As soon as you put the hood on, you are in simulated instrument conditions, whether in cloud or not, and whether IFR or not. You may =also= be in actual instrument conditions, but that is irrelevant.

Are you sure about that part? I wouldn't have thought so.

I am not a lawyer and did not write the regs, so I am not "sure" what
the end result of an actual case would be. However wearing a hood in
IMC gives you all the disadvantages of simulated (vs actual) instrument
flight. You are pretending to not be able to see outside.

Look at it this way - if you are under the hood in VFR conditions (say
under an overcast or in LA smog), you are in simulated conditions. If
you enter cloud, you won't know it, because the simulation is so good.

You can be VFR on a moonless night over water, and be in actual
instrument conditions (perhaps we should use AIC instead of IMC), but
put the hood on and you are in simulated instrument conditions. You
won't know when you fly over a city.

So it makes sense to me that you can simulate instrument conditions
while you are actually in instrument conditions.

Jose
--
The monkey turns the crank and thinks he's making the music.
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