Ron did it!!

M wrote:
Congrats!

Now remember, IFR in a light plane can only really safely go in about
20% of the instrument weather mother nature can throw at you.

However, an instrument rated pilot can go in about 40% of the VFR
weather that would have been too risky for a VFR-only pilot to attempt,
due to the the risk of weather closing in being too great.

Therefore paradoxically, by getting an instrument rating you will find
yourself flying a lot more VFR than you had before :-)

Uh, ok. That's not the case for me, nor most of the pilots I know.

Congratulations to Ron anyway. But...why isn't he posting all about the
ride?

On Sun, 24 Sep 2006 16:43:19 -0500, Emily
wrote:

M wrote:
Congrats!

Therefore paradoxically, by getting an instrument rating you will find
yourself flying a lot more VFR than you had before :-)

Uh, ok. That's not the case for me, nor most of the pilots I know.

That may refer to the fact that most IFR flights are flown in VMC.
After a few minutes of climbing through IMC, you're in sunshine for
the rest of the flight. Considering that you'd be at home watching
television otherwise, you do more VFR flying.

RK Henry

Emily wrote:
M wrote:

Congrats!

Now remember, IFR in a light plane can only really safely go in about
20% of the instrument weather mother nature can throw at you.

However, an instrument rated pilot can go in about 40% of the VFR
weather that would have been too risky for a VFR-only pilot to attempt,
due to the the risk of weather closing in being too great.

Therefore paradoxically, by getting an instrument rating you will find
yourself flying a lot more VFR than you had before :-)


Uh, ok. That's not the case for me, nor most of the pilots I know.

Congratulations to Ron anyway. But...why isn't he posting all about the
ride?
Well, he woke up at 5 to go get the plane, fly it over to the examiner
.....

He got home about 1, we went to DC for a late lunch (double lobster
special) to celebrate, came home about 6 and he's taking a nap :-).
Probably shouldn't have scheduled a late, black-tie event the night
before an early checkride ;-).

Margy

: Congrats!
:
: Now remember, IFR in a light plane can only really safely go in about
: 20% of the instrument weather mother nature can throw at you.
:
: However, an instrument rated pilot can go in about 40% of the VFR
: weather that would have been too risky for a VFR-only pilot to attempt,
: due to the the risk of weather closing in being too great.
:
: Therefore paradoxically, by getting an instrument rating you will find
: yourself flying a lot more VFR than you had before :-)

: Uh, ok. That's not the case for me, nor most of the pilots I know.

I can say that it *is* the case for me. Being in Virginia with most
cross-country flights to the north or northwest, actually flying IFR in a
non-high-performance piston-pounder is often less safe than VFR. Between the
convective activity in the summer, and the icing in the 6000' MEA's over West
Virginia, *filing* is often a fool's game. Flying 1500' AGL VFR is safer than getting
stuck in VMC on top of an icing layer IMO.

I don't know if I quite agree with your 20% of instrument weather number or
40% of the VFR weather. I'd probably double those numbers so long as you stay
current. Of course... there are some that say that flying IMC in a single is unsafe
at any speed.

-Cory

--

************************************************** ***********************
* Cory Papenfuss, Ph.D., PPSEL-IA *
* Electrical Engineering *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
************************************************** ***********************

My number are just a swag. However my point is, an instrument rating
in a light plane does a lot more to give you *options* flying VFR than
to give you the ability to fly real, hard-core IFR.

A lot of IFR flights people done in light planes, if they really look
back and think about it, can be done VFR. However a VFR pilot
shouldn't really attempt those flights because there're great chances
of running out of options. An instrument pilot can however fly in
really crummy VFR weather while still have options. When icing
condition, TS, or terrain forcing MEA to be be well over 10k like what
we have out west, flying VFR while keeping the options of getting a
clearance is often the safest way of doing it.

Not to mention the fuel and time savings in flying VFR in many cases.

I don't know if I quite agree with your 20% of instrument weather number or
40% of the VFR weather. I'd probably double those numbers so long as you stay
current. Of course... there are some that say that flying IMC in a single is unsafe
at any speed.

M wrote:
An instrument pilot can however fly in
really crummy VFR weather while still have options.

This is precisely the reason for me getting the rating. I can't
tell you the number of times we have stopped a flight where weather
was fine at our destination but deteriorating visibility or cloud
layers made VFR flight (especially accross the Appalachians) unsafe
in our opinion.