Low overcast in South Carolina. Smooth air but lowering ceilings so flying at about 1000 feet agl southbound when I crossed the shore of Lake Marion. All of a sudden sky and lake the same color and my immediate reaction was to pull on the yoke. VSI was reading 1000 fpm climb and airspeed dropping. Big adrenaline hit and forced myself to relax my hold on the yoke. Told my wife to look out the window and let me know when she saw the ground. Did the 180 sweating but focused on the turn coordinator ball centered and the AI level. Slow descent next on the reciprocal heading until she called out she had the ground. Flew the perimeter off the lake to Berkeley County airport, landed and rented a car to drive home to Florida.

Plan to update the panel and get the IR. Still makes me sweat thinking about it.
 
Darwin60 said:
?.. and my immediate reaction was to pull on the yoke. VSI was reading 1000 fpm climb and airspeed dropping. Big adrenaline hit and forced myself to relax my hold on the yoke. Told my wife to look out the window and let me know when she saw the ground. Did the 180 sweating but focused on the turn coordinator ball centered and the AI level.
Click to expand...
Which is exactly why I think the U of I/ASF procedure developed back in the ‘50s is so superior for a non-instrument-rated pilot…basically takes you down to one primary instrument (T&Bneedle) with your hands off the yoke so you’re not fighting yourself, and let the stability of the airplane do the hard work.
 
Fill out a ASRS report to CYA and you did break the FARs no matter how innocent you make it out to be.
 
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