custardpsc
Sorry about the long delay....I missed your question. I was, in a fairly disorganised kind of way, aiming to find VMC above or in between cloud, and relying on confidence to climb up through cloud to get there. It was not controlled airspace and it was well about 3,000ft, but I probably only had a hazy idea of the regs anyway.
The flight was Naples to Brindisi, and the long way round the coast was very long. Over the mountains looked quicker. As I mentioned, I was supremely confident that I could manage it, with an IMC rating.
It was all a very long time ago; rules were less oppressive then.
To round off the tale; when the engine went all quiet I managed to establish a glide at 60KT (it was a Prentice, why is no-one surprised it stopped) and turn 180 as the probable best escape route. Just as I was beginning to think I might hit the ground quite soon, I came out of the cloud about 1,000 ft above ground. Here the Good Lord intervened; the 1:500,000 map showed no strips, airfields, whatever within 30 miles, but there right below me was a long, wide runway, and I was pretty much at the 1,000 ft point for a forced landing. It was a military airfield, but they were very nice about it, fixed the magneto's (basically, dried them out, it was a Prentice, after all) and sent me on my way with instructions NOT to fly the beast in cloud again. So I didn't. So it caught fire instead, taking off from Baghdad a few days later.
Last edited by old,not bold; 11th Jun 2013 at 16:49.