Surviving Inadvertent IMC

If you haven't experienced actual IMC, I can assure you, it's nothing like the training you did while wearing a view-limiting device. You may have heard the expression "one peek is worth a thousand crosschecks"; if not, you have now, and it's true. The security of knowing that if things get bad you can simply peek outside and reestablish visual references creates a very different level of stress than flying in actual IMC. Many a seat cushion has been lost when instrument-rated pilots encounter actual IMC for the first time; imagine your level of stress if you've logged a whopping total of three hours of simulated instrument time, several weeks, months or years ago. Add to that, unless you're in stable stratus clouds, in which case, there's less reason you should have gone inadvertent IMC, you'll find yourself in a softly lit, milky-white paint can and then someone turns on the paint shaker. Most GA airplanes have relatively light wing loading, so any turbulence---and there's a lot of that in cumulus clouds---will result in un-commanded pitch, roll and, in some airplanes, yaw moments. At this point, you won't be flying the smooth, coordinated climbs, descents and turns prescribed in the ACS; you'll simply be executing a series of unusual attitude recoveries. Someone even geekier than me once showed me how to compute the amount of energy needed to lift X amount of water vapor and hold it in the clouds before it storms. Thankfully, I don't remember the formula, but I do remember it was a lot, enough to power a small city.

In my flying career, I've had a few "Honey, I almost got killed at work today" moments. I was once beak-to-beak with an F-18 closing at over 1,000 knots, and we didn't see each other until we passed within "a few" feet. Turns out, an F-18 has a rather low frontal profile, as did the airplane I was flying, and is particularly hard to see when both airplanes are below the tree line. In this case, the incident was over instantaneously so there was no time to ponder it. Compare that to the time I was flying my family from Connecticut to Virginia in a Cessna 206 and ended up in some fairly lumpy cumulus clouds. Even without thunderstorms on this flight, the turbulence was, at least for a Cessna 206, in the moderate-to-what-the-hell-am-I-doing-here level. (This is a real turbulence level in my version of the AIM.) New York Center wasn't willing to let me descend to get out of the clouds (something about being over JFK), climbing wasn't an option, and I didn't want to fly due east over the Atlantic for 70 miles to get out of the clouds---just a wimp, I guess. I was an experienced instrument pilot at the time, having flown approaches to minimums many times in bad weather, but now I had a good 45 minutes or so of doing everything I could to keep the wings level, and, of course, an equal amount of time to stress about it. Oddly enough, everyone else on the plane was asleep, go figure. This flight was far more impactful on my risk management education than the near collision with the F-18.

So how should you deal with an inadvertent IMC encounter? Do everything possible to avoid it! I'm not being glib here; you have a far better chance of surviving by staying out of the clouds, at altitude, and landing than continuing on. I have no research study to offer you, but it's been my experience that making a no-go decision on the ground is easy. If it's raining frogs in Arizona (if you live there, you know what I mean), with thunderstorms everywhere and the trees bent over at 30 degrees, it's an easy call. It's much harder to turn back or divert once airborne. I'll never second-guess someone's decision to take off after the fact, because often weather forecasts aren't what they should be. Where I live in South Texas, they don't seem to be able to forecast dark accurately, so it adds another layer of uncertainty in your flight planning. If you do decide to launch and then find the cloud decks are getting lower or building around you, resist the very real temptation to go just a little farther. I know it looks better just off to the left, just a few more miles to see how it is, if I just go through that little gap over there---I've done the same thing. Stop! Get yourself on the ground! Resist the temptation to continue to descend to stay out of the clouds as you continue on, aka skud-running. Now your chances of hitting an obstacle are getting pretty good, and in all likelihood, you'll find yourself without a visible horizon anyway, the worst of all circumstances---IMC and low altitude.

That said, if you do encounter IMC, here are a few recommendations:

If you have an operable autopilot, turn it on, dial in a slow climb, engage heading mode and turn back to where it was just VMC. Odds are, you've been slowly descending to stay out of the clouds, so put some distance between you and the ground.

If you don't have an autopilot, expend whatever brain cells you have looking at the attitude indicator and keep the wings level.

If you have any brain cells left over, enter the same shallow climb, just a couple of hundred feet per minute will do, and a shallow turn to VMC. This may be all you're capable of doing, and that's fine. If you're not already talking to ATC and need to tune the radio, don't do it all at once. Tune 2 digits, return to the attitude indicator, then go back and finish dialing in the rest of the frequency. I've seen more than a few applicants testing for an ATP certificate enter an un-commanded bank while trying to do too much on the nav/com panel; trust me, it can and will likely happen to you. What frequency should you tune? 121.5. This is an emergency, and 121.5 is the way to get the help you now so desperately need. Some radios have a quick-tune feature to get you there; use that. The less time you spend looking at the radio, the more time you can spend looking at the attitude indicator.

Confess! Don't try and stick this out because you're afraid of having to talk to the FAA. It's always better to survive the event and have a conversation with an FAA inspector than have one picking through your wreckage. This is a real emergency so get all the help you can. I doubt even the most crusty inspector is going to write you up. Tell ATC you're a non-instrument-rated pilot in IMC and need help. They can vector you to better conditions.

Don't make standard rate turns! Half-standard rate turns are fine, and you can greatly decrease the chance of overbanking---slow to turbulent air penetration speed. If one isn't posted for your airplane, try about 20 knots above the stall speed. This gives you a good margin above the stall and will prevent overstressing the aircraft. Trim the aircraft; this will help in pitch control, and don't worry about altitude deviations. Focus on keeping the wings level, and let the airplane ride the updrafts and downdrafts.

If you have to descend to get to VMC, reduce power and enter a slow descent, no more than 500 feet per minute. ATC will be sure you stay above the minimum safe altitude. If ATC isn't available, stay 1,000 feet above the big numbers for your sector on the VFR chart.

Of course, I encourage each of you who doesn't yet have an instrument rating to get one, but even that's no guarantee of proficiency. General aviation simulators are quite advanced and can greatly improve your skills and, of course, proficiency, at a fraction of the cost of flying the airplane. Lastly, don't assume because you climb and descend around the training area under a hood you're proficient enough flying instruments to intentionally fly into IMC. Even if you're a simulator junkie, you're probably not prepared for real-world IMC. Do the smart thing---stay out of the clouds and be around to fly another day.

Roger Sharp is a pilot, an instructor and a designated examiner from San Antonio, Texas. For weekend fun, he flies warbirds with the Commemorative Air Force.