Flying over blackness
The day after I got my private, I took my wife out to dinner in Friday Harbor (on an island out in the San Juans in Puget Sound). The flight back was black, with some low clouds blacking out most lights for some time.
The good news is I was already working towards my instrument rating and had a number of flights behind foggles and thus paid special attention to my scan. But it did point out how easy it is to find oneself in IMC unexpectedly.
Heck, just recently, I, um, heard of a, er, friend of mine who launched (uncontrolled field) on an instrument flight, thinking the weather was good enough to pick up his clearance in the air (rather than cell phone FSS). Just as he was calling approach, everything went unexpectedly really white. I mean, he didn't even see it coming (it was a somewhat misting, but didn't really look that bad). Instantly cranking up his scan for a nice little 180 back to VFR weather just as the clearance came through meant things didn't go badly.
Next time it's looking even remotely interesting, I'm sure my, um, friend, will just use his cell phone to pick up his clearance.
