Matt, you have provided a great leadin to what I think got missed in
this discussion. Yes, flying the minimum IFR altitude is ok...
PROVIDED you can MAINTAIN that altitude.


I was night IFR over the Appalachain Mountain in Tennessee when the
Knoxville controller asked me to 'say altitude' - the usual controller
speak for, 'what are you doing, dip**** ! '...
I was in a 300 hp Super Viking at full power and best rate of climb
and the IVSI showed me as going DOWN at 1300fpm...
All I said was, 'unable to maintain altitude'...
He replied, 'roger that'...
I finally punched out of the down vortex and started back up to
assigned altitude having lost a hair over a thousand feet... Even
though I still had approximately 1500' of clearance when I broke out,
my heart was pumping!
I later did some reading on mountain flying and found I could have
handled it better by not trying to climb out of the down draft... The
problem is that your IFR reflexes - and IFR regs - will prompt you to
hold your target altitude, the opposite of what the mountain experts
say to do...

denny