Snowbird wrote:

wrote in message ...

If you don't have a pretty good idea of where you are likely to encounter
IMC en route, you haven't done a very good job of flight planning.

Hahahaha HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Ever hear the phrase "if you don't like the weather...wait a minute?"

Seriously though, Frank, I think you might want to consider where this
attitude might lead you astray.

Well, in 40 years of air carrier and G/A flying, and some 20,000 hours, it's
worked so far.



Are you intending to imply "if you have done a really good job of flight
planning, then you HAVE a pretty good idea of where you are likely to
encounter IMC enroute"?

No, I am not intending to imply that, nor did I suggest that. I was setting
forth a parameter for where to split a composite flight plan from VFR to IFR.
With that plan in place, I can move up the change to IFR if necessary.

My personal habit has to file IFR for the entire flight, if there is any doubt
at all. But, the thread was about air file, then air file vs. composite flight
plans. Keep your eye on the ball Snowy. ;-)



Might that make you feel like you don't need to stay on top of the
wx with Hiwas, CBAV, Flight Watch etc?

Talk about leaping to conclusions!



IMHO, that's one of the big "gotchas" for an IFR GA pilot. It's
all too easy to fly along over a nice little layer, with a few fleecy
clouds above and around, beautiful blue sky and brilliant sunshine,
and have no clue at all that the wx is deteriorating below ILS minimums
down below (and gosh, that excellent preflight wx briefing said there'd
be 1500-2000 ft ceilings).

Again, Snowy, the context was air file and composite flight plans; not
incompetence.