VFR on top

I've fallen behind but I'll try and catch up since a lot has happened. On May 9th the weather wasn't looking so good. There was a solid overcast at about 1100ft. or so and I was sure that we weren't going to fly. A call to my instructor changed that. He said not to worry and that we would fly after all. He was filing an IFR flight plan and we were going to get some "cloud time." Then the plan was to fly VFR on top. As part of my training I needed experience with an entry into IFR conditions to learn the do's and don'ts. I got the airfield and found the weather to be just as bad as when I left home.

Preflight, Taxi, and runup went smoothly. Once we got to the runway threshold my instructor contacted ATC for our release. Once released I took off and climbed out for the clouds. It didn't take long until the windows were white. We had entered the clouds. All the literature talks about how disorientated you will become if you let your senses tell you what is happening rather that your flight instruments. If I remember correctly a non instrument rated pilot can enter a non recoverable maneuver when flying into IFR conditions in as little as 90 seconds. Flying in the clouds doesn't seem all that hard...until you do it. While inside the cloud you think your body is telling you about our attitude in space. It isn't. I had to watch my instruments very carefully or I too was going to get suckered in to that unrecoverable attitude. I was glad my instructor was there. This wasn't something I would ever attempt on my own. After a short while we broke out of the cloud layer and found VFR conditions. That's what "on top" means. Once we got to the training are we worked on the basics: climbs, turns, glides, and speed transitions in level flight. I was also introduced to stalls.

Once we finished up it was time to head back to the airport and see if we had any clouds to descend through again. Once we reached the Annapolis area we could see pretty well. The clouds were had breaks in them and it looked like we would be below them by the time we got closer to the field.

My workload was low on the return trip so I actually got some time to look at the scenery. Here is Annapolis from the air.

Despite the weather I had a great time. Plus I got a whole 0.3 hours of actual instrument flying.