Here is my take on flying IFR. I plan on getting my IFR rating sometime soon, and this video is probably more for student pilots. If you are a VFR pilot and ever flown into clouds or IMC, what was the experience like and how did you fly your way out?
Instructors are required to teach BASIC emergency reference to instruments to all Private certificate holders. Training focus is on a simple emergency 180 degree turn in level flight at constant airspeed to fly back out of the cloud the VFR pilot flew themselves into, as well as unusual attitude recovery training with a view limiting device. You should be able to demonstrate the ability to do both prior to being signed off for a Private checkride.
Nice video by the way. Always enjoy your stuff. I had to skim it, about to head out to drive a bunch...
Rule#2 was forever seared into my brain by JFK jr. I was finishing up my training in preparation for my checkride, scheduled a week after his accident. In fact, I was up earlier that day with my CFI. The same hazy, hot summer day, a short distance from where he took off from (Caldwell airport KCDW). I was training at Teterboro (KTEB) and Morristown (KMMU). At the time it really bothered me that this happened so close to my checkride, but it forever remained a sober reminder to me! Good luck in your future aviation goals, I see an instructor in the making .
I had a student pilot take off on her solo xc and flew into clouds. She remained cool and calm, did the 180* turn and returned to home base safe. It works.
Happened to me twice, prior to getting my IR. The first time, I was flying my daughter up the coast of CA to Arcata. There was an broken fog bank hugging the coast for the last third of the trip. It was forecast to be ceilings of 1500 with the top of the bank at 3500. The destination was forecast to be clear. As we approached the fog bank, we needed a break and decided to land at Shelter Cove. (Which was supposed to be a beautiful spot to land.) We descended to 1000 (still a few miles offshore). As we approached the airport, the fog started to drop. By the time I realized this wasn't going to work, it was too late, I was in it. I knew there was a coastline to my right, and I wasn't sure of its elevation, so I turned 180 to the left and flew out of it. We had to fly for about 15 minutes before we could climb back up, turn around again, and continue toward Arcata over the top. (I had enough gas onboard to go inland and land in the central valley if Arcata turned out to be socked in.) To get into Arcata, we had to continue north of it and turn around and come back, as the south half of the airport had 500 ft ceilings, while the north was clear. We got out the same way. Started the takeoff roll with 500ft ceilings and was clear skies by the time we rotated. That incident is what made me start my IFR training. The second time, I was on my way back from San Diego. I had stopped in Bakersfield for full. The sun was setting, and I had a bad case of get-home-itis. Forecast was 6000ft ceilings all the way up the valley, with tops around 9000. My home drone was also under the 6k ceiling, but was forecast to be clear before my arrival time. Not wanting to take the chance of not being able to get down through the layer, I decided to stay under at 5k. (The entire route was flat land with elevations around 300-600 ft.) Just south of Lemoore NAS (it was already dark by then) The lights below flickered a bit, and then just disappeared. I looked at my wing tip, and saw my strobe flashes lighting up clouds. Yup, I was in it. I was about to make a 180, and suddenly hit heavy rain and turbulence the likes of which I had never seen. I was being bounced around so bad, I could barely maintain control. I got on the radio with ATC (I was under FF) and asked for help. Unfortunately, their weather radar was down. I really wanted to turn and get the hell out of it, but was barely able to stay level. All those crash videos were flashing through my mind, and I was thinking "you're about to star in your own crash video, dumbass." Then, suddenly, things settled down, and the lights below came back into view. I looked at my instruments, and I was 1000ft lower than I had been when I entered the soup, and I was 90 degrees off course! ATC read off the wx at the rest of the airports along my route (I was about an hour from home) and they were all reporting ceilings of at least 3000, and my destination was reporting broken, so I continued on, albeit at 3000 instead of 5000. After initially getting my IR I spent as much time in the soup as I could, and still do.
Yes; a couple times at night. I transitioned to instruments. Basically punched into some random clouds returning to the DC area from the NW. Knew the destination was severe clear, was talking to Potomac approach, and so I pressed on. First time I was "IFR" for about five minutes, until I could descend, as the terrain dropped away. Second time was much shorter, maybe less than a minute. Caveat - no turbulence, no turns required. Also, I had been flying for a couple decades by then, anf had a good deal of time under the hood and at night.
Once. It was June 2005, and I was headed up north from the Detroit area to Gaylord to spend the weekend with a friend. We had had a long stretch of rainy weather so the atmosphere was moist, but the forecast was for clearing and the briefer assured me that the forecast was solid and all indications were that I would not have any problems staying VFR. Ceilings were about 4500-5000 along most of the route though, so I couldn't get high enough for flight following from ZMP. I was cruising along V609 at 3500 when, nearly abeam with Grayling, the clouds suddenly started to lower. I barely had time to think "maybe I should descend a little" when I was in it. The thickest and lowest clouds were to the east, an active restricted area to the west, so a 180 did not seem like a good option. So I descended until I was out of the clouds (at about 2500 MSL, so much for the forecast). Then the choices were to land at the one reasonably close airport (8M8) or continue to my destination. That field was completely unfamiliar to me and I wasn't even sure I could find it from such a low altitude... and admittedly I succumbed to getthereitis... so I opted to scud run to KGLR. That was my first and, to date, only experience with genuine scud running. The clouds only got lower and lower as I approached KGLR, and the field was only legally VFR because the AWOS was lying through its teeth, reporting a ceiling of something like 1600 feet. When I landed my legs were shaking as I tied the plane down and walked to the terminal. That was a true never again... and I resolved immediately to get my instrument rating. But it took me another 3 years before I found a CFII and a whopping 7.5 years in all (and an airplane purchase, the learning curve of a new-to-me avionics suite, a second round at the written and firing my first CFII) before I finally had my checkride.
No experience with it yet, hopefully never, but in a seminar at our club one thing mentioned among "just don't get in that situation" (but many experienced pilots had at least one story about unplanned IFR) was that it was a good idea to keep your head from moving very much. They said that even if you have to tune the radio or something try to do it in stages, and keep head turning to a minimum. Hope I never experience this though. Thanks for posting that video. The opening video in yours was pretty jarring. Do we know what happened to that plane? At the end it looked like it was stalled and going down.
Yes - this is something you learn fairly quickly during IR training. Moving the head induces motion of the fluid in your semicircular canals, which can trigger spatial disorientation when visual reference is lacking to send your brain the proper information about your body's true orientation in space. And the bad news is, unless you are EXTREMELY conservative in your go/no go decision making, or always remain very close to the airport, the chances are very good that sooner or later, you will experience instrument conditions. It may not be flying into clouds, it might be cruising at twilight or night over remote or featureless terrain, which is perfectly legal to do VFR (in the US, not sure about Norway) as long as you can obey the cloud clearance/visibility requirements. You don't have to get an instrument rating to safely exit conditions like that, but you do have to train under the hood on a fairly regular basis to develop and maintain the needed skills.
Just making a quick flight to check some things out - barely legal ceilings, towers in the area, but clear enough under the clouds. I got distracted looking at the panel, and when I looked up there was nothing but grey. A 180 without gyro's did not seem like a good idea. So, I just sat there being very careful to not move the stick, eased the power back, and waited. Didn't take too long for the ground to re-appear.
