I'll tell you what I think to add to the confusion.

I believe if you want to avoid clouds that you can do so with foresight:

If conditions are very strong indeed, don't go up to cloudbase and if you
hit extreme lift, turn away and use full spoiler and highish speed to keep
away.

If you have messed up and end up in cloud then get as a minimum a T&S. A
cheap refurbished unit will be fine. Practise out of cloud and you will see
you can use it to roughly fly straight very easily, you will be able to get
out of cloud by flying straight with full spoilers.

If you want to fly in cloud and enjoy it, as I do, then get a horizon. It
is pretty easy to fly on one and an order of magnitude easier than using a
T&S for thermalling. A T&S gives you turn rate only but as we know, bank
angle at a given speed is what gives you turn rate and that is what is
important to monitor. The horizon is better at this than the often
invisible real horizon out of cloud and I find I can fly more accurately
with it in cloud than out of cloud. I use a T&S as a back up for cloud
flying and a GPS to monitor headings to note the best bit of lift and to
reposition in the cloud. Also to come out on the right heading. The GPS is
a back up turn indicator too.


"Gary Evans" wrote in message
...
I have culled the collective wisdom in this thread
to save any new followers time.

Use of Trutrak T&B indicator for emergency cloud
flying

1) To fly in a cloud means certain death or worse.
2) You should fly in clouds for practice.
3) Special training is required to survive a cloud
flight.
4) You can train yourself.
5) Special instruments are necessary for cloud flight.
6) Instruments are worthless in a cloud.

Following RAS for years this seems to be a fairly typical
example of group guidance. The truth I suspect lies
somewhere between the lines. Interesting to read however.