Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 7; Flight Crew Total 942; Flight Crew Type 700
Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter VFR In IMC; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Diverted; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; Flight Crew Landed As Precaution
Airspace Structure; Weather; Human Factors; Environment - Non Weather Related
I agreed to serve as safety pilot for a colleague in my flying club while he flew practice approaches. We planned to land and then switch seats for him to act as my safety pilot. We agreed before departure that I would serve as PIC for his flight. For my flight I filed IFR because of widespread cloud cover in our area that included forecasts of clouds down to 1;900 feet in places where we would need to be at 3;000 feet to properly practice approaches. He and I both have extensive experience flying IFR in C172s.When I asked where he planned to fly I asked if he had filed IFR; which I assumed he had because it would be necessary. He said he was going 'to remain clear of the clouds today;' which struck me as quite unlikely to be feasible. My thought at the time was that he either didn't want to deal with the bother of filing or he did not want his first flight in a new plane to be in the clouds. I told him that didn't seem likely and he said he'd take off and see how it looked up there.The weather directly over our home airport was VFR but it seemed that the ceilings were only around 2;000 feet and there were lower clouds in the direction of our flight. He insisted that it would be fine and I did not press him on the issue since we had flown together many times and I haven't previously had reason to be concerned about his judgment. I assumed that if the clouds were lower than expected he'd jump on an IFR plan and do the approaches in and out of the clouds. The ceilings would still give us 1;000 feet on breaking out; which seemed like plenty of safety cushion.Once we departed and turned on course it was clear to me within the first minute that we would not be able to fly to EMI and then to 2W2 VFR at 3;000 feet as he hoped. I pointed this out to him and he said he was 'working on it.' He leveled off around 2;200 feet and after giving him a minute or two I told him I was not comfortable with the situation and suggested that he ask for an IFR clearance. We were approaching 500 feet from the clouds above and he didn't seem to be taking the distance requirement seriously despite me pointing this out.He went to put his foggles on and I told him to not do that because we are at risk of going into a cloud and we need to change our plan.A minute or two later he had been forced by the descending ceiling to fly lower to remain clear of the clouds. At this point I estimate that we were within 100 feet of the clouds. We had a passenger in the back so I put the intercom on 'crew' and told the flying pilot that it was just me and him on the intercom now; and that I was very uncomfortable with how close we were to the clouds. I pointed out that there was a tower 300 feet below us; to our two-o'clock; and I noted that we could not continue for more than another minute without flying into a cloud that was straight ahead of us.He asked for more time to consider his options and was intensely focused on his iPad; probably checking the weather at various airports. He was not looking much outside of the aircraft.At this point I did not know why he was so hesitant to ask for an IFR clearance but I felt that the safety of the flight was in question; in addition to violating the FARs we were about to fly into a cloud deck in an area that getting hilly and had towers.Given that he and I had flown together multiple times before and never had any serious problems I was confused about why this was all happening; but I was certain that I was not going to let fear of speaking up lead to inadvertent flight into IMC lead to a loss of control or CFIT crash. I told him clearly that if he got any closer to the wall of clouds directly ahead I was going to [advise ATC]; and take control of the plane.At that point he turned left by about 90 degrees to avoid those clouds and he was trying to stay in VMC. There was some VMC straight and to the left but we had just left the SFRA; were still within 2 miles of its lateral boundaries; andour new heading was putting at risk of crossing it without a clearance.He then called ATC and said he needed an IFR clearance due to clouds. At this point were probably around 1;600 or 1;700 feet. ATC quickly gave us climbing instructions; we flew into the clouds; and were vectored for an approach at FDK. He flew that approach just fine and landed safely.We took a break on the ground for a few minutes and then I flew us home on an IFR flight plan in IMC for the first part of the flight. When we landed at our home airport he said to me that he was glad that we got that IFR clearance because it was 'the right thing to do.' I did not want to have a conversation about it in front of our passenger so we did not discuss the incident further. When we do discuss it I plan to ask him what he was thinking throughout the process; why didn't he file IFR at first; why was he so hesitant to ask for the clearance once it was clear we would need it; why would he think it was OK to bust the cloud minimum and put us seconds away from flying into clouds less than 2;000 feet from the ground?In terms of what really caused the incident; I speculate that strong familiarity with the local area may have played an important part of his willingness to fly IMC without a clearance. Both of us have flown these same approaches dozens of times and know the area well. He may also not have been instrument current; though I am pretty sure he mentioned otherwise.I spend quite a substantial amount of time reviewing accident reports; reading aviation safety journals; and participating in online scenario reviews. All of my alarm bells were going off and it seemed bizarre to me that he was seemingly so willing to just continue as though there was nothing wrong. Complacency seems to have been a factor but there may have been other things going on his life that I was/am unaware of.In considering what I should have done differently; I should have asked him before the flight if he was IFR current and what was his backup plan if he could not navigate around the clouds to remain safe and legal.
This was to be a flight to practice IFR approaches at DMW and 2W2. I was the pilot flying. On board was a qualified safety pilot from my flying club. Checking the weather at those airports showed them to be MVFR and FDK was VFR at the time of the flight. I did not file an IFR flight plan for this flight as I was hoping to fly them more quickly than would be the case if flying on an IFR flight plan. Although the ceilings were lower than desired; I made the decision to depart and see what it was like.It didn't take long after takeoff to see that the clouds were pretty low. As I continued; the clouds started forcing me lower to remain clear of the clouds. During this time I'm sure I came closer than 500 feet below the clouds.My safety pilot was pointing out to me that this is not a good situation. We are flying too close to the clouds; too close to the ground; were close to penetrating the clouds and need to do something. My response to his request was I'm working on it. We were now out of the DC SFRA and I turned about 90 degrees left towards FDK where the weather appeared better and started fiddling with my iPad for weather at airports near us. My safety pilot insisted we need to get out of this situation now. I then called Potomac Approach and asked for an IFR clearance to FDK. I was given the clearance and ask to climb. This put us in the clouds and I was given vectors for an approach to FDK. After a few minutes; we emerged into VMC and flew a visual approach into FDK.Although I knew the weather was marginal; I made the poor decision to take off VFR. Additional; as we flew along and conditions were becoming worse; I still was of a mindset to continue VFR. I did not plan to scud run or fly VFR into VMC conditions but I ended up scud running and nearly entered the clouds.I can now understand how easy a mindset can lead a pilot to scud run and potentially fly VFR into IMC. I have learned from this episode and will now file an IFR flight plan before leaving the ground with marginally conditions or not leave the ground at all.
C172 safety pilot and pilot flying reported flying VFR in IMC conditions.