A couple of visual images I can't forget:
- departing Asheville, NC at dawn, clouds filling the valleys, bright sunshine
at a low angle.
- departing Raleigh-Durham above a low stratus layer, uniform flat white blanket
below with just a couple of antennas poking through.

Dave

Marco Leon wrote:
My favorite condition is scattered fair weather cumulus with thickness no
more than 2,000 feet. The beauty of the "mountains and valleys" of clouds is
simply awesome. The temptation to deviate from your cleared route to zoom
around is big.

Another picture etched in my psyche forever was the first time I was fogged
out of my home airport and diverted to a nearby Class C. We had a Southwest
737 5 miles ahead of us in full view in the unlimited vis above the fog
layer. The late evening light set an eerie dream-like hue while looking down
at what used to be a large aircraft disappear into a massive, milky,
edgeless and surreal "landscape." I was still training for my IR and had two
instructors (one mine the other was bored--had a cancelled student) so there
was no chickening out to Connecticut. Made it in at minimums.

Whoever said IFR flying wasn't a spectator sport??

Marco


"Maule Driver" wrote in message
...

Roy Smith wrote:

That is a wierd sensation; like heading towards a brick wall at 150
mph, then all of a sudden you punch right through the wall with little
or no effect on the airplane.

It's really cool when you're just above to top of a nice flat stratus
layer and you can keep dipping in and out of it by going up or down 50
feet. If the tops aren't right at the right altitude and there's not
much traffic, you can ask ATC for an altitude block :-)


...or when you precisely hold an altitude and a stratus deck comes up,
kisses the plane and then recedes. Really sweet. It's like
accelerating to the speed of heat and then slowly braking.

IMC pilots need better sunglasses!




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Dave Butler, software engineer 919-392-4367