On Feb 13, 3:45*pm, Andrzej Kobus wrote:
On Feb 13, 4:17*pm, T8 wrote:

Can anyone name a single pilot who has an accident, or even a bad
scare due to entering IMC in competition?

-Evan Ludeman / T8

Yes, Evan, I had a bad scare in a contest environment (Elmira 2009
Sports Class Nationals) I found myself in heavy down pour (IMC). I am
talking about the kind of down pour that makes you stop on the highway
because you don't see anything. I was not able to see anything neither
ahead nor down for what seemed like eternity. In reality the IMC
lasted 20 seconds or maybe a bit more before I barely saw the ground.
For all that time I did not touch controls and that saved the day.
After I started seeing bits and pieces of the ground I turned away
from the cloud. If I had a gyro I would have executed 180 deg right
away and I would have avoided much of the stress.

Saying all that, it was my bad judgement that got me there, although I
could swear the cloud did not look bad up to the moment I got poured
on. I learned from that experience. I am still worried more about
people flying in clouds than me entering IMC again. I am thinking that
if someone is going to fly in clouds they better do it with the right
equipment rather than a cell phone gyro especially if I am under the
cloud they are flying in. I am slowly thinking that maybe allowing
gyros is not that bad of an idea. I can't make up my mind on which
side of this argument I am on.

Andrzej

I often have airplane pilot friends look into the cockpit of a glider
and demand to know, "Where is the artificial horizon?

I tell them, "we use the big one in the sky". If they look puzzled, I
say, "Well, it's blue up there and brown down here and there's this
line in between we call the horizon.....