What would you do?

[maxrpm]

Had a similar choice 10 year ago. I was flying as as instructor from Innsbruck. We never get fog there and the met report told the same: No fog to be expected in Innsbruck all other Airports within 200 miles IMC. A very typical situation in winter time - so we took off to get some airwork done. After 15 min in the flight Innsbruck Tower called us and told us that unexpectetly they were completly fogged in. As the weather men where surprised by that fact they could give no clue when the situation might change.

My flight experience was about 1000h at that time and I happend to be IFR rated. Nevertheless my actual IFR experience war very limited. The plane was full IFR equipped but only on the left side - the place of the student.

I opted for an emergency landing. I told the student about my decicion and took the controls. As the valley was not useable for landing a our present position we had to turn around to a landable meadow. But when we arrived there the fog had reached it and all the valley began to fog in.

Here a changed to option a. I decided to go to Salzburg. Salzburg was 1 hour away and also IMC but it had radar converage so I would get radar assistance for the approach. I climed to get into the reach of Innsbruck radar (> 9000feet) and I declared emergency . Legally there was no need for that, I could have just filed an IFR plan to Salzburg. But with my experience, no approach charts and an instrument scan from the right side I considered I needed all the help I could get.

That proved fortunate for us. Soon we enterd a cloud bank and it became somewhat bumpy, but I felt confident, I knew that ATC was watching my course and my altitude constantly, all I really had to do was to keep the plane strait and level and fly the course I was given. Even from that right seat that did not feel really stressful. But what was more - knowing our problem ATC listened to VOLMET for us and such found out that a little airport 20 miles from our course line unexpectetly reported VMC (there was much unexpected things on the weather on that day). They told us that they would vector us over that area on our way to Salzburg. After 10 minutes we suddenly broke free of clouds and there was a 10 miles diameter hole in the clouds with that little airport on its side. The situation had become so easy that I could give back the controls to my student and make him land at that most welcome little field, instead of flying the ILS at Salzburg from the right seat.

Í think the most important help in that situation happend 900 flight hours before. With 100h experience like G SXTY I also thought a lot about similar situations and discussed them with other more experienced pilots. Hungry Joe is right that the situation is easier in an armchair. But that makes it even more important to use the "armchair method" Thinking about it before takes a considerable amount of load away when a situation threatens to overload. So when I found myself in that mess, at least there was no need for inventing something. There was always a plan ready to use.