First time in hard IMC

[Flying h4x0r]

I got my instrument rating 2 weeks ago and last weekend we had a low stratiform ceiling with calm winds. I figured it would be perfect to get my ticket wet! I did some actual time very early on in my training, but this was my first time in the soup solo.

I filed to a nearby towered airport that was reporting 800 ovc and figured it would be nice weather to shoot my first actual approach in.

It was unfortunately the worst instrument flying I have done since about half way through my training. My scan was totally off. I kept being distracted by the clouds: the cool formations, different shades of grey, and the blips of earth flash below me. I was awe struck by how amazing the soup is.

I was flying via radar vectors, so it didn't matter if I got a bit off course because they'd just give me a new vector to fly, but on the ILS is when I really freaked myself out. My poor scanning technique continued and I kept drifting off course. I nearly pegged the localizer needle at about 600 ft AGL and I was about to go around when I broke through the overcast and saw the runway way off my left nose.

I was very disappointed in myself, but I tried to focus more on the return trip, and the approach went better. The ceiling lifted to 2500 ft by then so it wasn't even much of an approach.

Is this normal? Did anyone else experience this the first time they went in the soup?

 

[ScottM]

I got my instrument rating 2 weeks ago and last weekend we had a low stratiform ceiling with calm winds. I figured it would be perfect to get my ticket wet! I did some actual time very early on in my training, but this was my first time in the soup solo.

I filed to a nearby towered airport that was reporting 800 ovc and figured it would be nice weather to shoot my first actual approach in.

It was unfortunately the worst instrument flying I have done since about half way through my training. My scan was totally off. I kept being distracted by the clouds: the cool formations, different shades of grey, and the blips of earth flash below me. I was awe struck by how amazing the soup is.

I was flying via radar vectors, so it didn't matter if I got a bit off course because they'd just give me a new vector to fly, but on the ILS is when I really freaked myself out. My poor scanning technique continued and I kept drifting off course. I nearly pegged the localizer needle at about 600 ft AGL and I was about to go around when I broke through the overcast and saw the runway way off my left nose.

I was very disappointed in myself, but I tried to focus more on the return trip, and the approach went better. The ceiling lifted to 2500 ft by then so it wasn't even much of an approach.

Is this normal? Did anyone else experience this the first time they went in the soup?

I too had a similiar experience the first couple of times in the clouds. That is I was distracted by the shapes, colors, flashes of ground, etc. I actually put on my jepp shades for a while just to help me focus. Now I am much more used to it and can keep my focus. It takes practice. Congrats on getting the ticket BTW.

 

[AdamZ]

At this point the important things are that you recognize what you did wrong and that you are concerned enough to learn from it.

 

[Flying h4x0r]

I was in VMC between two overcast layers for a bit and it was so beautiful! Flying in the soup adds a whole new dimension of awesomeness to flying.

 

[dmccormack]

I put the visors down when flying in and out of cloud -- too distracting.

IMC flying sure is cool, though. My first breakout to minimums ranks up with first solo as Best Ever Flying Experience.

 

[Wingsofglass]

I never look out the widow in IMC. It's too scary :wink2:. Seriously though there is rarely a need. Even on an approach I will stay glued to the instruments because peripheral vision tells me when I'm breaking out. I do check for ice if appropriate.

Personally I think VFR on a moonless night in the mountains is harder than flying in the clouds because when VFR you are dividing attention between the panel and looking out the window with all these confusing inputs. In the clouds it's just looking at the panel.

 

[Ted]

It's not unusual at all for your first experience in actual to be that way. Typically, I suggest to have your first actual be a flight when you can just descend to get out of IMC without having to do an approach.

Don't feel badly about this. Just go up again, ideally something on a day when you can go a couple thousand feet up and just stay in the clouds (request a block altitude if you have to) and stay there until it starts to click. If at any time you feel unsafe, then get out of the clouds.

You done good by actually going out and using the rating!

 

[SCCutler]

My first flight in actual worked out to require a five minute climb through clouds to get on top, about 15 minutes of vectoring in the clouds before the approach, and an ILS to a 400' ceiling. All that monkey-motion, and the runway was right there where I left it two days before!

 

[tonycondon]

my first solo approach in actual was much much worse.

 

[gismo]

I think I had more issues with low ceiling departures than I did with approaches WRT the distraction of the clouds. I did have a fair amount of "in cloud" experience before taking my IR checkride so I probably worked through much of the external distraction thing before tackling it solo. But on approach I rarely even notice what's outside until I'm in a position to be looking for the runway. I do think it's a good idea to teach yourself ot ignore what's outside when it doesn't matter, this will come in handy if you fly IMC at night where the lights from your own airplane can be distracting. Some folks turn their beacons and strobes off in those conditions but if you don't stare outside they really aren't much of a bother and it's nice to not have to remember to turn them back on if and when you exit the cloud(s).

IME the absolute worst experience in terms of the world outside being a visual distraction is taking off at night into low clouds, especially in a rural area without a lot of lights on the ground. In many cases you're totally without any visual horizon reference as soon as you lift the nose during the takeoff roll and in any case you've got to be on top of your scan by the time you hit the first wisps of cloud and that could be as little as 10 seconds airborne. If you let the outside view distract you it's all too easy to end up back on the ground before you even realize something''s not right. There's also a somatogravic illusion where the acceleration fools you into thinking you're pulling up when you're not which needs to be ignored and that can combine with the weird sensations you get from the ghostly images you see out the windshield. For this reason I think it's wise to experience a few night IMC (I'm not talking about 0/0, just low vis and/or ceilings that are still high enough to fly an approach in) with a CFII along to keep you alive should you mess up a little.

WRT the loss of scan focus and associated degradation of your ability to maintain course and glidepath on an approach (something that will happen again), the solution is to avoid berating yourself and force yourself to get back to the basics (e.g. scan and make small corrections). You know how to do that, it's not like you've forgotten how when things aren't going as well as you'd like, what you've really forgotten is that it's not all that difficult if you stick to the basics.

 

[jesse]

For me the most challenging time in actual is the first two minutes. If you just departed into a low ceiling it's even greater. This is the time where I am most likely to get the "leans". Once I get past the first few minutes I'm settled into things and it's just as comfortable and controlled as VFR on a nice day, but even more so.

 

[flyingron]

Yep, I'm convinced this is a major factor in VFR-into-IMC accidents. It's not that people can't fly on instruments it's that they don't realize they should be flying on instruments. They end up looking outside into the murk rather than the panel and doing what they need to do to keep it upright and escape.

 

[Lance F]

You did good by wanting to practice. When transitioning from VMC into IMC I make darn sure I'm on the instruments before I enter the cloud. That may mean starting the scan as I'm rotating if it's a very low ceiling.

 

[LDJones]

Congrats on getting your feet wet. Keep practicing and it will become second nature in time. Being in the soup can actually improve focus!

 

[gismo]

You did good by wanting to practice. When transitioning from VMC into IMC I make darn sure I'm on the instruments before I enter the cloud. That may mean starting the scan as I'm rotating if it's a very low ceiling.

I'm convinced this (or rather the lack of this) is what killed my friend in a Cirrus. He was landing out of an approach in marginal conditions (2-3 miles vis in light rain and mist) at night and for some reason decided to go around after touching down (probably bounced). I'm pretty sure that when he pitched up the immediate loss of horizon and his relatively low time in IMC caused him to experience spacial disorientation.

 

[GMascelli]

All part of the learning curve.....read and respond. When I was training I would call out the correction (coming left to course or altitude correction) then continue on with my scan and not always make the immediate correction. My instructor reminded me of that all the time. He would say you make the correction on the second pass through the scan but by that timne its more of a chase.

I look back and laugh now hearing his voice......now its scan correct continue; read and respond.

Did manage my first flight to minimums today going into 58M for some service work I wanted to do before my flight to Ithaca, NY. What a rush....I love this stuff!!

It did look pretty on top for a while but I knew I had to descend back through it.

 

[jesse]

All part of the learning curve.....read and respond. When I was training I would call out the correction (coming left to course or altitude correction) then continue on with my scan and not always make the immediate correction.

Very common. I see it all the time. The pilot knows that they aren't where they need to be - but they fail to make a correction that'll actually correct the issue.

 

[dmccormack]

Very common. I see it all the time. The pilot knows that they aren't where they need to be - but they fail to make a correction that'll actually correct the issue.

I read somewhere it was "The hand of God" -- you can see the indications, know you need to correct, and still dumbly stare or do opposite input....

 

[TangoWhiskey]

Did manage my first flight to minimums today going into 58M for some service work I wanted to do before my flight to Ithaca, NY. What a rush....I love this stuff!!

It did look pretty on top for a while but I knew I had to descend back through it.

Excellent!! Bravo!

 

[TMetzinger]

For me the most challenging time in actual is the first two minutes. If you just departed into a low ceiling it's even greater. This is the time where I am most likely to get the "leans". Once I get past the first few minutes I'm settled into things and it's just as comfortable and controlled as VFR on a nice day, but even more so.

Me too. There's always that initial uneasiness as the world vanishes into the grey. But after a couple of minutes I get all settled in.

Though I will admit to forgetting to raise the gear because I was going through that transition at about 250 AGL coming off Nantucket one morning.

 

[azure]

I read somewhere it was "The hand of God" -- you can see the indications, know you need to correct, and still dumbly stare or do opposite input....

I thought the hand of God was where you really try to make the corrections but keep getting farther and farther off course anyway?

I had a problem with that a couple of years ago. On descents I would consistently get off course to the right, and keep making what I thought were strong corrections to the left, to no avail. I think it was actually a bad case of the leans and undercorrecting based on what my inner ear was telling me. I've not had that happen even once since I bought the Cardinal.

 

[DutchessFlier]

I thought the hand of God was where you really try to make the corrections but keep getting farther and farther off course anyway?

I had a problem with that a couple of years ago. On descents I would consistently get off course to the right, and keep making what I thought were strong corrections to the left, to no avail. I think it was actually a bad case of the leans and undercorrecting based on what my inner ear was telling me. I've not had that happen even once since I bought the Cardinal.

Hey Liz-whassup! I thought the hand of god was my CFII poking me when I screwed up in the plane. I've been trained so all I hear is: Heading Bug/Heading Bug/Heading Bug....fly the course, set a wind correction, bug it and stay wings level on the T-C, scan the T-C, the Bug and the CDI, period: mostly forget about the A-I. Works for me, YMMV.

 

[gismo]

I read somewhere it was "The hand of God" -- you can see the indications, know you need to correct, and still dumbly stare or do opposite input....

Level 2 on the learning scale, conscious incompetence. You know what to do but aren't doing it.

I suspect that at least some of this stems from the need to use your forebrain to translate what you see into proper actions. Any slight distraction or lack of confidence can stop or derail that thought process. It's only after you've done this enough that it becomes "second nature" (i.e. processed by a lower function in your nervous system) that this can be avoided. And even then, if you're faced with a situation that doesn't clearly resemble a familiar one you may fall back to where you need to think about what you're doing at a fairly low level.

 

[gismo]

Hey Liz-whassup! I thought the hand of god was my CFII poking me when I screwed up in the plane. I've been trained so all I hear is: Heading Bug/Heading Bug/Heading Bug....fly the course, set a wind correction, bug it and stay wings level on the T-C, scan the T-C, the Bug and the CDI, period: mostly forget about the A-I. Works for me, YMMV.

Use the AI to observe the attitude changes generated by your control inputs, not the other way around. Altimeter tells you instantly whether or not you are at the intended altitude, DG or HSI tells you instantly if you are on the intended heading. Watching either for a couple seconds and/or comparing what you see from one scan to the next tells you if and in which direction you are changing altitude/heading and in a subjective manner how quickly they are changing. The AI's main role when flying straight and level is to confirm what you saw on the other instruments. A 3" AI is really too small to be useful in keeping the wings level enough to maintain a heading and any attempts to do so will inevitably result in wandering back and forth across the intended path.

As for tracking a VOR or GPS course, it gets slightly more complicated. The CDI needle tells you at a glance how far you are off the course and which side you're on. They generally don't move fast enough to allow one to measure the rate of closure in one scan and with a VOR the movement during a brief look might even be in the opposite direction due to scalloping. So it's necessary to compare multiple scans to get a clear idea of whether you are moving away from or towards the course center and how quickly the lateral offset is changing.

GPS makes it a bit easier in a few ways. For one thing the presentation is much more stable so it's likely that any movement you observe is correct. In addition, most GPS courses are constant width, eliminating the issue of deviation rate vs distance from the station/waypoint. And even where the GPS course width does vary (e.g. LPV approach) it does so more consistently and there's a minimum width much greater than zero. Finally most GPS navigators can display useful tidbits like cross track error (distance from centerline) and track angle error (angle between your path and the intended course). I find the latter to be extremely useful when attempting to fly a course with maximum precision. Even that oft debased magenta line can be used for the same purpose (vertical indicates that you are paralleling the intended course).

There are other useful tools such as the heading bug on a DG or better yet on a HSI that also provides a course pointer with a rotating CDI needle. This is essentially a crude moving map with the CDI needle's representation of the intended course as the only feature on the map.

 

[DutchessFlier]

"The AI's main role when flying straight and level is to confirm what you saw on the other instruments. A 3" AI is really too small to be useful in keeping the wings level enough to maintain a heading and any attempts to do so will inevitably result in wandering back and forth across the intended path."

Agreed...I find the problem with the A-I is that you can show wings level and still be in a turn... the T-C doesn't lie about a turn. My training has me working mostly with the DG Bug and T-C..with the idea that if I'm wings level on the T-C and holding the heading I bugged (no HSI) I'm pretty much guaranteed that I'm on course. I also have a great respect for the fact that the vac instruments seem likely to fail more than any other system in the plane, and that depending on a slowly failing vac system the A-I (or D-G alone) in hard IMC is not a place I want to be. I agree about the DTK and XTK on the GPS...thats the best tool I have for confirming the wind correction I have bugged on the DG. Even if the vac system failed, and the DG and AI are covered up, I'm still working with the T-C, Mag Compass, and the GPS DTK/XTK...(or trying my best to do so!)

 

[TangoWhiskey]

Agreed...I find the problem with the A-I is that you can show wings level and still be in a turn... the T-C doesn't lie about a turn. My training has me working mostly with the DG Bug and T-C..with the idea that if I'm wings level on the T-C and holding the heading I bugged (no HSI) I'm pretty much guaranteed that I'm on course.

Agreed, if the heading you have bugged is the correct value for cross-wind correction (as you noted further in your post) and if you are already on course center, of course.

I know YOU know that, just pointing out the obvious for future instrument students reading this thread.

And backing up what you interpret on one instrument with input from multiple sources -- a V.G.T. (very good thing).

 

[Danos]

Personally I think VFR on a moonless night in the mountains is harder than flying in the clouds because when VFR you are dividing attention between the panel and looking out the window with all these confusing inputs. In the clouds it's just looking at the panel.

I have no mountain experience, but that kinda seems like asking for trouble. If I'm unsure of the terrain I'd go IFR.

 

[Danos]

I got my instrument rating 2 weeks ago and last weekend we had a low stratiform ceiling with calm winds. I figured it would be perfect to get my ticket wet! I did some actual time very early on in my training, but this was my first time in the soup solo.

I filed to a nearby towered airport that was reporting 800 ovc and figured it would be nice weather to shoot my first actual approach in.

It was unfortunately the worst instrument flying I have done since about half way through my training. My scan was totally off. I kept being distracted by the clouds: the cool formations, different shades of grey, and the blips of earth flash below me. I was awe struck by how amazing the soup is.

I was flying via radar vectors, so it didn't matter if I got a bit off course because they'd just give me a new vector to fly, but on the ILS is when I really freaked myself out. My poor scanning technique continued and I kept drifting off course. I nearly pegged the localizer needle at about 600 ft AGL and I was about to go around when I broke through the overcast and saw the runway way off my left nose.

I was very disappointed in myself, but I tried to focus more on the return trip, and the approach went better. The ceiling lifted to 2500 ft by then so it wasn't even much of an approach.

Is this normal? Did anyone else experience this the first time they went in the soup?

Nice going! I felt like my first time in the soup was a disaster. I was with my instructor and I spent the whole time wondering two things: why the hell he let me do it, and how anyone could fly single pilot IFR. I had the leans so bad that my head was pressed up against the door window. Keep on doing it and you'll get better. After a while IMC will be just like VMC. Sometimes on long trips the scan has been the only thing to concentrate on and keep me entertained.

 

[DeeG]

My first time flying IMC w/o an instructor was in a friends Bonanza. Bullhead City, AZ to El Monte, CA. I had her fly in the left seat as most of the trip was in VFR (it was just the SoCal basin that was IFR). The way I had planned it would have us in the clouds for about 10-15 minutes max on a route that I had done a hundred times before, but no, they vectored us out into the sticks and then brought us in on a completely different route, and I ended up spending about 50 minutes in solid IFR, 35 of it in the dark. eeek!

My biggest mistake was that I had never flown her plane before and it wasn't at all like the V tail I was used to flying. And trying to do it from the right seat made it even worse. I realized I was in over my head, so, I had her manage the power and handle the radios while I flew. It worked pretty well. When we broke out of the clouds about 3 miles from the airport, I told her it was her plane. I was beyond exhausted and had a nasty headache.

I never did tell her how scared s&%less I was, and how bad my legs were shaking when I got out of the plane. I guess I did OK, she was pretty happy to get her plane home and she never thought anything was wrong.

From then on, it was baby steps. Short local flights only until I got a whole lot more comfy without an II there to hold my hand.