On 11/11/06 17:53, Mortimer Schnerd, RN wrote:
Gary Drescher wrote:
Even though you got away with it without penalty, it's worth pointing out
that you were recklessly endangering others' lives. What you did was
analogous to intentionally speeding through a red light at a blind
intersection, betting that there won't happen to be any traffic on the
cross-street.



All true. That's why I started my instrument training as soon as I got back. I
was *very* inexperienced.

Now, if you'd managed to run into me, I'd wonder why you were flying at a VFR
altitude instead of your own IFR altitude?

When flying under instrument flight rules, you fly at the altitude
assigned by ATC which may or may not be one of the ones mentioned
in the FARs (like 91.179, for example).

I was at an appropriate VFR altitude
for my direction of flight squawking 1200 with an altitude encoder.

Of course, we know this doesn't mean you're not responsible for maintaining
clearance from clouds.

I just
mention that in passing. Having flown the same route IFR many times since, I
know I was in radar range the whole way, so if you were on an IFR flight plan,
you should have gotten a traffic warning about me: "Traffic 12 o'clock,
southwest bound, squawking VFR at 4,500, unverified" or words to that effect.

That assumes an awful lot. Like that the radar operator was paying attention,
that your transponder was working properly, etc. - none of which relieves
you of your responsibility to maintain your clearance from clouds.


I have said this befo God grants a special dispensation to the young and
stupid. Sometimes he rescinds it. In my case, I got away with it. Wouldn't do
it now.

Personally, I think you should have led with that last paragraph and scrapped
the rest of the 'explainations' ;-)

Not trying to 'beat you up', but it was your explaining why it wasn't
so bad that really got me ;-)

Like you've said, you'd never do that sort of thing now.

I have a friend that took me for a flight from the Bay Area in California
back to Sacramento (this was before I became a pilot) and upon taking off,
he flew right through a pretty heavy cloud layer. We were in the clouds for
at least a minute before we broke back out. To this day he still says this
was ok - and he has several arguments why it was not unsafe.

I simply won't fly with him any longer.


Best Regards,


--
Mark Hansen, PP-ASEL, Instrument Airplane
Cal Aggie Flying Farmers
Sacramento, CA