I was thinking the same thing the other day, murphy! How is it going Obs? Did you finish it?
We got onto the subject of 'have you actually used it' a couple of weeks back. Well I think I've actually used mine properly now!
I actually used it on Saturday to take a quick 'local north'. Despite the CAVOK on the METAR the vis was appaling so I elected to make an IFR departure DCT GAM FL50. This, I thought, would put me 'on top' of the haze. After launching into the haze the vis appeared much worse and as I approached FL40 I was climbing through cloud. I managed to get a RIS from EMA Appr and stayed on RIS throughout due to bursting in and out of the cloud tops at FL50 all the way to GAM. At GAM I tracked to SMF then turned due south when the radar range was getting a bit too far for EMA. This final leg had mostly broken contact with the ground and in and out of the clouds. I then flew a (pretty much perfect) ILS to RWY 09 (my first IAP to this RWY) and made visual contact with the RWY at about 5nm.
All in all VERY exciting and the first proper use of my IMCR.
My girlfriend was quite scared as we went into the first few clouds as they do rush up quite rapidly at 110kts. Especially the clearly defined, big white fluffy ones. Most PAX have never been in the cockpit of an a/c when it rams into something that appears solid at over a hundred miles an hour and I can understand why she gasped as we plunged into it. Worth bearing in mind if you take PAX on an IFR flight.
Andy - have you used yours yet?