Of all the odd topics that come across this newsgroup this one made me
wonder why it's even being discussed??

Simply put, it's illegal. Have a nice day. Why argue amongst ourselves about
something that the FAA specifically states as illegal?
Being one of those types that has spent time flying in the system and
enduring instrument training, I have to say that for the most part, it is
boring as all get-out. We file a flight plan, get picked up, get assigned a
heading and altitude, get told pretty much every move we can make, get
handed off to approach, again vectored for an ILS in most cases and shoot an
approach that most times results in pretty straight forward stuff like
breaking out of the clouds above the MDA or DH and then landing...bank
angles are pretty much always standard rate...very seldom has anything
exciting really occurred while in actual IMC conditions for me at
least...and in general the only things that scare the heck out of you are
when a controller says something to you like..." Aerostar 36 Juliet, you
have unknown traffic 5 miles 11 o'clock, altitude uncertain, fly heading 320
degrees immediately for avoidance"

Now THAT..can be exciting. and scare the crap out of you...So for those of
us in the U.S., I hope we just let the argument die and remember that you
may be jeopardizing someone elses life and safety far more than your own if
you elect to enter IMC conditions illegally, in a glider that may or may not
skin paint on radar for the controllers trying to protect folks in the
system...


Steve.