Sid,
You are batting a sticky wicket here....I quite agree with what you are saying. Perception is based upon perspective and what appears to be "in cloud" to someone on the ground may very well not be in reality.
At this point no one KNOWS if the helicopter was "IN" cloud. There are ASSUMPTIONS being made that may or may not be accurate re that situation the morning of the collision between the aircraft and the crane.
Pace,
Imperial Airways and Pan Am during the flying boat days did a lot of that using rudimentary flight instruments and Celestrial Nav....but then there was not a lot of air traffic.
Also bear in mind we are talking Air Taxi and Public Transport operations here....and those rules and standards apply.
I have done quite a bit of blundering around in cloud and fog OCAS in Third World Countries but we always had some sort of Traffic Separation methods even if done by the Operators alone and without benefit of Government run ATC services.
There is a heck of a difference between that kind of cloud boring than what you have been suggesting.
You have advocated or implied that you see flying non-standard altitudes and headings without any ATC traffic separation or Control and entering Cloud for short periods of time as being acceptable.
I suggest you are flat wrong if you really think that.
VFR requires (operative word.....REQUIRES) one to stay clear of Cloud and usually sets for minimums for Cloud Separation to ensure IFR aircraft passing through cloud or cloud layers while ascending/descending or enroute do not encounter other VFR aircraft at the very edges of a Cloud or Cloud layer.
Do you wish to clarify your comments if I have misunderstood the point you were trying to make?
Last edited by SASless; 28th Jan 2013 at 15:56.