IFR- it's a choice.
There seems to be two camps re: IFR flying in small single engine aircraft. Those who are comfortable with the idea and those who are not. I guess if I were lucky enough to make a living flying transport category aircraft with all the redundancies at my disposal and other pilots on the flight deck to advise me, I probably would be uncomfortable in single engine IMC. Many of the good folks I encounter who do not fly IFR in RV's or production craft are transport-category drivers full time. I totally understand.
However, I am not lucky enough to fly for a living. I am lucky in that my employer reimburses me for business flying in my Moondy, which affords me countless opportunities to outsmart the weather as I get from point A to point B. I log between 200-300 hours per year, and I usually file IFR, even in VMC. I fly IFR or VFR; day and night. I really enjoy long hauls as they challenge me to stay out of bad weather all the while minding the fuel situation. I have hand-flown 3.5 hour legs in the clag that culminate with an ILS approach, but mostly an "IFR" flight is VMC between layers with intermittent IMC in and out of the cloud decks that finishes with a mild approach. I have launched into IMC when icing is forecasted, and I do not launch into 'known icing' but have picked up some of the frozen stuff from time to time enroute, even when icing has not been forecasted. I do not have radar, but I do have a Stormscope, which I have found only useful for the T-storm 'big picture', as I am not comfortable using it to penetrate a storm line while IMC. The scope does not refresh quickly enough, only gives me static discharges and cannot tell me where the heavy precip is. It has been a good teaching tool for me to calibrate my eyes, flying skills and most importantly negotiating skills to enlist the help of ATC in steering around the cells.
Many of the aircraft we are building today have the speed and range to cover in excess of 500 miles in a few hours. If you live anywhere (except maybe Southern California or the SW USA), during a 500-mile flight you will, in all probability, encounter less than perfect weather. This is the category of aircraft that I fly now and the same holds true for the one under construction. It is for this reason that I am a big proponent of weather flying. I mean, look at it this way. If you grew up in a place where it snows, did your Dad and Mom teach you to drive on frozen roads or sit at home? If you grew up near water, were you taught to maneuver in that medium, or were you admonished to stay as far from water deeper than 6? at all costs?
I have experienced the deepest personal satisfaction in instrument flying. Nothing beats the feeling of accomplishment after completing a long distance flight where I have had to cross swords with Mother Nature. I believe that fear is the ultimate teacher. On one polar extreme, fear can limit our experience if we do not seek to control it. On the other end of the scale, fear can perform the noble task of acting like an internal governor, reminding us that we are fallible.
I do not launch into really bad weather, a luxury most transport pilots do not have. Most times I find that the longest I have to wait for weather to lighten up is 2-6 hours. Within that amount of time, much has changed: a front has moved on and taken the T-storms with it. Or, snow has stopped, and noontime air has warmed the icing threat. In reality, I have been 'weathered' only twice in the last 2200 hours. Once was a trip to NC from Minneapolis and I was west of a line of t-storms went all the way from Dallas to Nova Scotia. It was VFR underneath the cloud deck, but I have been trained never to fly under possible T-storms so I landed for the night. The other was an ice storm over Washington DC that went from the surface to 17,000'. I started climbing in VMC over JFK to get over the top, but my ship couldn't get over 17,500 by the time I got to DC. Had to turn around.
An advantage that the small aircraft has at its disposal is that I can land just about anywhere. Transport aircraft do not have the same luxury. A 777 Captain friend of mine tells me that many times the distance from his destination to his IFRAlternate field is 500 miles! Five hundred more miles of instrument flying and fuel burn to get to a runway capable of handling the stress of that enormous ship is the reality of large craft operations. On many of my IFR flights, I have used the flexibility that my small single engine craft offers me. I?ll get as close to the bad weather as I like, then just divert to an airport nearby. On a hop from Raleigh, NC to Sarasota, FL this winter, I launched in VFR but had to cross a line of low ceilings with the possibility of icing foprecasted. I encountered ice, so I turned around and tried another altitude, but still came up with ice. What made this event stress free was, before I re-entered the clouds, I picked out an airport where the cloud deck was above the minimum enroute altitude and where the temp on the ground was above freezing. This was my escape door. Since I was in a small aircraft, I had the flexibility to make this decision enroute as the conditions demanded, and the distance to my alternate was 50 miles, not 500.
I write this to inspire other pilots to get their instrument ticket if they are so inclined. It?s not for everyone, but do not let your fear hold you back. If you dream of flying across your home state, or the USA, or taking a trip to Alaska someday, I want to invite you to try. Flying is all about personal decisions, and stretching or shrinking personal boundaries. There is no shame in not wanting to fly IFR, heck, I know that at some point I will not want to work that hard to get anywhere. My Dad used to be a full-on IFR guy, and now that he's older, he only flies in CAVU.
I encourage all who build and fly to seek our own truth regarding weather flying and configure our respective aircraft accordingly. If your plane is swift and you desire to fly some longer hauls, why do I suggest that you seek the Instrument Rating and learn to enjoy flying in the weather?
1) Once you?re acclimated and current, it?s fun, nothing compares with it.
2) It makes your airplane investment really useful.
3) It may save your life someday.
There is no single absolute answer, but whatever you do, give it your best and be safe. If you go for the instrument ticket, get the best instruction you can, preferably from a professional pilot who works the IFR system daily. Do it in your aircraft if you can. The level of cockpit professionalism you learn will serve to keep you safe. My instructor was a US Airways 25,000 hr Gold Check airman who kicked the daylights out of me for 40 hours under the hood. I'm glad he did. That was 2000 hours ago and the habits he instilled in me get used every time I push the throttle forward.
Still curious about flying in the clouds but feeling uncomfortable? Remember that IFR flying was invented around the time that mail was carried by guys like Lindbergh and Jeppesen in open cockpit airplanes without gyros. We've come a long way since then- airframes and engines are far more reliable and we enjoy a rich avionics vendor list that can supply robust, affordable tools to get the job done. Will my RV be at the same caliber as a 777? Never in a million years. Will I force myself to launch into some of the really severe weather that airlines fly through? Hardly. But, with some judicious planning and the ability to sit it out for an hour or two in an FBO somewhere, I?ll bet you that on any given day, I can get just about anywhere the airlines can, and I?ll land at a feeder airport closer to my final destination. Go out and fly safely.
Arthur