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According to the Nall Report released by AOPA, weather related accidents ranked number three for GA accidents-most of which were continued VFR flight into IMC. Any thoughts?

I think part of the problem is a lack of respect for how dead simple easy it is to get an inadvertant IMC encounter. We talked about the training aspect of this on a CFIcast a while back. If at all possible, every student really needs to see what MVFR conditions look like. Yesterday my student and I flew to a nearby airport under 1500 OVC ceilings. Vis was good until you started getting close to cloudbase. The airport we went to was at 1800 feet and our home base ont he return dropped to 1300. so we stayed at 500 below the whole trip and she got to see how easy it is to just push lower and lower. Hell you don't even realize you are doing it! She appreciated the lesson and can see the danger. Now she will know that on a day that is pretty flyable it is paramount to be on your toes and always have an out. Hopefully the experience will lead her to cancel that flight that would take her into or throgh MVFR, and I think it will.

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Everyone must believe in something, I believe that I will go flying.

And let's not forget letting this happen at night. I speak from experience. I flew the wife down to an airport and was IFR most of the way had dinner and returned VFR. Return was at night but it was clear now and I was in contact with approach for FF. No moon and I never saw the cloud I entered. Suddenly the ground lights just went away. Started the turn and advised NorCal I need a clearance. It was nice to be instrument rated and current but it still took me a few brain cycles to get on the gauges and keep it under control. Had I not had the training the outcome wouldn't have been so easy.

Ron

roger that Ron. My only inadvertant IMC was at night. An immediate 180 back out, then once clear I could see light reflecting off the bottoms. that was not a fun trip, but I learned alot about balancing safety of flight with customer desires and knowing when to give up and divert.

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Everyone must believe in something, I believe that I will go flying.