IMC in the Rocket

On saturday I had a chance to to get a bit of actual IMC time in conditions that I am comfortable with. The IFR ticket has been a bit frustrating at times as my personal minimums are quite a bit higher then the legal minimums and this limits my actual IMC time. I file IFR on quite a few nice VFR days just to keep in the system. Over the last two years I have flown almost 100 hours of IFR but only a handful of actual IMC hours. This is a typical IMC flight, for me, clear skies below, a solid layer, and clear skies above. I thought that I would post a video of this "typical" flight. A lot of the IFR world revolves around the conversation with flight control and this video gets the highlights of the radio talk of a 20 minute flight condensed in under 3 minutes.
I am NOT a pro, I am a nervous IFR guy but I am really enjoying the challenge of the experience. I learn something new each and every flight. If you are going to do this try not to wait until your mid fifties like I did; it just has to be easier with a younger sharper mind!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m0ODgImf58

Tom Martin said:

I am a nervous IFR guy

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Now that's funny! I hear you though. I often wonder what my vital signs would be if I could monitor them while in IMC.

I noticed in your video that your radio is located on the right side of your pannel. As I think to the future and plan out the pannel for my -8 I wonder how much or even if it's a pain to switch hands on the stick every time you need to adjust your radio. I'm guessing you don't even think about it, but curious what your real world experience with this is.

By the way, GREAT video! I enjoyed watching that over lunch at work today.
Thanks for posting.
Tom

That was nice. What was the music? It sounded like Enya. On canceling the clearance you also mentioned SAR too. Is that requirement in Canada?

Tom Martin said:

If you are going to do this try not to wait until your mid fifties like I did; it just has to be easier with a younger sharper mind!

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I resemble that remark! As I get older (50 now) I can afford more capable IFR ships, but my personal minimums are increasing at such a rate that I don't take advantage of any of it!

question

what is cancellation of search and rescue?

To answer the questions.
yes it would be better to have the radio on the left side but I seldom think of it. Often on long cross country flights or in IMC I am using the autopilot and then it does not really matter which side the radio is on.

Yes the music was Enya. I browsed my wife's iTunes looking for something without a vocal.

Basically, in Canada, when you cancel an IFR flight in the air it defaults to a VFR flight plan. This might be useful if you cleared through a layer and were under the MOCA but still wanted a flight plan. Here is the Transport Canada version from our AIM
When flying IFR in airspace under the jurisdiction of
Canadian ATC, use of the phrase ?Cancelling IFR? results
in ATC discontinuing the provision of IFR separation, but
it does not automatically close the flight plan or itinerary.
Therefore, alerting service with regard to SAR notification
is still active and is based on the information submitted in
the original flight plan or itinerary. Because the pilot is now
flying in accordance with VFR, the flight plan or itinerary
must either be closed prior to landing, or an arrival report
filed after landing, with an ATC unit, a FIC, a FSS or a CARS

tweiss said:

Now that's funny! I hear you though. I often wonder what my vital signs would be if I could monitor them while in IMC.

I noticed in your video that your radio is located on the right side of your pannel. As I think to the future and plan out the pannel for my -8 I wonder how much or even if it's a pain to switch hands on the stick every time you need to adjust your radio. I'm guessing you don't even think about it, but curious what your real world experience with this is.

By the way, GREAT video! I enjoyed watching that over lunch at work today.
Thanks for posting.
Tom

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Its a complete pain. When I redo my panel this winter I'm moving everything from the RHS to the LHS.

walkman said:

Its a complete pain. When I redo my panel this winter I'm moving everything from the RHS to the LHS.

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On the other hand, when I am IFR, I hardly touch the stick, and my right hand is much better at pushing buttons and tuning things than my left.

Two sides to every issue, and much of it has to do with the individual - which is why I always recommend that folks stack their radios on the table in front of them and play with them before building a panel. If you're already flying and already have determined you don't like what's there, then obviously, you should change it - it's your airplane. But I can tell you that having been involved in a lot of cockpit evaluations over my career, the answers aren't cut and dried. If you're flying a transport from the left seat, your right hand is going to be doing a lot of the twiddling and pushing.

As I tell folks, I fly equally poorly with either hand, so I might as well do something useful with my dominant hand....

Ironflight said:

On the other hand, when I am IFR, I hardly touch the stick, and my right hand is much better at pushing buttons and tuning things than my left.

Two sides to every issue, and much of it has to do with the individual - which is why I always recommend that folks stack their radios on the table in front of them and play with them before building a panel. If you're already flying and already have determined you don't like what's there, then obviously, you should change it - it's your airplane. But I can tell you that having been involved in a lot of cockpit evaluations over my career, the answers aren't cut and dried. If you're flying a transport from the left seat, your right hand is going to be doing a lot of the twiddling and pushing.

As I tell folks, I fly equally poorly with either hand, so I might as well do something useful with my dominant hand....

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As I tell folks, I fly equally poorly with either hand, so I might as well do something useful with my dominant hand. I like that!

Of course, when it comes to designing panel layouts - to each their own!

Like most (right handed) people when flying a tandem aircraft I use my right had to control the stick. My concern would be the scenario whereby the auto pilot fails while in IMC and I now have to hand fly the airplane. If this happens with my avionics stack on the right side of the panel that I’m use to attending with my right hand I either have to fly left handed entirely (something I’m not used to, and therefore probably won’t be proficient at) or switch to the left hand momentarily every time there is buttonology to deal with (again, with an assumed loss of precise flight control). Either one of these adjustments would add an unwanted and distracting element of “excitement” into a situation where I’m already dealing with a considerable increase in workload.

Alternatively, if my stack is on the left side and I’ve practiced/trained my left hand to work the avionics (which for most righty’s is not really difficult), then if the auto pilot fails my routine and procedures for avionics management remain unchanged, leaving only the adjustment of hand flying the airplane. To my brain this seems to be a more ergonomically efficient way to arrange things. YBMV (your brain may vary)…

Radio Stack Location in Tandems

tweiss said:

I noticed in your video that your radio is located on the right side of your pannel. As I think to the future and plan out the pannel for my -8 I wonder how much or even if it's a pain to switch hands on the stick every time you need to adjust your radio. I'm guessing you don't even think about it, but curious what your real world experience with this is.

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As another data point, I have a full radio stack (GNS-430W, SL-30, GTX330) on the left side of my RV-8 panel. I have 310 hours on the plane, and about 60 hours in the last 8 months of serious under-the-hood instrument training in it (about 99% hand-flown). I've never considered myself to have very good left-hand coordination, but tuning the radios and programming the 430W has been a complete non-issue with the left had, even on significantly bumpy days.

It is very nice not to have to switch stick hands for frequency changes, transponder codes, ATIS tuning, etc. If I had to do it over again, I would keep the setup just the same.

Skylor
RV-8 N808SJ

I have been thinking about the right vs left radio stack debate and there were some pretty strong opinions regarding left only radio stack. The main point was that you could leave your dominate right hand on the stick to fly thus delegate your left hand to all the secondary tasks.
If you are flying VFR then I really do not think that there is any difference, I do not think about which hand is flying the plane.
If you are in IMC you would think that it would be even more important to have the radios on the left side but in actual fact you spend quite a bit of time writing down clearances, notes etc. Usually at the same time you are writing down a clearance you are also changing the altimeter setting, waypoints etc. using your right dominate hand. You would spend a lot of time swapping hands on the stick if the radios were on the left.
The reality is that when I am writing down clearances etc I am on auto pilot. Yes I have to be proficient to fly without an autopilot but that would be the exception, I would not personally fly into IMC conditions with a non functioning autopilot in single pilot IFR conditions.