How do you use your IMC?

[Whopity]

The IMC rating was constructed as a get you out of trouble thing not a mini IR.

No it was not. It was designed to reinstate privileges that were once part of a PPL i.e. the right to fly IFR outside controlled airspace. The glider pilots retain that right to the present day!

Pilots who complete the IMC rating are taught to operate safely in IMC and are required to be taught a minimum of two different instrument approaches one of which must be pilot interpreted. To pass the test indicates that they are competent to use the rating fully but only in Class D airspace or below.

What people do with the rating is varied and usually down to cost. Those who use it regularly become very competent and are as good as any pilot with an IR, whilst those who do not use it may well regress. Many use it as a means of improving their skills, with no real desire to fly IMC whilst a few realise that flying IFR is not for them. Either way it is a very good rating that has contributed greatly to GA safety.

If we loose it more people will kill themselves because pilots will continue to fly in marginal conditions but with no training!

[Squeegee Longtail]

The IMCR got me into and out of trouble a few times.

I agree with others, to fly in a poorly equipped, poorly powered aircraft in solid IMC outside controlled airspace, doing your own nav (no GPS in my day), on/off radar service, single pilot, no autopilot is about as high stress as it gets.

If you can fly with the IMCR profficiently, flying with the full IR is a piece of p1ss.

[IO540]

Whopity has put it very well, above.

Pace - you keep falling into the same old trap as so many commentators: fail to separate the legal privileges (the piece of paper you get signed off) from currency on type, aircraft equipment level, etc (which is largely a function of MONEY and TIME devoted to flying and which cannot ever be regulated or legislated as to minima).

[belowradar]

Just a personal observation.....the weather and obstructions will kill you just the same whatever your qualifications, once you are in clouds the skill set needed is the same. The penalty for insufficient knowledge or skill can be extremely unforgiving as many accident reports testify.

Get good training, stay proficient and remember that we don't have to fly if it is rubbish weather.

[spikeair]

back to the original question. Its (4) for me. I generally plan my flights as IFR and regularly fly in IMC, although typically its not for more than 20-25 minutes or so. It will also usually include an instrument approach , most of the time that is an ILS but sometimes has been a LLZ/DME SRA or on one occasion a PAR. I Regularly practise instrument approaches even in VMC and really enjoy this aspect of flying.
For me , I want to make instrument flying a regular event so that when I do encounter IMC conditions, its not a white knuckle ride and becomes a standard part of the flying.
I do strongly believe that you have to keep in practice for this. I'd hate to fly for several months or more even , and then have to flying an instrument approach in anger, thats when youre workload is going to be the highest and when you are likely to make a mistake.
If you have to keep in practice, whats wrong with flying IFR as a general rule?
You rating gives you those priviliges so I don't see anthing wrong with excercising them?

[IO540]

If you have to keep in practice, whats wrong with flying IFR as a general rule?

That's an excellent idea.

Perhaps the 2nd best piece of advice I ever got from an instructor (1st best was to fly an accurate trimmed speed on final) was to always plan every flight as IFR, and if the conditions are VFR then you get a view outside as a bonus.

If I was an instructor, that is how I would always teach somebody to fly. Plan every flight so it can be executed without seeing the ground enroute initially, and plan every flight so it can be executed without seeing the ground at all eventually. This means using a GPS, backed up by navaids, and the altitude planned according to the MSA.

None of this implies flying an IMC, because you can scrap the flight if the conditions are IMC. But a VFR flight executed in this way is going to be low-workload, very straightforward, and very safe.

[spikeair]

that sounds bang on to me and a sensible approach (excuse the pun!)

[stuartforrest]

I use my IMC rating to extend the use of my Bonanza. I regularly climb through cloud and do approaches (not to very low minimums in most cases) to airfields and have done a variety of approaches including one I had never practised into Inverness on a pretty low cloud base day (DME Arc).

I think it is essential if you are going to fly any amount of IMC to have a properly equipped autopilot and I would not fly IMC without one. The Bonanza has an autopilot that will fly in heading, Nav and approach mode. I like to fly IMC with the autopilot turned on because it does the work for you and you can monitor everything properly but I do occasionally fly without to keep my hand in.

I would love to do an IR but the time it would take stops me.

[Cricket23]

Thanks folks, some interesting replies and opinions here. Assuming that you know the icing conditions (in the clouds) then is it better(?) easier(?) to punch through the clouds and enjoy the sunshine on top, or to continue in marginal viz in the murk beneath the clouds?

Hope you all had a good Christmas.

C23.

[IO540]

Assuming that you know the icing conditions (in the clouds) then is it better(?) easier(?) to punch through the clouds and enjoy the sunshine on top, or to continue in marginal viz in the murk beneath the clouds?

Unfortunately that question is a bit moot in most cases because of UK's airspace structure forcing you low down - unless you have the full IR and then can file a Eurocontrol IFR flight plan in which case you get an essentially unlimited airspace to play in, plus the guaranteed enroute clearance.

Otherwise, I would always climb to VMC on top. This gives you generally unlimited visibility so you aren't going to fly into anything nasty, it gives you trivial avoidance options if there is something nasty ahead (CBs etc), and the main 'problem' is that you have to get back down somehow at the other end and you don't want to descend through 10,000ft of freezing layers for example - definitely not if the 0C level is below the MSA (because the ice may never melt and you will be landing with all that you have collected on the way down). The other problem is that the cloud tops could keep rising and eventually reach your operating ceiling (or, if you have the IMCR, they could rise to the base of CAS which in the UK is likely to be Class A). But a decent look at the weather data should address these things.

The opposite strategy (flying below the cloud) is often practically safer because you cannot get shafted by the cloud tops rising up into CAS into which you don't get a clearance. And if the terrain rises to meet the cloudbase, you can always turn back (can't you? ). Of course this strategy kills many people every year (scud running) but it really shouldn't.

However, in weather like the s. UK has today (freezing down to ground level, especially in the mornings) there isn't much flying one can do safely at all, and that is just the price one must accept for not flying a much more expensive and capable plane. I would want to stay in VMC the whole time, or perhaps climb/descend through some thin cloud.

It was funny yesterday pm. +4C on the ground, falling to +2C at 2000ft, then rising to +6C at 4000ft. That was fine for flying, even in IMC.