(Teacherjh) wrote in message ...

Well, if I"m in the soup, the only way I know I won't hit anything is to trust
the controllers. They aren't supposed to vector me into terrain. Now granted
I need some situational awareness, but not to the extent that I don't need
controllers and the instrument flight rules themselves.

I know you're making a point, but I seriously, seriously hope you're
not saying that you need controllers, and don't need situational
awareness, to avoid terrain.

In the soup, traffic should be your only variable. Even so, no matter
how much you "trust" controllers, you don't "know" you won't hit
traffic. Controllers make mistakes every single day. You still have
the responsibility to see and avoid traffic.

For terrain and obstacles, you ABSOLUTELY DO need situational
awareness to (and beyond) the extent that you shouldn't need
controllers. Anyone who finds that he doesn't have this level of
situational awareness should either make a big change to his flight
planning methods, or should revise his personal minimums to exclude
actual IMC.