Quote from my days as a mountain climber, "stay alert, hope for the best, expect the worst, bring what you can".

Why not have an AHSR in case the worst happens. In 1,500 hours of glider flying I have never been inadvertent IMC, but I have in both airplanes and helicopter (once). I am instrument rated in both, so in the airplane as I realized things were not so sunny I just changed my fight following to an IFR plan, happened many times, apparently the forecast is as unpredictable as the weather. The helicopter (while I was instrument current and rated) was an unstable, re fun, MD 500 which are not certified for flight in IMC, this was much more thrilling and not to be repeated.

Recently I got back into soaring and when I instrumented the glider I bought a fancy multipurose instrument that also has a feature to double as an AHSR. While my first choice if caught on top would be to fly east for drier weather, I now have something in my quiver if I find myself IMC to help me get safely to clear air. As we know, one can be a bit aggressive at cloud base and end up in the cloud, it is not just wave flying.

The video on inadvertent IMC was great, it has been around for a long time, and even with rudimentary training (private pilot license) and the proper instruments, you can find yourself in a world of hurt if you go IMC.


On Tuesday, November 3, 2015 at 8:05:40 AM UTC-8, Dan Marotta wrote:

OK, I'm going to see how long it will be until the next bright idea
comes along.