Bob Gardner wrote:

In his book "WeatherFlying," Captain Bob Buck offers this advice:

First, fly from good weather to good weather; ceilings should be 1000 feet
or higher, tops 7000 feet or lower. Takeoff and landing, of course, are in
VFR conditions.

Second, bad weather to good weather...take off into an overcast, climb to
on top, land in VFR conditions.

Third, good to bad...take off VFR, shoot an approach in deteriorating
weather. If you can't get in, you can always turn around and go back to
good weather.

Fourth, bad enroute. Take off in decent VFR, fly in nasty conditions
(clouds, no ice), land in VFR conditions.

His fifth step deals with flying in thunderstorm weather, and I draw the
line at that.

At a minimum, I'd put #4 before #2. #2 might require a quick approach to
return in case of a problem.

I just flew an example of #4 this past weekend, and it was easy. I took off
in VFR, climbed into clouds, spent much of the trip in clouds, and dropped
below the ceiling to execute a visual approach at the destination.

Plenty of airports along the way were VMC, so I'd plenty of options.

Pretty dull, actually, but nice for my wife's and son's first IMC flight.

- Andrew