First time in the clouds and I gave up

I actually (after the first few times in actual) found the opposite to be true. After getting past the "you can't just rip the goggles off and be out of it" jitters, I found it EASIER to maintain instrument flight in actual than with the view-limiting device. I guess the "cues" that leak through the foggles did more harm than good for me.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I could probably pass my IR checkride at this point but never spent any time in the clouds.
We went out and did some XC stuff under the foggles and broke through a thin layer multiple times departing and arriving.

Danced around Texas in the Cirrus, nailing approaches, filed everywhere and nailed everything.
Then a very thick layer started to build up back at home an so off with the foggles, let's do this for real.

30 seconds in, I said "Your airplane I am no longer interested in this rating".

She flew us home.

Having never been in the clouds for any length of time, I hadn't expected a couple of things.
1. VFR at altitude, the ground goes by pretty slow. Once you are in the clouds, you are well aware that you are moving 200 MPH. I felt like I was moving a million miles an hour and couldn't focus on the instruments because the shadows, clouds, and rain made it feel like we were moving 10X faster

2. Foggles are not IMC. Even with Foggles, you get little bits of info from your peripheral vision. It doesn't take a half second of information coming from those foggle gaps to orient you. In the clouds, that doesn't happen. I have never been one to cheat but under the foggles, there are snippets of ground that sneak in and your brain takes advantage of that.

C. I totally get how people get disoriented and die VFR into IMC. When I handed her the plane, we were in a climbing right bank and I have never felt more straight and level in my life.

I was never scared but I was task saturated by ATC and the epiphany that THIS is how people die.
I have wondered since I passed my PPL checkride how could anyone get disoriented in IMC the instruments are right there. I totally get it now.

This was really eye opening. I cant imagine getting your IR and never flying in actual. If I were alone and flew into this I would have either climbed up and gone somewhere else or declared.

They were barking vectors at me and I was hand flying and the instruments were "lying to me".
I may not continue. After 7 years of flying, I am not overly motivated to be in a situation that I have been able to avoid with a simple go / no go decision for the last 800 hours.




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Interesting post, thanks for sharing.

I wouldn't be surprised if your reaction is more typical than atypical.

With this initial exposure to IMC you're recognizing how the view out the window is disorienting and how you must trust your instruments. As far as I know, no human was ever born with the ability to fly, much less fly in the clouds, so we all have to start somewhere. Probably many of us were surprised or even shocked by their first IMC experience. I'd call that normal. That is why you're training. If you keep with it, the odds are quite good if not excellent that you will learn to dismiss this disorienting input, focus on your instruments, and even be able to multitask while you do it. With additional time and training you'll even be able to manage abnormals and emergencies in the clouds, while dealing with ATC and all of the other tasks.

As others have said, don't give up just yet... force yourself out of your comfort zone a little longer and see how it goes. I'm betting you'll feel better about this after a few more IMC encounters.
 
The instrument rating is good training and experience, but if you aren't using it routinely after obtaining the rating you might be better off avoiding IMC.
Some folks seem to enjoy flying IFR in the system, others don't. I just do it to be able to get where I want to get when I want to get there.
 
flyingron said:
I actually (after the first few times in actual) found the opposite to be true. After getting past the "you can't just rip the goggles off and be out of it" jitters, I found it EASIER to maintain instrument flight in actual than with the view-limiting device. I guess the "cues" that leak through the foggles did more harm than good for me.
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Some people find IFR flight in IMC comfortable and natural (after a bit of practice). My experience with IMC was the same as yours, and I was grateful to be able to do my initial IFR flight test in 2003 in actual IMC (400+1) instead of under the @#$%@# foggles with all kinds of distractions flashing around in my peripheral vision and shadows moving over the panel. Since then, I've always sought out IMC for my 2-year instrument proficiency check (a Canadian thing), because I routinely do better really in the system than just pretending to be. It's not that I don't get the leans — of course I do — but some fluke of my nerdy, introvert brain chemistry makes it easier for me to trust the panel than what my body's telling my.

But I also recognise that's not the case for most pilots. Just like I had to struggle for months to overcome my anxiety about motion sickness (mostly vertigo, some nausea) when flying VFR in afternoon turbulence — and will still climb for smooth air whenever I can — some pilots have to work very hard to be comfortable hand flying in IMC, and lose the skill more quickly without practice. One of the best things the OP can do between flights/lessons is to set up their home computer sim with IMC and moderate turbulence, then practice their scan until they can maintain keep the plane where they want it and deal with distractions. A good, disciplined scan will always beat the leans, as long as you keep it going when the distractions pour in (revised routings, frequency changes, etc. etc.), so making the scan second nature is the best prep anyone can do.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I am going up again today and we are going to get in the clouds and not worry about approaches / arrivals, but just practice flying a heading, doing some turns, etc. the very basic things you do on day 1 under the hood.
He said we can go further away from Dallas where it is quieter and get acclimated to flying the plane in the clouds with reduced stress from not being under the bravo.
I guess there are ways to get on a flight plan with some wiggle room for turns, climbs, etc. I am not sure how that works. I am going to go up a few more times to assess my aviation goals.
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Perfect.

ATC away from Dallas will likely be very happy to work with you to get training. Even around the zoo that is the DC area Potomac App is very flexible outside the STARs and SIDS to Dulles, National and BWI on pilots who say "for training".
 
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It takes time, and no, Foggles are not close to reality. Neither is a small GA sim (most sims can give the "in the clouds" view OK, but they can't replace the other sensations and you always know that everything will be OK (unlike actual).

It's easier to get the training in more rural, less busy areas. I've flown to mins in actual at KNEW and a couple of other cities along the gulf coast. And to better than mins at any number of other places. The only place I felt was intense was going into KARR (Chicago/Aurora) where ATC kept me at a pretty low altitude for an extended period (mostly between layers with periods in the clouds) - and others in the sector were complaining of icing and ATC kept telling them they had "nowhere else to put them" (one finally declared an emergency). Made it safely, but that may have been the most intense segment of instrument flying I've had. Never had an issue after that, even in the northeast (Wash/NY/Boston areas).

Others may disagree, but I found it a bit easier with instruments at night - if you don't have your landing light and strobes on, the sensation of "clouds speeding by" is less.

Oh, and a pro tip: if you have a passenger, it generally is not comfort-inducing to say "wheeee..." when yo get some bumps going through a deck....
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I could probably pass my IR checkride at this point but never spent any time in the clouds.
We went out and did some XC stuff under the foggles and broke through a thin layer multiple times departing and arriving.

Danced around Texas in the Cirrus, nailing approaches, filed everywhere and nailed everything.
Then a very thick layer started to build up back at home an so off with the foggles, let's do this for real.

30 seconds in, I said "Your airplane I am no longer interested in this rating".

She flew us home.

Having never been in the clouds for any length of time, I hadn't expected a couple of things.
1. VFR at altitude, the ground goes by pretty slow. Once you are in the clouds, you are well aware that you are moving 200 MPH. I felt like I was moving a million miles an hour and couldn't focus on the instruments because the shadows, clouds, and rain made it feel like we were moving 10X faster

2. Foggles are not IMC. Even with Foggles, you get little bits of info from your peripheral vision. It doesn't take a half second of information coming from those foggle gaps to orient you. In the clouds, that doesn't happen. I have never been one to cheat but under the foggles, there are snippets of ground that sneak in and your brain takes advantage of that.

C. I totally get how people get disoriented and die VFR into IMC. When I handed her the plane, we were in a climbing right bank and I have never felt more straight and level in my life.

I was never scared but I was task saturated by ATC and the epiphany that THIS is how people die.
I have wondered since I passed my PPL checkride how could anyone get disoriented in IMC the instruments are right there. I totally get it now.

This was really eye opening. I cant imagine getting your IR and never flying in actual. If I were alone and flew into this I would have either climbed up and gone somewhere else or declared.

They were barking vectors at me and I was hand flying and the instruments were "lying to me".
I may not continue. After 7 years of flying, I am not overly motivated to be in a situation that I have been able to avoid with a simple go / no go decision for the last 800 hours.




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I am willing to bet this is more psychological than physical. Knowing that you can take the foggles off and look outside will change the mental state of the pilot. But if you have flown in marginal VFR or moonless nights, this shouldn't be a huge difference. The first few minutes transitioning to IMC is difficult, no matter what one's experience level is. As soon as you enter cloud, focus on the attitude indicator, and slowly expand the scan to include the other instruments. It will get better, and some day you will prefer IMC over VFR. You don't have to look for traffic, and being surrounded by clouds can give the feeling of being wrapped by a cozy blanket.
 
Oh, and remember that the autopilot can be your friend. You need to be able to hand fly it, but an autopilot is a huge help in reducing workload. Part of your training should be appropriate use of same. Use all the tools....
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I am no longer interested in this rating
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Im right there with you. Im still working on my PPL but have all of my foggle time finished and planned on going right to the IFR after my checkride. Simulated IMC didn't really ever bother me and I didn't really see what the big deal was. A few lessons ago we were fogged in (but breaking up fast) so the instructor suggested we go IFR up over the clouds to practice while the fog burned off. The fog layer was much thicker than expected and we were full blown IMC for 20 minutes while ATC routed me around. I was a sweat soaked mess by the time we popped up out of the top.

NOPE! I thought I'd continue with my IFR after PPL but nope.

My takeaways from my experience:

1- Yikes! That was the first time in a long time that my 'I actually might not make it out of this alive' meter started to move. The last time I remember it moving was over 20 years ago riding in my friend's beat up Pinto (spray-painted like the General Lee) speeding towards a dirt ramp attempting to clear a mesquite tree (we didn't). :)

2- Foggles didn't really prepare me for real IMC at all. I am completely fine flying with foggles. I don't love them but I am pretty relaxed flying with them and never felt close to being out of control. The real deal, however, made me VERY uncomfortable and very tense. I think it is sort of like telling someone to hop on one foot and pretend to be on top of a radio tower. Easy to do in your living room but I, absolutely, could not do that 500' in the air. Same exact movement but very different consequences if you mess it up. The added consequences of getting turned around in that big cloud took a lot more of my mental horsepower than I would have ever thought. No way I could also make radio calls, listen to ATC, and actually navigate. I was dead focused on the headings & altitudes that the instructor was feeding me and just trying to keep that little AA5 wings level.

3- I understand why they say 'don't look out the window'. At about 5 minutes into the clouds I looked out the side window. I immediately felt a hard left roll and was almost inverted before I was able to get my eyes focused back inside the plane. Of course the wings were still perfectly level according to the gauges and all was fine- but it was very hard to convince my brain. Very strange feeling!

4- I realize that I have very low hours and some of this might get somewhat easier with more flight time but it is VERY easy to see how people get in trouble here. If my only IMC experience was simulated with those glasses I would not have nearly the respect that I now have for actual IMC. I would have probably given myself a 50% chance of surviving accidental IMC with just the goggles as my only experience. I think I'm sitting closer to 1% now after being in the real thing. Scary stuff and I HIGHLY recommend getting some actual hard IMC flying during your training if it is ever possible.
 
I have to say that my wife (also a pilot) is extremely unnerved in IMC (I don't think it's my flying doing it to her). We were always very conservative in our selection of instrument conditions to fly in, but she still would rather not.
 
Get more time in the clouds.
And a lot of people use the instrument just to get through that layer that is stopping the from taking off and landing VFR. I have my limits of what IFR flying I will do, other pilots have no problem doing every approach to the very minimum.

fight through and continue the training. If you have an IFR day, call your CFII and jump in the plane.
 
Great that you’re going back up. I’m in the stick with it camp.

I’m a fairly new IR pilot and definitely understand the feeling being in IMC. I definitely still get the leans. I need the rating because half of the time Chicago’s weather is OVC010, few hundred feet thick and CLR above. Given my mission involves going places, this is an important capability. I was never interested in sitting in IMC for very long - especially without an autopilot. Really never other than for proficiency.

Beyond this, the rating has:
- made me a better pilot such as adding important context to the risks of IMC (and mitigation techniques)
- made me more proficient in IMC, thus more comfortable flying above a cloud layer VFR (I used to hate flying above a layer if I couldn’t see the ground)

I can’t comment on the busyness of ATC/instructions, I think that just takes lots of practice and luck. I earned all my ratings under and through the Chicago Bravo. On my check ride during my first approach at the IF, I had to ask whether I was cleared. On the next approach, I got cleared on top of the IF 1000 ft above the min. Then it’s managing the descent (or going missed obv). Sometimes the trick is to slow the plane down. (Haha I do all of my holds at the bottom end of the arc)

Also - Foggles are useless. I try to find actual whenever possible.
 
Another thing to think about later- I scheduled most of my training flights for bumpy afternoon and with up & down-drafts. Watching your altitude change dramatically even though you are straight & level was new to me. And the bumps made it feel more “real” to me, even though it was clear out.
 
skippers said:
In the beginning I use to put the foggles back on in IMC and that took care of the outside distractions.
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Reminds me when I was a military pilot and the CO asked me to fly with a co-pilot less than a year out of flight school. Didn't give me any intel on him, "Just get back to me after." I was an AC, but not an instructor.
VFR outbound, no problem. 45 minute leg back home and I filed it IFR. Found a thin layer and requested that altitude. A scenario where we could climb or descend a thousand and be solid VFR.
He pulled a hood out of flight bag and put it on. I said to get rid of it and he said it was a "must have." No amount of coaxing would he give up the hood. I reported to the CO and he asked me to put it in writing and I declined.
I guess I was not the first to fly with him and he disappeared from the unit shortly.
 
I completed my training and got my IFR ticket. The whole time I had very little time in actual - less than 20 minutes. After I got my ticket I planned a very short "climb thru a thin layer and fly on top" baby-step flight.

Only the thin layer wasn't, and then my gps went dark, and then ATC started vectoring me all over the place and then I almost killed myself. I decided it wasn't for me and never tried it again.
 
flyingron said:
I actually (after the first few times in actual) found the opposite to be true. After getting past the "you can't just rip the goggles off and be out of it" jitters, I found it EASIER to maintain instrument flight in actual than with the view-limiting device. I guess the "cues" that leak through the foggles did more harm than good for me.
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My first inadvertent IMC was taking off from my home airport to head 20 min south to the avionics shop. Absolutely clear skies and within 500 ft AGL, I'm in the clouds...Yes, for the first 30 seconds I panic'd, realized I didn't have a signed will, and kept the plane level. Knowing the area, I knew there was nothing around me so I made it up to pattern altitude, turned south and considered going back home. Nope...looking back it was if a layer of cotton was over the airport. But looking ahead (south), again, absolutely clear. Just one of those strange Colorado weather issues. Headed south to the other airport, had lunch and waited until everything cleared up.

Second time - an IFR lesson with a CFII. About 30 min in benign fog, nothing else but still IMC. I'm loving it, he's the one panicking because he's never been in IMC before! Last time with him as CFII.

I've got 50 hrs in the Frasca sim and about 2 hours in a Redbird. I like the Frasca because there's nothing to see so you concentrate on the instruments but the lesson ends at decision altitude. But with the Redbird you can set the vis to be IMC until 300 ft AGL and really do a landing.
 
steingar said:
I've never met an IFR student who didn't get task saturated. Keep going. IFR goes with a Cirrus like milk and cookies.
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donjohnston said:
but my CFI told me that the real world is not even close to this difficult. And he was right.
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Those are two sides of the same coin. In training we go from departure to briefing a "surprise" approach to missed to briefing another "surprise" approach to.... multiple times. Even without an instructor tossing in twists and extras in, that's a lot, all taking place in a high workload phase of flight. But >90% of real IFR flight, even that relatively small percentage that is in the clouds, is casual and relaxed. We may have reviewed the applicable approaches beforehand to cut down on briefing time and if not, there is so much low workload time in cruise to do it. Even those practice sessions we do with multiple approaches to different airports are easier because we choose them (I actually load all the planned ones into my navigator in advance).

I think the saturation has a goal other than just a byproduct of our approach-centric syllabi. It prepares us for that <10%.
 
I know it's tough in TX, but better to train during a time of the year when actual is virtually guaranteed. I got my IFR ticket in the SF Bay Area between December and February of 1993-4, the peak of the rainy season. Flew into actual almost every flight from the very first flight, and had many approaches in the Central Valley Tule Fog down to minimums and still couldn't see the ground. Has done wonders for my familiarity and confidence when flying in actual ever since.

DO NOT QUIT ON YOUR RATING! Get it, then go somewhere cloudy and hire a local CFII to help you get more actual. You'll become more comfortable before you know it.
 
wsuffa said:
Oh, and remember that the autopilot can be your friend. You need to be able to hand fly it, but an autopilot is a huge help in reducing workload. Part of your training should be appropriate use of same. Use all the tools....
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Not everyone has an autopilot. Of course flying the Cirrus - we should all be so lucky (*sigh*)
 
murphey said:
Not everyone has an autopilot. Of course flying the Cirrus - we should all be so lucky (*sigh*)
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The right reason to use an autopilot is to reduce fatigue and task saturation.

The wrong reason to use the autopilot is to fly in conditions where you wouldn't be confident/capable of hand flying.

Sometimes I'm nervous that a non-trivial percentage of instrument-rated pilots are using their autopilots for the wrong reason. :(
 
“Foggles are not IMC”..... No, they are not, and that is good news. When I was getting my instrument rating my instructor made the observation that I flew the plane better in actual IMC than with foggles in VMC. With foggles on I was getting cues around the edges and switching back and forth between the cues and the instruments. In actual, no cues and I was able to just focus on the instruments. As others have noted, get more actual and at some point it will become more natural. As for ATC, my passengers frequently ask how I can understand that garbage.... it is just experience.
 
I can't emphasize enough that gaining experience in actual IMC is invaluable in gaining confidence in practical IFR operations. There is no arguing that the first time one flies without the view restriction device in actual IMC it is...weird, discomforting, confusing. But at least for me, flying in IMC was actually easier than with the view restriction device. For one, the hood is a royal pain to wear. Second, for approaches, it is both comforting and amazing to see peeks of the ground as you break out, usually exactly where you expect to be. Every IFR pilot who says they never get the "leans" or feel a little bit weird when first entering IMC is lying. But the feeling should dissipate quickly as you adjust to your instruments.

IFR flight is all about confidence building. It's not technically hard, but it can be a task-saturating experience, especially hand-flying a minimally equipped light single in light turbulence with ATC issuing instructions when your hands are full. I've flown my Traveler in solid clag from takeoff to breakout at the destination. When I was younger, I did it without an autopilot or GPS or in-flight weather. It's much easier these days with George, an IFR GPS, and ADS-B or XM weather. And as a member of the retiree set, I appreciate all the assistance I can get. To be honest, I can't stand watching my STEC autopilot fly approaches. It maintains course reasonably well, but it does so in such a reactive, behind the curve way that I prefer to hand-fly from just outside the IAF to the conclusion of the approach.

OK, IFR is maybe not for everyone, but gaining practical experience builds confidence. Being proficient at IFR flight is a huge safety factor in night XC, even in VFR conditions, and in navigating MVFR weather with no worries. Having an IFR rating means (supposedly) there is never a reason to have a VFR into IMC incident, and that is a huge safety benefit. Whenever in doubt, I just file.

Good luck, however you decide.
 
midlifeflyer said:
Those are two sides of the same coin. In training we go from departure to briefing a "surprise" approach to missed to briefing another "surprise" approach to.... multiple times. Even without an instructor tossing in twists and extras in, that's a lot, all taking place in a high workload phase of flight. But >90% of real IFR flight, even that relatively small percentage that is in the clouds, is casual and relaxed. We may have reviewed the applicable approaches beforehand to cut down on briefing time and if not, there is so much low workload time in cruise to do it. Even those practice sessions we do with multiple approaches to different airports are easier because we choose them (I actually load all the planned ones into my navigator in advance).

I think the saturation has a goal other than just a byproduct of our approach-centric syllabi. It prepares us for that <10%.
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Absolutely. Real-life IFR flight is 10% the workload of a training flight or IPC. Especially if you are not in a really fast plane. I have lots of time to plan at 115 kt. :(
 
WannFly said:
OP - if you cant find actuals, fly at night, under the hood, far away from city lights
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That's excellent advice! Night, under the hood is much closer to actual. I only have a couple hours under the hood at night but in my opinion its much more realistic.
 
Eldorado said:
...Going in and out of clouds requires a lot more concentration and can be disorienting. It happens to all of us once in awhile, we just realize if we concentrate on the instruments, the disorientation will go away....
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skippers said:
In the beginning I use to put the foggles back on in IMC and that took care of the outside distractions.
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One situation where I find actual to be more difficult than foggles or hood is when I break out of a low overcast on a non-precision approach without having the airport in sight. I find that I have to really concentrate on staying at or above the MDA, because the view of the ground below acts like a magnet on my brain!
 
I prefer a hood to foggles because the latter don't fit over my glasses all that well. I never found it difficult to ignore my peripheral vision, although that may be because my near-sightedness causes it to be out of focus.
 
chemgeek said:
Absolutely. Real-life IFR flight is 10% the workload of a training flight or IPC. Especially if you are not in a really fast plane. I have lots of time to plan at 115 kt. :(
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Let me second this. Here is what most of my IFR flights in actual have been like (I'll use departing from a towered airport for the example):
  1. Copy and read back my clearance.
  2. Wait forever at the hold-short line for my IFR release.
  3. Climb through a couple of thousand feet of cloud.
  4. Find a clear altitude between layers at 6,000 (or 7,000, or 8,000, or 9,000 ft), just where I expected it.
  5. Fly for 3½ hours in a more-or-less straight line, changing frequencies every hour or so, fighting boredom, and sometimes asking for a wide diversion to dodge weather I see on Nexrad or my Stormscope.
  6. Usually my destination ends up VMC if departure was IMC, but if not, get vectored onto an approach or cleared direct to the IAWP from 20–50 miles back.
IFR training and flight tests, on the other hand, are insanely frantic things, constantly reconfiguring for new approaches, holds, etc. Real life is sometimes that frantic (e.g. departing NY airspace IFR) but only for a few minutes, not for an hour and a half straight.
 
Bryan your experience and reaction to your first flight into IMC is more natural and common than you know.

I can guarantee you that on your next flight into IMC it will be ten times better and less stressful.

The IFR rating really opens up the utility of flying GA airplanes for cross country trips. Plus, it will get you a better insurance rate.

It is absolutely necessary to have a CFII that looks for the opportunity to get you up in actual by the time you are about halfway through your training. It is absolutely possible to get this rating without ever having flown in actual IMC. Very bad idea in my opinion.

Good luck!
 
Don't give up so easily.

I struggled. No other words. The IR was the hardest of all for me, someone with ambitions of being a professional pilot. I failed my first IR checkride on the NDB approach. I failed my first attempt at the ATP because I forgot to hit the suicide switch. (the button that changes the CDI from VOR to GPS) I should have busted my CFII ride, but the examiner allowed me to "teach'' him on what I did wrong, what I should have done to correct myself and what I would do to instruct a student on how not to do what I did. (set the wrong inbound on a VOR approach, flying from the right seat I missed it by a few degrees)

The IR training was the absolute hardest one of them all for me. Even more so than the initial CFI checkride.

And I had a total of about 3 minutes actual in training.
 
You'll get used to it with a few more tries. If things are going wrong turn on the autopilot and get everything sorted out.

That said, I've had my rating for a few years yet and have never flown a loggable approach in IMC. Started a few and popped out underneath before hitting the final approach fix. Really I just use it to get on top of layers.
 
I have found (yes, everybody is different) that removing all outside clues under the hood is not even close to flying in/around clouds. I never had a problem under the hood. First time in actual, I got a bad case of the "leans" with some clouds that looked like a horizon but weren't. Couldn't figure out why I had to add left rudder to fly straight. :eek:
 
After getting my IR (many moons ago) I flew two radically different IMC flights. One was in the clouds for ~2 hours, hand flying on steam gauges and VORs. Broke out on final, a few hundred above minimums. I was sweating, but very pleased with myself that I did it and the runway was straight in front of me when it appeared. The other was in and out of fair weather clouds, no convective activity, but constantly switching from IMC to VMC. Very disorienting because you tend to look outside when you can, then shift gears back inside for the next cloud. Heading, course and altitude would drift a little when I wasn't keeping up my scan and brought extra work to get them back in line. After my personal debriefing I decided that it would have been much better to stay in IMC mode.

I love the challenge of hand flying IFR, the discipline required and the satisfaction of ending up right where you should be. Hang in there, it'll get better.
 
Palmpilot said:
I find that I have to really concentrate on staying at or above the MDA, because the view of the ground below acts like a magnet on my brain
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Yes! If you "break out" but can't see the runway yet it's very easy to keep descending down "to the ground"
 
upstateny said:
After getting my IR (many moons ago) I flew two radically different IMC flights. One was in the clouds for ~2 hours, hand flying on steam gauges and VORs. Broke out on final, a few hundred above minimums. I was sweating, but very pleased with myself that I did it and the runway was straight in front of me when it appeared. The other was in and out of fair weather clouds, no convective activity, but constantly switching from IMC to VMC. Very disorienting because you tend to look outside when you can, then shift gears back inside for the next cloud. Heading, course and altitude would drift a little when I wasn't keeping up my scan and brought extra work to get them back in line. After my personal debriefing I decided that it would have been much better to stay in IMC mode.

I love the challenge of hand flying IFR, the discipline required and the satisfaction of ending up right where you should be. Hang in there, it'll get better.
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I can almost hear the loud "Click!" in my brain every time I fly in or out of IMC. When I'm entering IMC, I think I even shift my position a bit, sit up straight, and square up my shoulders, so that my body is perfectly lined up with the panel I'm going to be focussing on. It's a bit like watching baseball infielders drop to the "set" position as soon as the pitcher winds up. :)
 
murphey said:
Not everyone has an autopilot. Of course flying the Cirrus - we should all be so lucky (*sigh*)
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Of course. I said it knowing he has a Cirrus, but many other planes do, too. It's not required equipment, of course, but from my standpoint for serious IFR I want one in the plane to reduce workload. I still insist on being able to hand-fly, but being able to push the button while getting charts or loading approaches in the box (or setting up the Nav unit) adds a safety margin.

FWIW, I'd do regular IPCs rather than rely on the other means of maintaining currency.
 
Trained for my IR in AZ, so no actual. Afterwards went up to find some one day over a known route with an out below because the ceiling was high enough.

Certainly some of the most intense flying I have ever done. I enjoy that sort of very serious challenge, but it was wild. I imagine it depends on whether one enjoys that kind of situation. Many do not and I can see how if you want to just enjoy flying it is not something you may like.

Nonetheless, I would think to finish the rating as the training improves the precision of one’s flying otherwise and can be a good thing to have in an emergency. It is also really useful at night.
 
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