Sport Pilot wrote:
I started the first steps toward getting an IFR rating more than 15
years ago. Took the ground school, was bored to death, but certainly
takes some smarts. Flew in the back seat of a Piper Arrow to Oshkosh
IFR with some friends a short time later. One leg was through some
clouds with a few horizontal lightening bolts. Hit my head on the
ceiling a few times. The pilots did ok but I was a wreck nontheless.
After that I resolved to never fly IFR in a light plane.


If you'd been the pilot you might have done better. I think it's the feeling of
lack of control that makes people not enjoy the experience. I know as a pilot,
I've never enjoyed those few moments my aircraft has been out of control in
convective events. There is a similar reaction in the car when somebody goes
around curves a little too fast... the driver doesn't mind but the passenger
does. No control. It makes you press your foot to the floor as if there were a
brake pedal there.

All that being said, it's a pity you never had a chance to fly a "good" IFR trip
before you decided you didn't like it: take off into a stratus layer, enjoy a
silky smooth flight followed by an instrument letdown down to maybe 400 feet...
low enough to be a challenge but not so low that you don't know whether you're
going to get in or not.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

VE