Originally Posted by
Captain Calamity
Me, I'd be doing a 180, descending or doing whatever it took to remain VMC - but history shows that not all VFR pilots do this - clearly sometimes a a key survival strategy that is surely taught at every flight school is ignored.
The school I teach at part time, and my own opinions are that Piperboy did the right thing.
Knowing the height available below him, a gentle descent out of cloud, wings level, offers much better chance of getting out of cloud under good control than a 180.
Also, just as here, the majority of VFR PPLs, most times, will tend to climb into cloud, rather than fly into the side of it - so a gentle descent will almost always reverse that mistake efficiently.
There is a risk trade here: a VFR PPL needs to do something if they're in cloud. A descent *might* take them into terrain, and a 180 *might* cause a loss of control. It seems to me however, that the latter risk is usually much greater.
In my opinion.
G