Originally Posted by
Frontal Lobotomy
A very stressed VFR pilot who has just entered IMC needs to get their act together quickly. Maybe turn away from rising terrain, if possible without entering a spiral dive, and set the aircraft up in a climb (500 fpm) on a fixed heading whilst you calm down.
Sure you may still hit solid clouds or encounter icing conditions but at least you are in control of the aircraft. I am just stating what worked for me many years ago. 15 minutes later I popped into bright sunshine at 8500’.
This has worked for many a pilot. The worse similar scenario though is when it doesn’t clear up at 8,500ft. Then you have the added complexity of calling up ATC and trying to work out with them where to come down again. You could be stuck in the cloud for a long while when this occurs. Plenty have done that successfully also. It’s much easier and less embarrassing to scud run whilst dodging mountains though, especially if you can make it through. It all depends on how desperately you want to get there.
Years ago I needed to always get there. Nowadays, I don’t.
The most dangerous thing on my aircraft..... is a schedule.