VFR to IFR - On a Nice Day?
One mans' experience with that strange feeling of what is happening to me that I am not sure what is right-side up or up-side down.
Whaaaat! Pick these nice conditions to fly on this nice sultry Summer day:
- Altitude 6,000
- IFR Flight Plan filed for general safety about other aircraft in the vicinity
- Hazy
- Flying into the sun from the East across Lake Huron into Willow Run Airport just West of Detroit.
- Nothing but "blue sky above."
- Additional equipment aboard the plane is a friendly pussycat and a very tame duck.
- Aircraft contains all the necessary equipment for IFR flight.
One mans' experience with that strange feeling of what is happening to me that I am not sure what is right-side up or up-side down.
Whaaaat! Pick these nice conditions to fly on this nice sultry Summer day:
You trust your instruments and not the "seat of your pants!"
The flight was uneventful until you begin to slip across Lake Huron. Then, suddenly that nice partial horizon of the earth that was passing beneath my plane disappeared.
Fine, I looked out over the cowl of the Bonanza and all I saw was haze. In fact, haze to my left, haze to my right, hazy blue above and hazy blue, from the water below.....and just like that I was glad I was instrument rated!
I felt suspended in space, other than what my air speed indicator registered, it seemed like I stopped flying. It felt like the plane started to roll. It took my IFR training to ignore that sensation by checking my instruments to verify that I was indeed on a heading of 266 degrees and my artificial horizon was indicating straight and level flying.
It took a good thirty seconds of flying for the sensations of turning to subside. Transition from VFR to IFR just like that!
I contacted Center to report the conditions for other pilots that were flying that day. A family with a non-intrument rated pilot at the controls would place his family and plane into great danger on that nice, hazy, lazy Summer day.
The temptation to bring the plane to straight and level flight, once the illusion of a turn was sensed, requires IFR training to prevent a disaster.
The loss of a definite horizon visually and the lack of detail caused by sun glare through a hazy sky and the very similar blue of the sky and water puts the pilot into that strange mood of "where am I and am I right-side up or up-side down?"
If you have time, verification of whether you are up-side down, is confirmed by the pussycat. If he is walking gracefully across the ceiling of the cockpit you may be upside down.
If the duck has folded its head under its wing it is either tired or it is raining outside.
Jim
Addendum's:
I contacted Center to report the conditions for other pilots that were flying that day.
A family with a non-intrument rated pilot at the controls would place his family and plane into great danger on that nice, hazy, lazy Summer day.
The temptation to bring the plane to straight and level flight, once the illusion of a turn was sensed, requires IFR training to prevent a disaster.
The loss of a definite horizon visually and the lack of detail caused by sun glare through a hazy sky and the very similar blue of the sky and water puts the pilot into that strange mood of "where am I and am I right-side up or up-side down?"
The temptation to bring the plane to straight and level flight, once the illusion of a turn was sensed, requires IFR training to prevent a disaster.
The loss of a definite horizon visually and the lack of detail caused by sun glare through a hazy sky and the very similar blue of the sky and water puts the pilot into that strange mood of "where am I and am I right-side up or up-side down?"
