hotrod150 wrote:I've known quite a few pilots who got their instrument rating but then let their skills lapse. Either their own airplane wasn't IFR equipped, or else they just didn't keep IFR current because it wasn't convenient or because they didn't enjoy it. IMHO these guys are in more danger than an admittedly VFR-only pilot like me, because in the back of their mind, they feel like they have this ace-in-the-hole instrument rating which can save them if they fly into the muck. But if & when it happens, they're just as likely as me to get disoriented & dead. Look at how many IFR rated pilots are involved in VFR-into-IMC crashes.
That's one of the reasons I have never pursued an instrument rating-- that's not the kind of flying I want to do, so I don't think I'd keep current and proficient.
Hotrod - you live in Port Townsend, WA? I spent a year in Bremerton several decades ago, and I remember there were a heckuva lot of IMC days, especially in winter. Nothing like the Southwest where I'm at now. WA seems like a place where an instrument ticket would be pretty cost-effective.
In any case, I don't know why there are so many VFR-into-IMC accidents involving instrument rated pilots. Obviously, staying current on attitude flying skills is important, and just having the ticket is not the solution to safe flying.
But the problem of flying VFR-into-IMC is not limited to spatial disorientation. Even if you have pretty good attitude flying skills on the gages, you still have to avoid flying into terrain. In many if not most instances of VFR-into-IMC, the pilot is trying to stay VFR as long as possible, "scud running" and necessarily staying low and, if in mountainous terrain, maneuvering between peaks, ridges, canyon walls, whatever until the pilot finally enters the soup. At that point, he's not really "instrument flying" in the sense of observing MEAs, MDAs, or following published instrument approach procedures to an ILS entry. At that point - close to terrain and in the soup - he's in deep shit, no matter how good his instrument skills are.
Other issues involved in VFR-into-IMC include icing, and running into embedded T-storms - neither of which has anything to do with attitude flying skills.
If the pilot is reasonably current and competent in flying on the gages, and is legal to do so, then the smart thing to do (other than staying on the ground) when the clouds are low is to call Center and file IFR, then fly high above the rocks ... in most instances, except for takeoff, climb, and descent, he'll be flying over the top anyway, and the only time he has to fly in the soup is climbing through the layer and then again eventually when he descends back through the layer to his destination. Unless you've got FIKI equipment or are flying in the tropics, it's not smart to fly for extended periods in the soup.
