If you're current, if the forecast at your destination is well above your
personal minimums, if you have a solid gold alternate, no imbedded
thunderstorms, no icing, no unusual turbulence reported, why whouldn't you
go?

Strawman. It's an easy go decision in this case. It's harder when
things are pushing your minima, where the weather might become worse
than forecast, where you might be flying over rough terrain, where your
routing is over land but ATC might vector you over water.


IFR in those conditions is a lot easier IMO than VFR.

Okay. IFR can simplify flight planning and navigation, but we're
talking about the go/nogo decision making process. More things
to consider. Go/nogo is less obvious as go point and nogo point
converge. Clearly, even for IFR, there're obvious gos and obvious
nogos. Furthermore, what might be an obvious IFR go might be an
obvious VFR nogo.

Point is, with more things to consider and the added utility of
the instrument rating, the go/nogo decision isn't as simple in the
general case.


Maybe the problem I'm having is, as a fairly high time pilot, the decision
making has gotten almost automatic. I see the difference this way: deciding to
go in marginal VFR conditions is at best dicy. If the forecast seems stable,
just maybe vis will be better than 3 or 4 miles (but I HATE marginal VFR, with
me and other pilots stumbling around under a 1500 foot overcast in limited
visibility, that scares the in vivo processed food out of me). OTOH, frankly,
it's very rare for weather in the Eastern part of the country to be below my
personal IFR minimums, so so long as icing seems not likely, there are no
imbedded thunderstorms, and I'm happy with the forecast and how well it's
holding up, it's going to be "Good Morning ground, it's Mooney 201 whatever,
instruments to Rochester, I have information Alpha, ready to taxi."

But it remains a different strokes issue -- I have no arguement at all with
those whose decision making process is different. The discussion is an
opportunity to share insights, and I may leaarn or relearn something.