Originally Posted by
Sunfish
... a series of structured “oh s##t!” encounters with flying VFR into IMC with a suitably qualified instructor to recover you. You CANNOT do this artificially with Foggles! You have to cop it full force so to speak..
Agreed. The best prevention is sheer terror. Also, never underestimate the detrimental effect of an attractive lady on your decision making.
Having abandoned a sightseeing trip because of weather, I was stuck at the airfield with said disappointed lady. Clouds BKN020, OK let's just go up for a quick circuit instead.
In between taxi and climbout, cloudbase dropped to 600-900ft. Leaving us up in the soup unable to see the ground, at an airfield with no ILS, no diversion planned, sandwiched between Heathrow and Luton airspace, and somewhere underneath us is a 600ft radio transmission tower.
Luckily my FAA PPL training included some real IMC sessions, so my eyes went straight to instruments without thinking. 700ft circuit dipping in and out of the cloudbase. However, lady has declined to fly with me ever again. Quite right.
Lessons:
1) All PPLs must have some real IMC thrown in. Weather is too unpredictable, at some point you're going to be in it.
2) The terror of that event made me revise my planning and minimums. There's no such thing as a simple circuit if there are clouds anywhere near.
3) It doesn't matter how hot your lady friend is. She'll respect you more for saying "no" than for scaring her witless.