Flying in IMC is a great exercise of the brain.


I once wrote in 1998:

"For me, IFR flight is a lot like playing a game of Chess in the
blind while juggling three balls in the air and maintaining a
running conversation at a noisy cocktail party. You have to
mentally visualize the position of the "pieces" on the "board,"
continually monitor and interpret a myriad of arcane instruments
and make corrections to keep the airplane shinny side up, all
while constantly attempting to pick out the ATC communiques
intended for you from the rest of the "guests'" conversations. To
this add the _stress_ of the consequences of losing the game
(death). (Of course, this analogy fails to consider weather,
turbulence, flight planning, interpreting charts and plates,
tuning radios and OBS settings, equipment failures, ....)

Single-pilot IFR aircraft operation in the ATC system in IMC
without the benefit of Global Positioning Satellite receiver,
auto-pilot, and Active Noise Reduction headset, is probably one of
the most demanding things you will ever do."


On Wed, 4 Nov 2015 17:00:18 -0800 (PST), wrote:


I've only flown through a few light clouds,
and a couple of twilight evenings with pretty
good evening light. (had the red cockpit light on)
So that wasn't IFR.

Then flew out of Atlanta for an hour wearing the
hood for training. A little nauseating, but other
than that just kept my eye on the six-pack.

I keep trying to imagine flying in a white-out
for an extended period of time. Wouldn't you be
focused on your instruments enough to discern
orientation? (not counting synthetic vision).

Can't quite picture getting upside down without
gravity and attitude indicator letting me know
how OFF you are.

___